2021 Garden

[RWS]

We took yesterday off from canning but got back at it today.  Today was spaghetti sauce day.  We canned 10 pints.  The sauce had to cook quite a while to get some water out.  I was outside bush hogging and when I came in it smelled sooooo good!

Edit 7-3  We canned our second batch today after taking a day off.  This batch yielded 15 pints and enough for supper this evening.  With 25 pints now on the shelf we can move on to something else.  Maybe peaches as the free stone peaches will be ready in the next week or two.  If we can peaches then we will be able to make peach/blueberry pie. 

[Abigayle]

It looks wonderful and feels so good to see it on the shelf! I am glad that I still have six quarts left from last year, since this move has really set us back!

[RWS]

With the latest tropical storm on the way ( due here early tomorrow morning ) I thought I had better check on the sweet potatoes.  After that last tropical storm and the small showers since then, the ground has been wet.  So I expected to find large sweet potatoes or rotten sweet potatoes.  I only found 3 rotten sweet potatoes from too much water.  Not a bumper crop, but enough to go to winter with.  I would say sweet potatoes for the Summer lunch, but that would be too soon as they have to set a few weeks for the sugars to form.  After the picture was taken, I washed them and laid them out to dry and cure.

[RWS]

We really did not want to can any more tomatoes; however,  My sister in law cancelled their visit yesterday because of the storm.  She did not want to drive thru the storm back & forth to Savannah.  So all the tomatoes that we were going to dump on her we had to do something with.  Waste not want not!  This is our third batch of tomato soup this year as evidenced by the date code on the lid.
Needless to say I won't be planting many tomatoes next year??  Maybe I should wait until next year to say that.  You never know what the future holds.......

[RWS]

I did not find another spot to put this as I did not grow these peaches, but this is a good a place as any.  We purchased them at the local farmers market.  The box says Lane Farms, Fort Valley, Ga.  We wait until mid July to get peaches so we can get the free stone type.  That is the type of peach we like to can.  We did not can peaches last year so this year we are about out of canned peaches on the shelf.

Edit 7-19
You know I would have to can some of those peaches.  This morning after picking a couple buckets of blueberries the wife and I caned 6 quarts of peaches.  That will last us a little more than an average year.  I hope the coming year will be average...

[RWS]

As far South as I am in Georgia, I am able to grow broccoli and cabbage in the Fall.  In the Spring it usually warms up too quickly and you don't get much.  I set out the broccoli and cabbage plants Labor Day Weekend.  The reason for Labor Day is the plants show up in Home Depot Thursday afternoon before Labor Day.  Anyway I have not been happy with the plant selection the last two years, so this year I planted my own seed.  I planted 36 cabbage and 36 broccoli seed.  I will wait a few weeks and plant some more broccoli so I can get two pickings.  The wife said we are about out of broccoli in the freezer.

[RWS]

The freezers are full and the fridges are full of blueberries.  We will have to stop picking.  I picked 2 buckets from one bush this morning and there are still two more buckets of berries on the bush.  So the only thing left to do is can some blueberries.  Never have done that before.  I got out pint jars but the wife said quarts as it will take one quart to make a pie.  This is a sign of the times, canning blueberries.
Pic 2 is the fridge in the garage we use for our garden veggies and cool storage for flour ect.  I told you it was full.  I need to find someone to barter with.

[RWS]

Today I read an article about the shrinking supply chain.  As if things are not getting hard to find now, this article said it was going to get worse.  SO what did I do in response?  I planted another flat - 36 seed of broccoli for the Fall garden.  I sure hope I do not need all of them!

[Starlady]

How many dozen duck eggs would you like for a couple gallon bags of blueberries?

I know it would be hard to do so, but they'll make the wife's baking even richer!

[RWS]

You can bring me a dozen eggs and I will bring you 2 gallons of blueberries.  If you are like me, I don't have any extra room for stuff.  Full up is a good position to be in.  In my case I can grow more next year.  OR, I can grow some fall cabbage and broccoli.  I have 36 cabbage plants up from seed, 36 Broccoli plants up from seed and 36 more broccoli seeds that should start coming up Friday.  I set Broccoli and cabbage plants in the garden starting Labor Day Weekend.

[RWS]

Today I tilled my Fall garden for planting.  I planted a row of bunching onions and some garlic.  The cabbage and broccoli plants are still a little small to transplant, but it won't be long.  I ordered some lettuce seed instead of taking some out of the freezer.  As long as I can buy decent seed, I will.

[RWS]

This past week I have planted 2 rows of 16ea cabbage plants and 4 rows of 16 plants of broccoli.  The brussels sprouts seed I planted last week are now coming up and looking good so far.  I planted 7 ea 6 packs of spinach seed and about as many musclun seed.  I also planted 3ea 6 packs of red and green romaine lettuce.  Last year the red romaine took the cold the best of the several varieties I had.  I don't know where I will plant all the Winter greens.  I will have to make a space or try and get rid of the excess at the Fall Campout.  Problem is I am the furthest one South so it would take a South facing Sun room or greenhouse for anyone else.

[John Galt 1]

We just planted some broccoli, cabbage, and Romaine lettuce in the tote planters another member showed me how to build.      Going for some cool weather crops this fall.      Garlic is already growing well in the planters. the onions not so well.

While not a plant based agriculture product we harvested 30 gallons of honey a few weeks ago.

On a separate but unrelated topic I used a small upright freezer and InkBird controller to convert it to an artificial "root cellar".      Temp stays at an even 34 degrees and by filling the bottom drawer with water the humidity is holding at about 75%,        Everything from potatoes to cilantro lasts about 3-5 times longer in it.       Good for storing what we grew this year.

[RWS]

I built a new boxed in bed 4x8' and transplanted my strawberry runners into it.  Then I cleaned out the old 4x8 box of strawberries and planted Romaine lettuce, Red Romaine lettuce, Spinach and Arugula.

[RWS]

My Fall garden is starting to get big enough to show up in a picture.  There is 1 row of onions, 2 rows of cabbage, 4 rows of broccoli and 2 rows of brusselsprouts.