Garden journal 2013...Chicken storm disaster, #74

[Jared77]

Onions, taters, carrots, mushrooms, with venison roast and pumpkin pie for dessert. Road trip to WV!

That's the problem I run into here too. Its sorted by color. Red, yellow, and some places carry white but not many. You really have to look if you want shallots but you'll have to pony for them. Never got any shallots don't know if the drought did them in or what but my onions were pretty small too.

When you dehydrate them, how small are you cutting them? And how much do you use in a recipe vs fresh?

 

[journey11]

You don't have to cut them too small, because they'll shrink anyway and could fall through the holes in the dehydrator tray. So I usually cut mine into slices or rings, separate them out on the tray, then I just pulse them a couple of times in the food processor to break them up a little when they are done. A 1/3 cup of dried onions equals about one medium-sized fresh onion.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I like that food processor idea!

 

[Southern Gardener]

What a beautiful harvest, journey! Are they as easy to grow as garlic?

As far as weeds go - I'm a little scared to go into the garden to cut okra. No telling what may jump out at me!

 

[journey11]

I've not found them too hard to grow. A dose of fertilizer sure helps and you have to keep the weeds at bay. The first year I planted onions, I planted them too deep and they didn't do well, but I've had no trouble after that.

Also, I forgot to mention, I tried the trick about selecting the smallest bulbs to plant. They really are less likely to produce seed heads than the larger ones. I purchased a pound and a half of sets and after picking out all of the largest ones (tossed or gave them away), I only had 6 try to go to seed.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That reminded me. Last year I planted a bunch in the late fall and another bunch in the spring. I get them in bunches of 75 bulbs. About half of each group bolted to seeds. I thought the ones that over-wintered would be more likely to bolt but it didnt work that way. It was about even in both bunches.

This year I put out two of those bunches in the spring, none in the fall. Zero, nada, zilch bolted. It was a beautiful harvest. I dont have a clue why.

I gave 55 to a local food bank last Saturday and still have more than we can use.

 

[journey11]

I gave 55 to a local food bank last Saturday and still have more than we can use.

That is awesome.

 

[Jared77]

Agreed! Way to go RR

 

[journey11]

It's ON! And everything all at once!

The corn is ready. Got my first bigger sized tomato from the garden (had been getting cherry tomatoes for awhile now). Cukes are getting picked daily. Dug the rest of my potatoes. Gotta go pick so many gallons of grapes from my neighbor's vine tomorrow (nobody wanted them, they were his grandma's, Concord...so he offered them to me!) The peaches will be ripe here in a couple of days too. Oh, and I got my first eggs from my EEs!

They are a nice teal blue. Love my girls!

I've been up late canning my small potatoes.

I wanted to start canning MUCH earlier today, but it would figure I go and drop the lid to my canner and the cardboard circle inside the dial guage looked bent, so I worried that it would be off. So I had to run down to the ag ext office and have them test it. It was ok, thank goodness. Now would NOT be a good time to have to wait on ordering another guage through the mail.

Then I figured I'd swing by the farm and give the horse a little grain. He was lying down in the field and not acting quite right, but he did get up and drink some water and I walked him for awhile and he seemed ok after a bit, so I don't know if he had colic or what. I've got to go back out in the morning and check up on him again just in case. But that set me back for time. Then the kids were nuts all evening, so I figured it would be easier to watch the canner after they went to bed.

Here's a bit of what my DD6 helped me pick the other day. It has rained the past 3 days (and we've had some flash flooding) so she has been really forlorn that she can't go "harvest" anything right now. She has been enjoying the ground cherries especially, loves popping them out of their paper husks. I did sneak out there in the mud and pick more cukes today though.

And more corn today... This second picking I just blanched and froze a little while ago while the potatoes were processing. This is the prettiest corn I've ever grown. Delectable (se) hybrid. It's juicy and tender, but not overly sweet. I'll definitely plant it again.

And I canned kosher dill pickles (spears mostly) yesterday and will have to do more tomorrow.

My life has been chaotically busy lately. I haven't had much time to get on here. Between dr appts, weddings, birthday parties, family reunions, and keeping up with the garden... My house is not presentable right now. I did get mostly caught up on the remaining weeds in the garden, using the clippers to cut them off at the ground, like Jared suggested (and it was much quicker than pulling). Nothing got to go to seed on me yet, so that at least feels like a major victory. It took to raining again the past 3 days, so I have a little more to go once we dry out again.

I tell you what though, I am just about ready for winter. And I wouldn't mind being snowed in for 2 weeks so I don't have to go anywhere. Ha.

OH, and the little one (17 month old DD) climbed the stairs yesterday. All the way to the top in 2.5 seconds while I had my back turned doing dishes. I don't know what I am going to do with this child, she is so high speed and on the go. I had a baby gate up, but DD6 let her out because she was wrecking her blanket fort. DH is gonna let me sleep in a bit tomorrow. :bun I wish him good luck... He'll have his hands full! LOL

 

[MontyJ]

Everything looks great Journey! I know what you mean about everything at once. I have the rest of the corn to get in today, more tomatoes ready, the grapes will be ready very soon. The second peach tree is still a few weeks away, so I don't have to worry about it yet. Because of all the rain this year, I couldn't keep it sprayed enough so now all the peaches have a bad case of scab. They are still good for canning, but makes peeling them a chore. My potatoes are ready to dig to. Don't you just love those small potatoes when they are canned? Of course, once again the grass needs cut. I'm really tired of cutting the grass every weekend. Usually by this time of year it's barely growing.

Surely there's a dozen things I'm forgetting, but for right now, I'm sitting at the table catching up on TEG and having my second cup of freshly ground Sumatra.