71°f, or 21.7°C, at 8am, muggy and overcast. Predicted rain did not materialize, again. It is so dry.
A few things in bloom right now:
We are watering again, after a one-day break. Will it ever rain again in enough quantity, and regularly? It has been boom or bust this year.
But the gardens are still trying and are doing okay so far. Our soil type is Upshur Muskingum silty clay loam, and is a very deep soil, a long way down to bedrock. Being on a ridge means water drains off quickly, and our soil has a lot of sand in it (the native stone being sandstone), so it also doesn't retain moisture. We have added a lot of organic matter over the years to my garden in particular, and the mulch is helping, but even so it needs watering considering we have not had ample rain since mid-May.
Yesterday Larry dug out the rest of the garlic, and there was a LOT of it! This is just some of the harvest.
Larry also removed the cabbage "stumps", so I was able to plant kale and onions yesterday evening. I made a couple quarts of kraut,
put 2 cabbages in the extra fridge to use this month, and froze 5 bags for later use. While hoeing the row before planting, I accidentally dug up a volunteer potato plant. It had quite a few potatoes on it, so I dug up a couple more volunteers and got this nice mess.
Yesterday evening our younger friends Jeff and Tamara came over. I had messaged her to come get some garlic, and she brought me a 5-gallon bucket of peaches. Nice trade! I sent her home with a bag of 100 onion sets too, as I had more of those than I will need.
So today you know what I am doing: putting up peaches, of course. I had some bananas that needed to be used too, and we arevtired of banana bread, so I blended them up with so.e honey, lemon juice and peaches, and poured the resulting puree into ice cube trays to freeze. We can eat them like Popsicles, or thaw and add to yogurt. Sure was a delicious mixture.
Well, must get back to the kitchen. My feet needed a rest and I needed coffee, but the peaches are calling.
...my flower gardens are doing great, but it will weeks before there is anything to eat out the vegetable garden. What could I trade with your neighbor for peaches?
ReplyDeleteI guess that's the trade-off: we get veggies earlier, but have to endure hotter weather. Her peaches now, we might havevto fight over those!
DeleteAll those potatoes from a single plant!!! Your garlic did amazingly well and I think you got a sweet deal trading some for the pail of peaches.
ReplyDeleteWe had another cool and showery day. Never reached your
8 A.M. temperature. The rain was nice; now I won't have to water tomorrow.
Oh no, this was from 3 tiny plants. Honestly, they looked so pitiful i was amazed they had anything on them.
DeleteFlooding here. Torrential downpours. Hail. Thunder. Lightning.
ReplyDeleteOh no. I am so sorry to hear that. I hope all is well with you.
DeleteI agree with everyone else. You got a good deal with the peaches.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! They were cling peaches so a lot if work, but worth it.
DeleteWe have never had much luck with garlic and I'm not quite sure why. It's a staple in our house!
ReplyDeleteIt's odd, David. I planted it once, about 45 years ago and have had garlic ever since, just coming up wherever it pleases. This is the first time since that original planting that I have ever actually made an effort to grow it, and it sure paid off.
DeleteA light rain this morning at least meant the temperatures are cool. But was it enough for the little potted plants? Who knows. Maybe give them more this evening. Oh your bounty of garlic and traded peaches sounds wonderful...but does mean work to get them transferred to lasting food stuffs.
ReplyDeleteYes, even that good rain has already baked out of the earth. Its still in the 90s, sadly. But mornings have been lovely so that's a blessing.
DeletePeaches sound delicious! What will you do with them?
ReplyDeleteJim, first we ate some cut up into cottage cheese. So delicious! I canned 8 pints, made a big cobbler, blended some up with bananas, honey and lemon juice and made popsicles, and still have some left that are ripening. A food bit of work as these are small cling peaches, but so juicy and sweet!
DeleteFresh garlic tastes so good! You have some amazing harvest.
ReplyDeleteWe have probably stolen some of your rain.
ReplyDeleteI am watering each day here in central KY. I picked peppers, lettuce, kohlrabi, radishes, bok choy, and cilantro today. I haven't planted garlic before, but am thinking of trying. The trade for peaches sounds great to me!!
ReplyDeleteOh wow, peppers already! I have never grown bok choy or kohlrabi, but maybe I should? We didn't have to water yesterday or the day before because we had a very good rain Wednesday night, but back to it today.
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