My second year of vegetable gardening isn't much improved over my first. I had bigger beds but they were a lot of work to put in and I let the weeds get ahead of me. I've got nice cukes, okra and leaf lettuce but my tomatoes are small, though very sweet. The corn has immigrated to another garden along with the sweet peppers and snow peas. I'm happier with my wildflowers in the front yard. I have some marigolds mixing in with the wildflower mix I planted and together with shasta daisies and morning glories, they make a happy show. I thought the moth below, who is helping with pollination now that we've killed the honeybees, was lovely.
Our first full day of harvest. We have been harvesting for some time, but this is the first time we dedicated most of a full day to it. We di 6 quarts of dill pickles, and one batch of pickle relish, which is draining to be canned tomorrow. 5 pints of hot veggie pickles, 5 quarts of tomato sauce after roasting the tomatoes, 9 quarts of cauliflower blanched and frozen, and 7 quarts of broccoli blanched and frozen. Wife has picked 3 gallons of blueberries as of yesterday (wild), and I don't know how many gallons of raspberries (domestic). Our larder is rapidly filling and the season has just gotten started.
We generally just put them in the oven, although we have put them on the grill on occasion in the past. You really should experiment with canning, @John Brunner. You can put up entire meals that way, but it does require pressure canning, which not everyone is comfortable with.
I still use a 1960s Presto pressure cooker. I am fearless!!! I also have a more modern Fagor, which is less exciting and lack the rockin' regulator. Just be careful with things whose skins may block the relief valve (like beans) and you'll be OK. I guess those who like to cook have heard the stories. And we've all seen the homesteader videos. Even though they use the top-of-the-line All American canner and 100% trust the process, it still sits outside on a propane burner when they use it. The courage of their convictions, as it were (or lack thereof.)
Our daughter uses hers outside, but it is because she has a glass stovetop, not because she is scared. We have canned everything imaginable during the 45 years we have been married and loved it. We have a big Presto that we bought 45 years ago and haven't changed anything other than the pressure gauge and the gasket. Our new thing this year is sausage kale soup. We no longer make our own sausage as we don't have pigs any more, but we have tons of kale in the garden. We tried it and liked it, so we will be canning the meals in the next couple weeks.
We are harvesting for the wife's Garden Display at the Fair. She used to do the harvesting between goat milking, homeschooling and such, but now she does it over two days and has help since I am no longer gone to work. No kids here to help anymore, though. Winter squashes are smaller this year, but last year was even worse. I guess some of our soil is getting worn out. Without the livestock, the quantity of composted manure and such is limited.
I'm going to be buying some biddies in a while. I know nothing about keeping chickens but I'll learn. I want them happy and healthy. I'm taking a survey. What animal is smarter, a goat or a cow? I've heard some opinions but I'm doubtful.
Goats are far smarter than cows. The only livestock whose intelligence matches a goat is a pig. I always question the Biblical stories concerning goats and sheep. Maybe sheep were once smarter, but the sheep now are nearly as stupid as chickens.
I did know that pigs were smart and chickens were on the slow side. The reason I asked was that someone swore cows were smarter than goats and it just didn't sound right. Another person explained to me that cows were herd animals. I said yeah, when they mooed I heard them. Now I've got to figure out why every woman I've ever been involved with was smarter than me.
I have lots of thoughts on livestock intelligence. I had one cow who was plenty smart. Sheep are smart for being sheep. One sheep leads them all and that can be over a cliff. I think I have told my chicken story before. They can't see in the dark so all go to roost before then. I don't have electricity in my barn so I went to lock up late and one chicken was still 'up'. She followed me all over, clucking and cackling like she was reading a phone book. She never shut up. I finally leaned down and scolded her, What Do You WANT?! She stopped, looked me in the eye, turned and ran down the stall fronts. Ran back to me, Ran down the stall fronts, Ran back to me... I followed her around the corner. A horse had kicked the mounting block away from the wall. This chicken had come from an Amish place so her wings were clipped and she could not fly to get up on a stall wall to roost with the rest of the girls. So, I had put a mounting block up against the wall so she could jump up to a cross beam to get as high as she was comfortable. Lassie could not have communicated better to get someone out of the well. I don't care for goats. But I really like my chickies.
It is already starting to be a lot cooler and feeling like fall around here in Alabama. I am getting ready to start dismantling some of the garden that we aren’t using now, like the little tee-pees for the climbing cucumbers, which have all died. The tomatoes have gone crazy, growing all over; but with the really hot summer, they just grew lots of branches and leaves and not that many tomatoes, although we are still getting a few each day. The watermelon plant spread everywhere ! However, each time it got baby melons, they get about the size of a walnut, and then they vanish; so I think that something must eat them once they are that size. So, today, I took a picture of it, and then cut it down and put it in the compost pile, since there is no way we are going to get a watermelon to grow at this time of year, even if it survived whatever eats the baby melons.
Do you have gopher tortoises @Yvonne Smith? They used to murder my watermelons but they usually waited until they were almost mature.
I haven't gotten any watermellons this year. Never thought about someone harvesting them already. One year I planted canteloupes. When they started looking ripe, I bent down to pick one up. It had been hollowed from underneath! They all were!