Report from growing zone 7a - Holding down the fort here.
Tomatoes are ripening-
All is well.
Hope you are well!
the silver queen sweet corn has arrived!!
Good beautiful summer morning...my caged tomatoes are ripening, but growing zucchini since moving back to Oregon 15 yrs ago has been impossible! This year it is the critters.
Good morning Diana.
That’s all I can *politely* say today. I can add: Deer...
Almost time to start planning that Fall garden.
This animated gif I see while trying to type is really distracting btw. Could you stick them in post #2?
I've been harvesting 20-25 carrots every few days. Those go through Mrs. Augie's juicer with the top going to the horses and the shreds going to the chickens. A little something for everyone. lol
I chopped the sweet corn patch on Saturday. Trimmed the cobs and tossed in the fridge overnight, then boiled in the shuck, cooled, peeled, and the corn sliced off into freezer bags for use later. If you haven't tried boiling in the shuck it's worth the attempt. I trim the pointy end back far enough to get rid of any earworm mess and leave the shuck attached at the butt end. It's amazingly easy to get rid of the silks when done this way. Most of them will come off when the shuck is peeled back. I didn't get the yield that I normally would due to the wind lodging that started right as the plants were beginning to tassle. It had almost stood itself back up when the next round of winds came and knocked it down again. Pollination was very uneven with some ears not being pollinated at all. 2nd planting will go in this week if we get another day or two of dry weather. Hopefully that one will live its days unmolested by the wind and bring a bumper crop to the garden.
Mosaic virus, squash bugs, and cucumber beetles have been bad this year. My cukes are pretty much finished. Spaghetti squash all dead but one. Cantaloupes are setting fruit but most of the vines are looking bad. Gourds have set a mountain of fruit but are also suffering from withering vines. Watermelon unaffected so far.
I tried Candle Fire okra for the first time last summer, and was so pleased with it that it's the only variety I planted this time. It's nice to look at and much easier on the skin than the old standby Clemson Spineless, and it stays tender even if you let it go a fews days too long before picking. The color is really nice but it mostly turns green when it's cooked. Good stuff.
Very hot today, but determined to have some garden time before it got unbearable.
Harvested a lot & made up a nice box for the fire department up the road - we needed them a couple of times Dec/Jan so I wanted to say thanks.
Their box included all (must have been 10) Giant Marconi peppers - all from only 1 bush, but it’s been prolific. 1 bell pepper - I dropped another one & messed it up, so they got the best one. About 6 huge, beautiful Celebrities and 8 cups of Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. I gave them 4 nice spaghetti squash & they got two frozen packages of scallions, one of white parts & one of chopped green parts.
I pulled all the scallions this morning & froze on cookie trays, then vacuum sealed them.
The Dragon Egg cuke vines were pulled up & the chicken is getting some of the cukes cut in half - she likes the seeds. The borage got taken out of the herb garden - it’s pretty much gone. Basils got trimmed back & the marigolds were trimmed of spent blooms. Any spaghetti squash vines outside of the fencing were cut back - the squash on those vines were harvested. No weeding - maybe tomorrow or Friday.
I love it when the produce is coming in, but dealing with it can be very tiring!
Yesterday, I baked the first spaghetti squash from my garden & it turned out great! Having never grown it before, I am thrilled with how well it did and how many I have.
There is a ‘hearty meat sauce’ I love & it was perfect over the spaghetti squash. Mom had no experience with these squash, she’d never heard of them so she was fascinated & enjoyed her plate of ‘spaghetti’.
The next recipe I am making is this one, the version with chicken. I have a couple of pastured meat chickens from my niece that I need to get out of the freezer. They had hogs processed this week & my half hog is coming in October, so I need to make room!
KETO SPAGHETTI SQUASH CASSEROLE WITH ALFREDO SAUCE
https://www.sweetashoney.co/keto-spaghetti-squash-casserole/
“For the chicken Alfredo casserole lovers, you can adapt the recipe by adding 2 shredded chicken breasts into the casserole.”