From the Garden

The garden is suffering from the prolonged, extreme heat and lack of rain.  Any storms that have popped up have skirted around us to the north or south.  As a result, the garden is gasping.  I went out this morning and picked a mess of greenbeans, but even those are below average quality and quantity.  The tomatoes are trying to bear but are also suffering the effects of the drought.  I was able to pick some nice green peppers and pulled a few baseball-sized onions.  Patti mixed some of the peppers, onions, and some tomatoes together with some vinegar, oil, sugar and herbs and made a great salad for our lunch.  Fresh and nutritious!

While in the garden, I also pulled the few weeds I found and cut the broccoli back, in hopes of getting a few more florets before the heat bedraggled plants give out.

We are expected to experience a few more days of 102-104 degree temperatures before it 'moderates' and drops into the mid to upper 90s!  To make it worse, the humidity is creeping upwards, creating more normal July-in-southern-Indiana-like weather!  The word 'sweltering' comes to mind!  But, it could be worse...at least we are not without electrical power like the hundreds of thousands in the East.

Another busy day!

My raspberries are about done for the season.  I did learn that the CDs turning and flashing are not the cure all for birds.  In fact, in the morning, before the breezes pick up and put the discs to moving, I saw a mockingbird and a robin helping themselves to the fruit.  So, yesterday evening, I stopped by Wally-World and found one of the yellow beach balls with eyes that I hung from the overhang on the shed.  It does seem to be helping.  We'll see.

I stopped in at the Friday version of the produce auction this morning and discovered that I should have paid the $1.50 / pint for black raspberries.  Today they were selling for $3.75 to $5.00 per PINT!!  No thanks.  I am attaching some photos of just a bit of the offerings at the sale today.  The Amish do not care for having their photos taken, so out of respect for them, I am showing only the produce and not the big crowd that was there.

Lots of cauliflower, broccoli, summer squash and other veggies.

Beets and Zukes

Black raspberries are nearing the end of their season and brought a big price.  Home grown onions ('Candy' variety) and cabbage were also on the auction block.

Late strawberries, new potatoes (Pontiacs), and some early tomatoes (Mountain Spring, I think)

I left the auction and went over past a friend's place to check on getting some lumber for a small project I'm planning.  He is one of about fifty cabinet makers in the area, but I've gotten to know him over the years.  As I pulled in, he came out and right off the bat, he wanted to know if I wanted to see his tree plantings on the back acres.  He and four or five of his kids--and the dog--piled into the Jeep and we bounced back across the pasture and checked out his plantings of persimmon, oaks, maples, and other assorted varieties.  He is rightfully pleased with the stand.  The kids enjoyed the ride and soon we were back at the shop and he found me some good scraps that will be great for my project.

This wall to wall John Deere combine filled up the road.

On the way home, I noticed this beast going down the road. The big green machine took up the entire roadway, as you can see.  Turns out it was a friend from church who was turning in just ahead and would be combining the field you can see in the left of the photo.  Ironically, as I got closer to home, I passed another wheat field where an Amish neighbor was combining wheat on a much smaller scale behind a team of four Belgians.  Interesting contrast within a few miles of each other.  I stopped to pick up one of the neighbors as he was walking from that field towards his home.  He asked if I saw the combine going and that they would be threshing the wheat in a week or so, after it had dried down a bit more in the shocks.  I ended up getting invited to the threshing and I am looking forward to helping.


Later in the day, Patti and I got to work mulching the garden.  Putting down a thick straw mulch in the garden is a habit we got into many years ago.  As I recall, I picked up the idea from the old Ruth Stout book, "The No Work Garden".  I have been keeping up pretty well with the hoe, and I gave the patch a final once-over for any weeds I'd missed.  Patti then put down a layer of newspapers and I followed scattering the thick layer of straw.  After the mulching was completed, I even splurged and gave the whole garden a good soaking to help settle the straw--and to give the plants a boost.  Now, weeding will be limited to pulling the occasional stray that pops up close to the garden plant.  It's much easier than constant hoeing.  The mulch does a few things that I like:  it keeps weeds down; it helps retain moisture; and it breaks down over the season and is eventually tilled into the garden soil to add to the tilth of the soil.

First goes a layer of newspapers

Straw is put on top of the newspapers

Done!  In the left, you can see a row of tiny turnips emerging.  We were careful to leave them plenty of open space.

Blueberries, etc.!

Whew, a busy day today!  I started out by going up to the produce auction up by Dinky's.  The auctions are being held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday right now.  There are dozens of Amish growers bringing in a wide variety of produce--greenbeans, tomatoes, new potatoes, zucchini, raspberries, and much more.  I was looking for some raspberries in a quantity that I could use for a batch of wine, but they were going for $1.50 a pint and more; more than I wanted to pay.  So, I Jeeped home and Patti and I headed off to Illinois to pick blueberries.  After the half hour or so drive, we arrived at the Benson Blueberries farm.  I was extremely impressed with the operation.  Friendly, laid back, and blueberries galore!  We were guided to a short row of bushes that were fairly dripping with berries.  In no time, we had picked about two and a half gallons.  The berries are sold by the pound ($2.00 per pound) there and we picked fifteen pounds of berries.  It was a good outing with picture post card weather, cool temperatures, and a great location.  And we got to eat berries while we picked!!  A win-win for us!

Acres and acres of berries like these! 

The lady who took us out to the patch in the golf cart shuttle told us that they grow Blue Ray, Blue Crop, and Jersey as three of their most important varieties.  Some of these berries were huge!  We got them home and spread them on cookie sheets and put them in the deep freeze.  Once they got good and hard, we bagged them in quart freezer bags and put them back in the freezer.  We will keep that up until they are all frozen and bagged...except for a few we kept out to eat with our yogurt.  Patti also had me print out a recipe for a blueberry cobbler.  Life is good!

This is a LARGE mixing bowl!

Later in the afternoon, we went over to the home place and did some bush-hogging.  Jordan and Erin are having some friends get together for a camp out on the ridge, so we went over to mow a camp site, stack some firewood, and generally prepare the place for them.  The field hasn't been mowed for a couple of years, so it was getting pretty wooly.  I was glad we had gotten the tractor repaired in time to do this.

 It was a busy day...but a very good day.  We are blessed.

Yesterday evening, I got fed up with the birds eating our fledgling crop of raspberries, so I worked on what I hope is a remedy.  I took a couple of old CDs, some fishing line, a couple of fishing swivels and a drill and made the device shown below.  Hung from a shepherd's crook, the slightest breeze causes the discs to move and turn and flash.  I will probably have to move it up and down the row every few days, but it seems to have worked well today.

The garden is growing!

Where we live right now, our garden space is limited. But we managed to have plenty of tomatoes and green beans last year, and I expanded our space this year. Of course, we have the kitchen salad garden of radishes, spinach, lettuce, green onions, cukes, and such. It's always fun to plan and plant, but I usually end up planting too early. Even with thirty-some years of gardening under my belt, I still give in to those spring warm spells and set out some tomato and pepper plants. Then, I scramble around finding enough buckets and pots to cover the plants with when those final frosts come!

FYI--You (and I) will be better off to wait until the soil is warmed to put those temperature-sensitive plants in the ground. The plants that are set out later will quickly make up the difference and do as well or better than the plants that were put out earlier, but in cold soil. I'm just saying!