time line picture (you all who are members of my Organic homesteading Gardening group will have to see it twice) is of the flower of a tame sweet potato vine growing out yonder (Jon points). The vine is also edible, and rather tasty when mixed with stronger greens. We had a drought this year. As most of you all know. My early garden did well. Kim managed to can 36 pints of okra. 35 quarts of tomatoes, 9 pints of sweet corn, 9 pints of squash, 14 quarts of green beans, 4 jars of pickles. Krauted 13 cabbages, we ate lettuce, radish, onions, cabbage, brocholli, spinach, kale, mustard, until the rains stopped. We harvested this month so far, 4 small canteloupes, 19 walked away the past 2 nights, apples did not make this season, blackberries Kim froze 3 to 4 gallons to make seedless blackberry jelly once the weather cools and we want heat in the cabin. Kim and I can it at that time, and a few more things she froze to can in colder weather. We blanched and froze, spinach, chard, mustard greens, collards, beet tops, edible tree leaves, a few wild grape leaves, we had peas and green beans to eat fresh until they dried up. We ate sweet potato leaf and vine off and on all summer, and also blanched and froze several quart bags of them too, for soups mostly, but also I like it mixed with other greens. Kim had to learn how to eat a few things when we got together. hard to believe she had never eaten: squash, turnips, pickled radish, pickled carrots, parsnips, okra, corn smut, to name a few. Some she like, others she tasted and put on a list to NEVER eat again. She also taught me to eat brats, German foods: (Understand not as good German food as what Ellen Webster taught me about when we went to their Animal spirits dance at Kaluna: Talking Rock, Georgia. the best red cabbage Ive ever eaten. Wish I had that recipe. The ones Kim found on internet tasted more like pickled inner tube. We harvest a bit of Catheys Shoe peg corn, and so did raccoons, deer, dogs, coyotes, and small feel. The pole beans bloomed and then dropped off so I chopped the vines down. I wont feed them if they wont feed us. Bunnies got most of the bush green beans but Kim managed to can some anyhow. Little green peas, nor sugar snap peas either produced for spring, I have them vining again this fall. Today was chiropractor day. OHG member is the receptionist there. And we share things like pictures her husband took of the back side of mantle rock, then framed it. She got a start of pony peas, and more stuff I do not remember what. The butternut squash is still producing, and has stayed green all growing season: runner that would go higher than Jacks beanstalk if Id of trellised them as I should have. Have 2 nice vines of them. Some of the others came up, then dried out to death. Cayenne peppers did well. They most always do. I have stung about 50 feet of it so far but Thursday Kim must go have a blood test to find out how her A1C is. And Ill be taking them a gallon or two of cayenne s. Have another kind of pepper, the ones Nancy sent me seed of 5 or so years ago, and have forgotten the name of: I had pulled the plants late last fall, in order to plant my late greens and stuff I sow most every fall for winter food. And a few of the fruit had rotted since the plants blew over. Those I tossed under the grape vines, and this early spring I think most every one of them germinated. I put out 9 of them, and 30 cayenne, and 25 purple sweet bell. 7 of the purple sweet bell survived the summer to give us a peck of peppers, which Kim cut up, kept the seed for me, and froze the pepper. Nuts were in short supply and still are. Most wild harvested are gathered in the river bottoms after freeze hits and then the cold wind rattles and loose and they fall to earth for deer, coyote, brer fox, raccoons, bear, cats, squirrels tho most squirrels will already have their stash hidden away for the winter for the wife and kids, especially. Wild fruit was also in short supply so I did not wild harvesting this year so far. Creator blessed me with a little of extra income, and I put it into seed for this fall another attempt at making greens, and a few root crops. Kim took us to Paducah just to get out of the cabin and go somewhere else for a change. We stopped at Phelps Brothers Farm Store, where we chatted with the owners; Ive done business with now 4 generations of them. Kim let me get 1 oz each of: rutabaga seed, white tip Diakon radish, shogin turnip, curly leaf and broadleaf mustard, Purple top turnips, parsnips, and Kale. I will mix them with what i have left of beets, cabbage, carrots, kale, spinach, lettuce seed, and sow tomorrow or the next day. I mix these tiny seed with 5# sack of white corn meal. Meal acts like fertilizer and keeps the tiny seed apart so you wont sow too many of the same kind in a spot no bigger than a picnic table. Ive enough to sow the whole 1/2 acre including under the grape vines, and bramble vines, and under the fruit trees, and the side yard where my container garden and tire gardens are. Whew. New dog is settling right in. She went to vet last week for her rabies shot, and at the end of this month she will go get neutered. Little Kitty will too. But Kitty does NOT like her cage. It is what my former dog used for his den. Shadow dog is too big for that cage, and we had to get a big girls cage for her. I did mow the grass right after the rain, and now we can walk around the cabin without fear (me) of falling down again. We plan to start the end of this week, FINALLY slicing and sizing and splitting our thunder wood for our bon fires, and cooking out in the fire ring off and on, and having wood on hand in case this winter is as bad as I think it will be. Kim and I hope to put up some tar pepper, or house wrap this weekend or next to help with the problem back there caused by the fellow who built the little add on at the back of the cabin causing the roof to leak, rotting most of the back of the cabin. There’s NOT a herb for that. I’ll send off my order before the end of this month for my grape cuttings, and apple scions, so I can begin to prepare then to be ready to put out once the ground thaws next spring. I’ve got a few classes to do with them, but I have new ones order for just me, too. My kids also have asked me to start them some. Which I’ve been doing every place they moved to during their military careers. I do have 2 classes before Christmas, and a few already booked for next year. Amish are also learning how to. And that is a very good thing. Everyone ought to grow grapes, muscadines, and other berries. The quality of food is already dropping and it can only get worse as time marches forward, plus seems we are again at war, so food prices will shoot up before the end of this year and never come dome again in YOUR lifetime. Nor mine either. Well, Kim has supper ready. Sliced tomatoes, corn bread cooked on top the stove in the cast iron skillet, slice onion, grapes with (dog foam as momma called whipping cream), and the last of our irish potatoes, fried of course. I have NOT as yet dug our irish nor sweet potatoes. I have to take library books back Thursday, and can’t get ny more for awhile since fall has brought with it, new chores done before really back weather arrives. How has this growing season been for you? Jon & Kim
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 00:12:26 +0000
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