What's Happening in the Garden?

Well, for one thing, we have one broccoli head forming on our late planted broccoli.  This head is about 4" across right now.  So why is it that this one plant looks like this . . . and none of the other (same aged) plants have even started forming heads yet?  'Tis a mystery.

Blueberries and beans are the main crops coming in right now.  To date we've harvested a total of 40-1/2 pounds of blueberries.  Considering last year all we got was about 2 quarts, I'd say this is a better year.  A way better year.  And there are LOTS more still to ripen.

My bean row has gone all flopsy-mopsy on me.  I think the hot weather has made them grow so tall and lush that they can no longer stand upright as respectable bush bean plants should do.  No harm done, but it does make for harder picking when it comes time to harvest.

This is my fall planted bed of shell peas.  Coming along nicely . . . but quite a long way from harvest, wouldn't you say?  Those are giant snapdragons in the center that I didn't have the heart to yoink out when I cleaned up the rest of the bed so I could plant the peas.

Wowzer, will ya look at this apple?  It's one of quite a few on our new, intensively planted dwarf trees.  It's pretty close to full-size already.  Gads, could it be we might get a decent harvest of eating apples, like matured with flavor and everything, this fall?

This one of the little pie pumpkins.

And here are a couple of the big, jack o' lantern pumpkins.  A fur piece from full-size (about bigger than a basketball right now) and orange in color, but they've got time yet.

We had a bear prowling around last night.  He first tested the heavy plywood top of the box we keep our recycling materials in (tooth marks on the edge), then he opened it and checked out what was inside.  We keep all the cans, bottles, plastics, etc. well rinsed out precisely so the aroma doesn't attract bears.  He chomped on a couple of the plastic jugs and then apparently went looking elsewhere for something tastier.  Considering the extensive damage bears can do, we were very glad we had no real damage.  Makes us glad the birds (and honey bee hives!) are inside enclosures behind electric fencing at night!

Fermenting Success!

Fermented foods are so good for us, but I have a requirement that any food we consume (yes, even that which contributes to our health and well-being) has to taste good.  Yeah, a strange concept, I know, but my tummy simply rebels if I try to eat anything that is "good" for me, but tastes like something a starving person on a desert island would have to eat to sustain life.

In the past (especially when we have fresh-out-of-the-garden produce), we've been experimenting with different recommended recipes for fermented foods.  Last year, Papa Pea came up with a dandy fermented pickle that was really good, and we have three half-gallon jars of pickling cukes fermenting on the counter as we speak.  

But I admit, most of our attempts at fermenting food have been about as tasty as swallowing a big spoonful of cod liver oil.

This year, because of all the hot weather, we have a glut of slicing cucumbers so several days ago I experimented with using them as the main ingredient in a jar of fermented veggies.

After sitting on the counter at room temp for three days,  it was ready for taste testing this morning.

And, wahoo, I did it!  This attempt is actually very tasty.  Although all we need to ingest regularly to gain the benefits of a fermented food is about 1/4 cup a day, both hubby and I said we could eat this latest concoction as we would a coleslaw or cold salad on our plates.

So if you care to give it a go, here's my recipe . . . as of yet without a good name.  Any suggestions will be appreciated.

1-1/2 slicing cucumbers (each about 7-8" long), chopped in small  
    pieces
1 medium carrot, grated
1 medium yellow onion, chopped in small pieces
1 sweet red pepper, chopped in small pieces
1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon sea salt
1/4 cup whey
Water as needed

Combine all ingredients except sea salt and whey.  (I used the whey drained from making cottage cheese.)  Place veggie mixture in a quart jar and press down.  If you need more veggies to fill the jar to about an inch from the top, add more cucumbers.  (Since my cucumbers were fresh from the garden, I left the skins on them which added more color to the mix besides being nutritious.)

In a small bowl, mix together the sea salt and whey.  Add to the jar.  Then add enough (non-chlorinated) water to cover the mixture, leaving one inch free below the rim of the jar.

Cover tightly, set on counter at room temperature for 3 days.  (My mixture did "expand" as the fermentation process worked, and I had a little leakage so it might be a good idea to place the jar in a pan to catch the liquid.)  Transfer to refrigerator.

I'm assuming this mixture will keep for several months in the refrigerator (if it should last that long) as most fermented foods do, and the flavor will most likely only improve over that period.

You can bet I'm going to make several more jars to have in the fridge for us to consume as we go into winter this year.  Plus, I'll be able to profitably use all these great slicing cukes that are taking over the house!

In, Around and Out of the Garden - Part Two

Back to our tour (the good, the bad, and the ugly) of the garden.

In my never-ending attempts to foil the dratted cabbage moth from laying eggs (which then develop into worms --- eeuuw!) in my broccoli and cabbage, I started seeds for both inside the last half of June and set out the started plants on July 2nd.  (I did this late planting hoping to miss the stage when the cabbage moth is out and about doing the dirty deed of making my vegetables wormy.)  Tiny heads are just now forming on the broccoli plants and things look A-OK so far.

This is part of a double row of about four different varieties of the cabbages I set out, again, much later than usual.

My Sweet Pea flowers are another disappointment this year.  All the plants on both sides of the trellis germinated, but slowly and surely, all of them on the left end of the trellis have died off.  (My picture is not good, I know, so you may have to use your imagination a little.)  I'm getting enough of the wonderfully fragrant blossoms to keep a small vase of them on a bathroom shelf, but not the plethora of flowers I would like.

Several days ago harvested all of the garlic.  Above is the Siberian of which I got 18 huge bulbs.

The Blanak outdid itself producing 42 bulbs.  Now if they all cure well, we will have garlic to use, garlic to share, garlic to ward off vampires, and garlic to save for planting this fall.  (And probably still some left after that.)

We're in the midst of our blueberry harvest right now.  So far, they haven't been bothered by the birds as they were last year, and we're looking forward to lots and lots of berries for fresh eating, the freezer and jam.

The raspberries.  Oh, sadness and woe.  We got one small first harvest of ripe berries, but successive raspberries picked have been loaded with (((shudder))) little, white worms.  Hubby did some quick research and he thinks they are the larvae of the fruit fly.  Just goes to show, some garden produce does fantastically well one year, not so good the next year.  A new patch with new raspberry plants is on the schedule for next year so we'll keep our fingers crossed for a resupply of those luscious, red berries then.

All in all, the garden is producing like crazy, and I'll admit I'm p-double-ooped right now.  Being out in the garden picking and harvesting would be much easier if it weren't so darn hot and muggy.  But then, maybe the garden wouldn't be growing so well, now would it?

In, Around and Out of the Garden - Part One

When ordering seeds this past winter, I was excited to find an old heirloom cauliflower that was "self-blanching."  The leaves naturally fold in and over the developing head making it unnecessary to gather the leaves and manually tie them up and over the cauliflower.  Well, pffft.  My cauliflower apparently didn't get the memo.  The heads have started to form (not nice, tight heads as one would desire, but ugly, separated kernels) right out in the open so I've had to resort to tying them and hoping for the best.  Truth to tell though, cauliflower likes to mature in cooler weather and our weather has been anything but "cooler" so that may be contributing to the lack of its cooperation.

Zinnias, as opposed to cauliflower, love hot weather and the plants forming a row along the north side of the field garden are blooming their little heads off.

I've squeezed my jack o' lantern pumpkins and my little pie pumpkins into less space than they would really like so I got the bright idea to train the pie pumpkin vines to climb up and over this arbor trellis.  The vines have made it to the top and are doing a good imitation of Jack's bean stalk and are now reaching for the sky.

My annual tepee trellis with morning glories planted around it has been a bit of a disappointment this year.  I had very poor germination of the seeds and it took forever for them to get up enough gumption to start climbing up the trellis.  It should be solidly covered in morning glory vines (and blooms) by now, but it's not.  Also, the carrots planted in the bed on either side of the trellis are not nearly as lush and full as they usually are.  Some of the green tops are tinged with brown.  Maybe too much hot weather this year coupled with not enough moisture?

I think this little volunteer nasturtium that has been peeking at me out from under my bean plants is so sweet.  And, yes, I need to pick some of those big beans.

The Sugar Snap peas planted this spring on this cattle panel trellis in the middle of this raised bed were all done a week or so ago so I pulled the vines and unceremoniously dumped them in the compost pile.  Before I took down the trellis, it occurred to me to try another crop of the edible podded peas to see if they would mature yet this season.  (Those are kohlrabi plants on either side of the trellis.)

That's all for tonight.  Time to go help close up our thousand head (give or take a hundred) of poultry.  Part Two of the garden saga coming soon!

This Post is Strickly for the Birds

A whole gaggle of geese.  (And a rooster.)

Two male Cayugas on the left, two adult male Muscovies on the right.

Everybody gets a pan of food.  The adolescent Muscovies are over to the left of the picture.

Of course, the bossy geese have to go to the Muscovies' food to see if it might be better.

Everybody scatters.  Don't worry, there's always enough food for everyone.

"I sure wish someone would get me some fresh water."

This handsome fellow is Skidmore from our Oklahoma batch of geese.

And this little sweetie is Ado Annie.  Papa Pea has them trained to his voice, and she's looking to see what he has to say.

Next I'll try to take some pictures of the waterfowl in the pond.  They do seem to enjoy it these hot days and have lots of fun splashing around.

Garlic, Geese and General Stuff

I think my garlic isn't quite ready to be harvested, but yesterday I couldn't stop myself from digging up one bulb to see what it looked like.

If it all turns out as good as this one, I'll be one happy garlic gardener.

The geese love watermelon rinds and came running when I threw these most recent ones into the poultry pasture a few minutes ago.  The chickens also like the rinds but don't stand much of a chance with the non-sharing geese.

The gravely-rubble you see in the picture is the first load of fill we've had brought in to build up and level out the area where we'll be building the new winter waterfowl house.

The miserably hot, humid weather continues.  Yesterday was dreadful.  Our dear daughter put in a "work day" with her dad doing roof work.  (You've heard of making hay when the sun shines?  I guess you could say do roof work when the sun shines also.)  I couldn't very well sit in the shade sipping lemonade while they were doing that so I put in a full day in the garden.  I really wanted to get a couple experimental fall beds planted because rain was forecasted for all day today.

We did wake to very dark skies which opened up into a brief thunderstorm giving us 3/10th of an inch of rain early this morn.  We need more but now at 10 a.m. it's just overcast and very, very humid.

Our first harvest of blueberries also was made yesterday in anticipation of a wet day today.  Eight pounds, six ounces was the total, or 6 quarts plus 1-1/2 cups.  It's a start and we're looking forward to a good, good blueberry season as the bushes are just loaded with as-of-yet unripe berries.

It's too wet to do much outside today so you know that means I get to catch up on all those inside tasks that mostly fall by the wayside this time of year.  Heck, I may even get out the vacuum and actually remove a few layers of dust, dirt and debris.  (Gosh, seems like I just did that a month or so ago . . . )