Hi, Girlfriend! :)
Let’s see...Mr. Wonderful brought me 2 feed sacks of sweet corn this week, so I processed 20 quarts of that on Thursday. We planted four 50’ rows of sweet corn and also about 30’ of Hopi Blue corn (for grinding - an experiment!) and all is doing well. Gotta appreciate his ingenuity: he took a dog house down the hill to the Corn Patch and staked out one of the Coon Hounds to guard the crop. So far, Geronimo has not let one single raccoon into the perimeter. Good Dog! :)
Last night I picked NINETY FOUR Viva Italia (Roma) tomatoes (from 6 plants, with more to ripen!) that are going to become pasta & pizza sauce sometime this weekend.
I’ve been drying ‘Juliet’ tomatoes as fast as I can pick them - they are the BEST tomato for oven/sun drying. Simply awesome. Very flavorful. A little olive oil, a little garlic salt, Italian seasonings and a few days in a slow oven? HEAVEN!
More beans than ever - the freezer is full of both those that made the cut for meals, and then the ‘bigger’ beans are bagged and frozen for soups and stews this winter.
More zucchini than EVER from 2 plants - that are STILL producing. Chopped, shredded, hollowed out for later stuffing, etc. A bounty, as usual from that goofy plant!
A friend gave me a grocery bag of small ‘Wealthy’ apples. I made a crock pot full of Apple Butter. Made 8 pints, I think. Yum! My Wolf River and Bonnie Best apples are producing for the first time and the trees are loaded. They’re not pretty, because I didn’t spray this season, but they’ll make great pies and applesauce.
I’ve already put up 12 quarts of Salsa, and the Cukes have LOVED this cool growing season, so I have made (and ate!) more Bread & Butter and Dill pickles than I care to admit!
Cut a HUGE bouquet of flowers for the dining room table this evening. ‘Soroya’ Sunflowers and ‘Oklahoma’ Zinnia of all colors. Food for the Soul. :)
Best gardening season of the past three years, for sure. We’ve had two stormy, wet, too-cool springs, and a drought 3 years back, so it’s about time!
I now have 9 raised beds, thanks to Mr. Wonderful and I’ll be adding at least 3 more this fall and filling them with all sorts of yummy soil and worms and compost and stuff.
Late plantings of lettuce, spinach, radishes, etc. are going in soon and my pole beans refused to CLIMB this season (my fault - mixed up the packages) so those are composted and ‘Wando’ peas are going in this Sunday.
The only ‘bad’ crop this season has been sweet peppers. We did not have enough dry weather and hot sunny days to make them happy, though I have TWO peppers on the vine - and the Jalapenos performed well, as always. Those hot peppers always produce no matter what, it seems.
Life Is Good. :)
While we have loads of green bell peppers, we don't have near as much success as you have. Too bad we don't live close enough to barter/trade.LOL
Now that idea about the doghouse and doggy guard is interesting. Our little Dog is only 20 lbs. She is a combo rat terrier and jack russell terrier. Fierce to the point of stupidity - she'll take on anything no matter how large.
I'm thinking we'd need a larger dog, because we have a critter that literally tore up a very strong live trap. A larger dog, and I'd really think about trying that.