Ducks4you for 2022

[ducks4you]

So, aNOTHER day in town, this time at DH's optrician re cataract surgery.
I picked before we left and found 3 over ripe and very large cucumbers turning yellow.
Guess I'll be fermenting seeds soon.
I snapped off one Kentucky Pole Bean and left an inch, so I grabbed and ate it raw.
SO tender!!

 

[ducks4you]

Here is today's harvest, but I think there are more tomatoes from the cistern sprawl crowd. Haven't checked yet. Beans filled my ice cream container and I didn't have any more room. I noticed when I eat a KPB raw it is really tender. The purple beans, not so much.

 

[ducks4you]

I Love that gardeners share! So, you Know that I planted pumpkins and squash to Help my sweet potato vines keep from drying out, but they took over, and Then they made fruit.
Here are a couple of articles about harvesting unripe.

https://rootsy.org/how-to-ripen-green-pumpkins/#:~:text=The%20more%20sunlight%20the%20pumpkins,flow%20freely%20between%20the%20squashes.

Ripening Green Pumpkins

When there isn't enough time in the fall for the last of your pumpkins to ripen. just follow this simple process for ripening green pumpkins.

ourstoneyacres.com

Tips to Turn Green Pumpkins Orange After Vines Die | Gardener’s Path

Did your pumpkin vine die, leaving you with green, unripe gourds? We’re here to help. Find out what you can do to make them turn orange on Gardener’s Path.

gardenerspath.com

Early Pumpkin Ripening - Cornell Vegetable Program - Cornell University - Cornell Cooperative Extension

Early Pumpkin Ripening from Cornell Vegetable Program of Cornell Cooperative Extension a component of Cornell University.

cvp.cce.cornell.edu

AND

How to Cook a Green Pumpkin

Have you ever walked through a pumpkin patch during the summer, noticed unripe pumpkins and wondered about them? Or, maybe you grow gourds and had an animal or force of nature break the growing pum…

foragerchef.com

 

[ducks4you]

When harvesting this morning I pulled up all of the old purple bush bean plants. I harvested the smaller ones to can and put the bigger ones that possibly/probably have good seed on a cardboard box top to dry in the sun. Dunno about anybody else, but I pout a 1/2 brick on the box to get the breeze from flipping it.
Since the Fall cucumbers don't have much time left I harvested ones that were mishapen and made a nice tuna fish salad with them for lunch.
I am saving the other cucumbers in a fridge drawer and I will pickle maybe 2 pints for bread and butter pickles with them tomorrow. DH and I are harvesting mint tomorrow evening to make vinegar mint sauce and they can all hot water bath together, and I might decide to add some tomatoes.
Moved older jars of last year's chili upstairs. Yes, Virginia, they Were pressure canned!
I count 44 quarts of tomatoes. I would like to have a dozen more, since I heard that the tomato harvest in California for 2022 wasn't good, and they are expecting canned tomato shortages in 2023.
SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT WE NEED TO GET IT RIGHT NEXT YEAR?!?!?!?!?

Salsa and spaghetti sauce are under threat as the worst drought in 1,200 years threatens California's tomato crop

“We desperately need rain,” Mike Montna, head of the California Tomato Growers Association, said in an interview. “We are getting to a point where we don’t have inventory left to keep fulfilling the market demand.”

fortune.com

We pick up the 35 pounds of lamb tomorrow.

 

[heirloomgal]

I've never tried Kentucky Wonder beans, but those and Blue Lake are the most popular here on the shelves for sure. It must be a DARN good bean to be so widely grown & popular.

 

[ducks4you]

@heirloomgirl, as I wrote you I Truly am a newbie green bean grower. My only other attempt was several years ago, and the bush beans were in the wrong place, so I hardly harvested, and they came...and went.
I planted the Kentucky (Wonder) Pole Beans later than the purple beans, so I only started harvesting them mid September. Last week, when harvesting, I snapped one off

with 1/2 an inch left, so I ate it raw. SOOOO TENDER!!!
I Think that must be what makes them popular.
I dunno what I will do with the purple beans next year, should I be able to harvest their bean seed. Probably I will plant them as filler in DD's back yard. I tried eating THEM raw and they were a little bit tough.
Here is yesterday's pressure canning (beans) and hot water bath canning (mint sauce, vinegar based.)
We have a system--I label one and DH finishes for me. I have some older jars of mint sauce, but I decided 1/2 pints were a better size for them. I have 10 1/2 quarts of beans. If they survive being covered this weekend, I might have a few more, BUT, I expected very little from my Fall plantings.
I found two more huge cucumbers. The big ones were missed bc they are hugging the fencing, where the rest of the plants are protecting them. I now have 5 Large cucumbers that need to be cut open so I can ferment their seeds, and give the leftovers to the horses. I have a handful of small ones in the crisper drawer of the fridge, and I might make them into a pint of bread and butter pickles bc I will be canning tomatoes for the next month.
I just picked up the 35 pounds of lamb meat yesterday and DH reminded me to harvest mint for sauce, which he demands for lamb and really likes on pork, too.

 

[ducks4you]

I have posted my party guests (Salsa12: I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me,) that they will be greeted by bowls of tomatoes and sweet peppers and pumpkins AND squash that I will be pulling Friday to let them ripen in the house. In 2021 I was able to can nearly 15 quarts in this way, so it IS worth doing.

When I first heard about the frosts I was in denial. SURELY the Farmer's Almanac PROMISED ME a warm October.
THEN, I was angry! It's NOT FAIR!!!!!! I just got these crops to produce and NOW?!?!?
I thought about bargaining during my daily prayers with DD, but...
I got DEPRESSED!! How COULD this happen to ME!!!!
Today, I accept that there WILL be a cold snap this weekend.
I imagine that it has come to kill off the grasshoppers currently eating on my cabbages.

The SIX Stages Of Grief And Finding Meaning – KKJ Forensic & Psychological Services

kkjpsych.com

 

[ducks4you]

‘Tis the Season For Gleaning

The age-old practice, which involves collecting leftover crops from farmers’ fields after a harvest, reduces food waste on farms while also helping to fight food insecurity.

modernfarmer.com

 

[ducks4you]

Guess I better find a better place for my Tuberous Begonia. Turned out kinda pretty!

 

[Zeedman]

Last year, we had both a yellow & a white tuberous begonia, which we brought indoors after the frost to winter over. The white one sprouted mid-winter, and actually bloomed under the lights. The yellow either died, or was dug up by a squirrel before we brought it in... because an oak tree popped up in its place. I purchased a red one this year to replace it.

The stems on the white-flowered one are long, I may try to root some cuttings... if I remember to do so before the freeze, and can find time.