FYI: I will pop in when I can this weekend. Beau has been working full time, and WAY out of town, so I need his help badly to get a LOT accomplished this 3-day weekend.
Anyhow, suffice to say, our To-Do List is FOUR pages long, so we’ve got our work cut out for us. Supposedly, 24 hours without rain - which is a first for this entire month! Things are pretty soppy-wet and no crops have gone in yet. :(
Stock up on corn and soybean related foodstuffs while you can - that and the price of meat (grow your own!) might get ugly by this fall!
Later! :)
Wife and I covered 700 miles to visit a pair of Iowa cemeteries this week.
A kindly sherifff’s deputy clocked me at 72 in a 55 zone in Montgomery County, IA.
Got a “warning ticket.”
Not garden related but Wednesday I saw a pair of Rose Breasted Grosbeaks at my bird feeder here in S.e. Michigan for the first time in probably over 40 years......When I was growing up in northern Michigan, I would see them frequently, but not down here........
Not just meat, that might get cheaper in the shorthand as farmers sell of livestock they can’t afford to feed. So a GREAT time to stock up on meat is right now into the fall!
I’m stocking dairy as well. Those sealed blocks of cheese will freeze (neatly, they stack like bricks) for 1.5 or 2 years depending on the variety. Cojack gets crumbly but still useable (just a PITA to shred). Mozzarella gets a little difficult to shred but still useable and delicious. I put the blocks in a gallon ziploc freezer bag with the air mashed out for extra protections vs. freezer burn.
Butter (in quart ziploc freezer bags to protect vs off smells/flavors and freezer burn) will keep for a couple years as well in the freezer. Put the quart butter bags into a gallon freezer bag and mash out all the extra air.
I also bag up preshredded cheese. Buy the 5lb bags, divvy that up in ziploc sandwich bags and store each of those in a quart freezer bag then those in a gallon freezer bag.
All these bags are re-usable if you’re careful.
Cream cheese will store in the freezer (ditto in freezer bags) but USUALLY isn’t good for ‘fresh eating’. It’s a texture/consistency thing. Also depends on how quickly it froze in your freezer and how long it’s been in there. It IS good for things that use cream cheese and are cooked. No difference there.
Hubby’s hunting camp is stocking up on corn feed for their bambis right now. The bagged stuff is last year’s (bumper) crop.
I’m going to be planting a late crop of dent corn and something called ‘japanese barnyard millet’ (sherckseeds) to feed my chickens. There ae a lot of grains that will make in less than 100 days. You won’t get 250 bushels an acre but you will get something. And something is better than nothing and only costs you the pack of seed and your time.
Although IF you have acid soil, grains usually prefer you add lime first. They (most of them) don’t like PH below 5.5. A cheap $4 bag of lime from a big box store will make a big difference in your yield.
Just read that the USDA reports that less than 50% of the nation's corn crop has yet been planted.
Farmers still can't get into their fields either too wet, or flooded.
And the two week outlook isn't all that promising to dry out.
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