Start of the major harvest...

So my Jeep is in the shop till at least Monday, so I'm not going anywhere....  which gives me a lot more time to work in the garden this weekend.... actually I needed to with being gone in PA a couple weeks ago, it put me behind in some garden tending....

So figured it was time to massively harvest some of the veggies before they go bad.  Corn & beans were the major ones.  I picked an entire bucket full of the Blue Lake bush beans, which ended up as 4 one-gallon bags of beans for the freezer.  I still have to pick the Blue Kentucky pole beans and the Trail of Tears black pole beans (altho I think I'm gonna harvest them as dried beans for winter storage).

 

Mo helped out a BUNCH today.  She picked all the corn, at least that she could find.  With the 3-Sister garden that I planted... the beans and even some of the squash climbing up the corn stalks had so much weight that it made some of the stalks bend over... so we might find a few more ears once we start picking the pole beans.   I was able to process 4 quart bags and 1 gallon freezer bags of corn today.  This is in addition to the 8 quart bags I put in the freeze a week ago. 

What a messy messy process!!

Mo also picked all the ripe tomatoes for me today...  the island is almost completely full!  We enjoyed one of them for our lunch, so so good!!  I'm hoping tomorrow to be able to make a few batches of salsa to can for winter use.  We seem to go thru the salsa more than anything else I can.

5 varieties - Jersey Giant, Mortgage Lifter, Big Boy, Mater Sandwich, & Margherita

This is the 1st year to plant any potatoes.  We did both normal as well as sweet potatoes.  I decided to dig up part of them up today.  I dug up about 1/2 of the normal potatoes - they look so good and I will definitely be planting many many more next year so we have a lot to go in the basement cellar for tide us over thru the fall and into winter.  I dug up one of the 3 sweet potato hills - we planted 3 different varieties.  The one I dug up today is called Beauregard.  Holy cow were they big and lots of them!!  I created the hills with 1/2 dirt and 1/2 with bags of compost from Price Farms Organics - I had bought their bags of compost for the 1st time this Spring and I will definitely buy more!  I have the potatoes on an old window screen to cure.  The sweet potatoes will have to cure for a few weeks in warm temps,  the normal potatoes I was just wanting the dirt on them to dry off so I can clean them up before I take them inside.  I read not to wash your potatoes till you use them as getting them wet can lead to them getting moldy/rot.

So tonight we plan on cooking out on the grill.  I have 2 cobs of corn we didn't husk to grill, as well as peppers (we grill with feta cheese in them) and some of the fresh potatoes... making me hungry now!

Tomorrow I'm gonna work on picking all the soy/edamame beans as well as the pole green beans.  Hoping to get some room to till up an area to plant fall crops.  

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!  Enjoy this beautiful weather!!

It is June and finally some decent weather!!

The last week has been so nice - warm sunny days!  Sure change from the cold rainy stuff we have been getting for what seems 2 months straight!  The goats had to get placed back into the barn as the pasture was just a swamp and the goats were covered in mud.  I think they were in the barn for over 2 weeks till it dried up out there.  During the Memorial Day weekend we did a major barn clean out - removed everything from the old tack room which is the cat house now... I raked up all the old straw - and we dumped all the old bed (boxes).  Mo put all the old straw down along the fence line in the pasture to aid in keeping it from being so muddy.  I sprayed down the cat house to clean it good - let that dry then made 2 gallons of bleach water and sprayed the walls and floor down good the next day.  We just today were able to put new beds back in there with their food, water & toys.  Not sure the barn cats knew what was going on!  The goats are back in the pasture as of 5/31 but I think they need some lessons on being goats - they are more border patrol than anything else - just back & forth along the fence that is close to the house.  The need to eat the pasture down!!

Border Patrol Goats

The last week all I've been doing is trying to get the garden going.  I had to move a huge pile of moo poo from the side all around and then till that all in.  I also added 100lbs of rice hulls into the ground to help drainage.  I can honestly say tho that adding the drain lines around the garden this year was a huge success!  With all the massive storms we had over the last month or so - the garden drained quickly and I know it was because of the tile!  

Tonight I finished up my planting for the time being.  I had to make all my mounds for my 3-Sisters planting.  I followed the directions I found on this website, and added mounds since my area was 15x20'.  Info:  http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html   The corners of the area should have been squash but just from the other areas - we will have PLENTY of squash/pumpkins!  So I had Mo plant sunflowers in the 4 corners.  She also planted 3 rows on the north side of the garden.  We have like 10 packets of different varieties of sunflowers to plant this year - from 2' to 10' and all sorts of color combos.  Over Memorial weekend I got the tomatoes all planted along with basil between every plant.  Also got the row of peppers planted. Rest of the week at night I worked till it got dark out... I got bush beans, soy beans (edamame), quinoa, onions, carrots, cilantro, cucs, watermelon, & cantaloupe planted.  The potatoes are going crazy - both normal (4 kinds) and the sweet ones (we got 2 starts of 3 varieties from local garden center).

The stuff I have left to do is put thick layers of newspaper down in the paths and place the bedding from the goats stall on top of it to hold it down.  Should be good fertilizer too as it gets rained on.  I have hundreds of marigolds coming up on their own in the other flower beds, so will transplant and place on the outside of the pathways to help with pests and just look cute!  Once the corns gets going I have to plant the pole beans - using Kentucky Blue and Cherokee Trail or Tears (black beans).  For Squash I'm planting Waltham Butternut, Spaghetti squash, Winter Luxury Pie (pumpkin), Small Sugar (pumpkins).  Also need to move empty hoop house and put some garden fabric on it - use that to grow spinach under. 

Here are some pics of what the garden looks like as of today.... (you can click on them to see larger version)

View from Red Barn

Fava Beans blooming

TOMATOES!  (*and basil)

Peppers from mild to med to HOT

Sweet potato mounds,  normal taters in the back

On 5/28 the chickens were officially moved from the basement and their 2 box condo to their grown-up chicken coop in the barn!  Tonight we let them out to go free range for the 1st time.  We stayed out there with them then entire time to make sure barn cats or what ever didn't try to attack as they are still small.  Here are some pics of how much they have grown!  They are officially 8 weeks old.  Daisy Mai has more white on her chest.  Lucy Lu is more plump too.

In the coop.

Lucy Lu on left, Daisy Mai on right.  Chickens on 1st go at free range.
They were more interested in the gravel/grit on the barn floor than the grass/bugs...

Other things that happened since last post was I bottled my 1 gallon batch of dry red wine and it was good!  I purchased my 1st ever wine kit - a raspberry white zin.  I haven't had time to start it yet - if I'm not working then I'm outside in the yard!  It only takes 28 days to make, its a 6% alcohol wine so will be a good light summery wine to drink at parties.


Hopefully I remember and post more often with how things are progressing around the yard/garden.  This is the busy time of year!   That is all for now... thanks for viewing!