Nine jars of plum jelly to go on the shelves. All we had to do was pick them up off the ground. Too bad we didn't get to them sooner, could have had a lot more. This was from about twenty small plums about the size of a quarter. And it is yummy!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Garden Update-2
The potato patch is doing nicely. Old wives tale says that if the tops are doing well, then the roots are not. This photo is from a couple of weeks ago and the tops are beginning to lay over and die. An indication that the potatoes are ready. We dug a bit in row number four and were finding only about one large potato and one small potato per plant. Row number three had a few extra, but if we get a potato per plant, I suppose that will be a lot of potatoes from our four rows. There are around six rows showing in the above photo, two of which belong to my brother.
The potatoes we dug were very large, some were bigger than my fist and some were small. We plan on making a cellar type storage bin by digging a hole and placing a garbage can in it and layering the potatoes with hay. I hope it works well. The small ones, we will probably just can.
Hope you enjoy the photos. I will update more later. I can't wait to share the salsa/tomato photos with you. I am afraid we are eating the salsa as soon as it comes out of the canners. Tell you more later.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Garden Update-Beans
We have been working really hard trying to get a good harvest and I am fairly pleased. It has been a lot of hard work, but it is paying off. Here are some photos.
This is a view of the Indian Corn, onions, beans, tomatoes and cabbage. We grew eleven varieties of beans: White Half Runner, Pink Half Runner, Christmas Lima, Gold Rush Yellow Wax, Yard Long, Missouri Wonder, Scarlet Runners, one I can't remember the name, Greasy Beans, Tenderettes, and Roma II, two varieties of corn, a couple different tomatoes. My favorite bean is still the white Half-Runner, but we wanted to experiment and several people had shared their beans with me.
The first planting is finished, with the exception of the Limas, the Missouri Wonders and the bean I don't recall the name of. We planted a second crop about a week ago and with the rains, they are already well on their way. The second planting is another round of White Half Runners, Greasy Beans, Tenderettes and Roma II.
I decided with all the work of white half runners, I will grow me some to eat and can, but not a lot, because my family doesn't like beans too well. We will plant a string less, bush variety to cut down on the work. It was an all day job to pick, string, break and then can the beans.
These were the oddest bean in the garden. I was given a small bag of seeds and it was very prolific. I got a bushel and a half of these beans, but because I knew nothing about them, they had mostly dried up before I realized it. (I was waiting for them to get a yard long. LOL) They seemed to be a bush bean with some runners. The beans grew on top of the plant like spiders. The pods were long and dark. Someone told me these were yard longs, but photos of yard longs online were actually about a yard long. These only got to be about 8 inches long. The blossoms came out one day and were a beautiful blue and wilted after that. The plant smelled very sweet and it was constantly buzzing with flies, bugs and moths. I don't know what they are, and they didn't really appeal to me either. I may not know what I missed. This was the most unusual bean in my garden.
This is a view of the Indian Corn, onions, beans, tomatoes and cabbage. We grew eleven varieties of beans: White Half Runner, Pink Half Runner, Christmas Lima, Gold Rush Yellow Wax, Yard Long, Missouri Wonder, Scarlet Runners, one I can't remember the name, Greasy Beans, Tenderettes, and Roma II, two varieties of corn, a couple different tomatoes. My favorite bean is still the white Half-Runner, but we wanted to experiment and several people had shared their beans with me.
The first planting is finished, with the exception of the Limas, the Missouri Wonders and the bean I don't recall the name of. We planted a second crop about a week ago and with the rains, they are already well on their way. The second planting is another round of White Half Runners, Greasy Beans, Tenderettes and Roma II.
I decided with all the work of white half runners, I will grow me some to eat and can, but not a lot, because my family doesn't like beans too well. We will plant a string less, bush variety to cut down on the work. It was an all day job to pick, string, break and then can the beans.
Also, we liked Gold Rush Yellow Wax beans. They had a taste that was as good as the White Half Runner, and we got a bushel out of a five foot row. They are string less and pretty in the jars. Here is a photo of some of green beans in the jars with a jar of the Gold Rush in front. Aren't they pretty?
The most beautiful blooms in the garden was on the Scarlet Runner Bean. It's beautiful red blossoms attracted a lot of attention. I probably should say too much attention, as I didn't get to eat the first bean. I don't know if someone picked them, they didn't make (although I found five hidden, hanging at the bottom) or animals got them. Any way it went-I didn't get to try them. Probably just as well, the beans that did make had fuzzy pods and didn't appeal to me either.
We are really enjoying the fruits of our labors and I will update about the other good things from the garden tomorrow.
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