2022 Garden Seed and Starts - Better get on it!!

[SwampDonkey]

Pickled 4 more 16 oz jars of mustard bean pickles today. 8)

Was a fine mist out at work in the hills all day, did not do much at the house. Wet all week here is the forecast and clearing Saturday.

[21incher]

Well I'm happy for you.  How much did you get?
We barely got a sprinkle here, barely enough to make your boots wet enough to change shades after walking through the grass.
Heard they got some to the East and North of us. Been that way all season here every storm splits and misses us.

Stopped at noon today.  Rain gauge had 1 1/2" in it. I see some green in the grass again.  8)

[newoodguy78]

Well may have to keep you in mind to do your dance a little more often :D. Late afternoon and after dark we got some of that very odd wet substance falling from the sky. Between the two showers I'm guessing maybe 3/4". Took my rain gauge down awhile ago because it was filled with dust.  Not a lot but more than this immediate area has seen in well over a month.
Isn't it amazing how a rain like you just got will green things up so fast.
This year has proven to me irritating will keep things going to a certain extent, yet no matter how much you pump there's no replacement for natural rainfall.

[SwampDonkey]

Eating my first vine ripe tomato today on a hamburger. Big fat juicy beefsteak on beef. :D

[Walnut Beast]

Looks good!! Since your so big against store vegetables I hope the burger 🍔  isn't pumped full of antibiotics 

[SwampDonkey]

Local farm raised, a gal 74 years old. She rents land near here on a neighbor, I can watch them graze. ;) Didn't see that coming did ya? :D No these animals aren't raised to be ginormous critters. There's three sources for beef within 4 miles of here.

[SwampDonkey]

6 - 16 oz jars of dill pickles done up this morning.

[Jeff]

 

 

[doc henderson]

very nice representation of the Kansas state flower, and the Troop 1 from Hutchinson oldest regional troop at 105 years old.  Thanks Jeff.

[Wlmedley]

Wettest summer on record here.Dug my potatoes and only got 3 bushel.A lot of them had rotted in the ground.Plenty enough for me and my wife but was hoping to give some away.Pumpkin vines had mostly died but got several pumpkins.Going to dig sweet potatoes before long.First year rabbits haven't eaten vines back.Hope to get several.Need to smooth out potato patch and plant some turnips.Falls almost here.I'm ready for some cooler weather but don't like short days.

 

  

[newoodguy78]

What would you get for a potato yield in a normal growing season?

[Wlmedley]

I only planted about 1/2 bushel of potatoes I had left over from last year.From the size of my patch I thought maybe I would get 8 to 10 bushel but that was wishful thinking.If it hadn't been so wet I would probably have gotten 6 bushel.They are selling at farmers market for $40 a bushel so I'm happy.

[kantuckid]

I began to pick my "Woke lima beans" yesterday :D. They are a pole lima that vines on poles/string and mostly picked when hulls dry to a tan color and crisp. 
They are called Aunt Violet's Multicolored Lima/butterbean. An heirloom bean from Banks Co, GA grown by the Violet Brady Westbrook family for 4 generations. They are productive and tasty beans.
  
The woke part comes from the many, many colors they come in as you pop open a hull you never know which colors it will hold. 

 I have lots of green ones and vines haven't yellowed yet so should have a bumper crop growing until frost. 
I might not grow it next year as I have a few others to try, a couple that are a bigger bean than these ones. Butterbeans and limas are not the staple bean in KY that string beans are.
Pole, corn field, bush and most any string beans are like a religion here! Seed sellers sell them by a bushels and barrels full of seeds, especialy during covid which has seen gardens even more common.
 We planted Tiger Stripe bush beans you dry to eat, but crows pulled them all up, so that's one for next spring.

Did you see the guy in last nites news who grew a giant pumpkin in WI, hollowed it out, climbed in, and paddled it 38 miles down a river for the Guinness record book. 
 
 

[thecfarm]

I saw the pumpkin boat too. 

[SwampDonkey]

 :D Pumpkin boat. Hey, if it'll float, go for it. ;D

Soon be picking a squash to sample in the kitchen. Got my eye on a couple just about ready.

Love'n them beefsteak tomatoes, they are quite sweet right off the vine. You don't get that from a store bought. ;)

Nice taters there, nothing beats a baked potato with some butter on it, especially a russet variety. ;D I like home made fries baked, way better than those grease soaked  fries out of a bag. ;) We get 50 lb bags of Norkoda or Goldrush here for $14 from a local farmer. But he won't be harvesting those variety for a couple weeks so we buy 10 lb pricier ones at the market in town. Even then they are a bargain, lots of good eaten. Will keep ya from starv'n to death. ;) We've had some parsnip, but to do it proper they need to over winter, dig in the spring time or late fall before freeze up. Then the flavour comes out, and much sweeter. ;)

String beans are a staple around here to, every garden I seen over the years have string beans. I can even remember gardens with baking beans, mainly soldier or Jacob's cattle. Used to be able to buy them canned up here (Green Giant did yellow eye), but Maine is the only place handy you can get them canned. They have gotten a bit pricey. Most canned beans are them pea beans, which most of us old beaners refuse to buy. Stuck in our ways. :D

[SwampDonkey]

Plucked a squash from a vine this morning to sample. 6.5 lb'er 

[kantuckid]

We grow only one hybrid mater, the rest are open pollinated types. We like Burpee's oldest version of the hybrid beefsteaks called "Supersteak". This year we had some that were two hands to pick and hold plus the flavor is superb. Arkansas Traveler remains an heirloom favorite, but others try to change our minds. :D Our vines have now quit for the year as the unbelievable rainy period blighted them all, after a bumper crop before those rains. Gotta buy some at the farmers market later today. 

[SwampDonkey]

1 lb onions. These are 3-1/2" in width.

Sturon grown from sets.






Talon grown from seed in trays and transplanted seedlings.





mmm  good stuff.

[SwampDonkey]

First squash pie of the season cooked up this morning. Tenderflake crust.

[SwampDonkey]

Planning on some Lady Ashburnham or Lady Rose relish (without cauliflower) from the cucumbers, maybe this week.

[kantuckid]

We've made several batches of sweet relish with our veggies. Last year was other relishes called called Chow/chow & one made with green maters, celery, onions and no cukes my wifes family has made for a very long time. Bumper mater crop so we had to end up making more ketchup than most years. Lots different than the store version-we give lots away, plus a batch of Chili Sauce from my Mom's recipe-I love that stuff on a burger!
Were down to pumpkins and beans now & a few peppers. Heavy rains have most market maters gone as well but still they have sweet corn to sell.  

[SwampDonkey]

We've definitely made chow chow in the past, it was a common preserve in these parts. Been freezing peppers most all summer to use on meat dishes.

We don't have the tomatoes this year, low on pollinators. Although this past week I saw some European honey bees working some wild flowers. I have no idea who has them, has to be the neighbor. I might also have a nest of them again in the maple tree, I'm not sure on that yet. I don't see any paper nest like wasps build. But I see traffic going in and out of the main trunk.

[SwampDonkey]

Four 16 oz jars of fresh spaghetti sauce this morning.

[SwampDonkey]

We've harvested the onions now. I'd say we've harvested 80 lbs. Those sacks are 10 lb'ers. Still drying. Been a great year for onions, I especially like the ones I started from seed to transplant, worked out very well. Lots of 1 lb onions. ;D

[Walnut Beast]

Some nice looking stuff 👍