Lickbranchfarm's 2018 Garden thread

[6884]

Okra season is upon us ladies and gentleman. Made my usual rounds late yesterday afternoon, on the way out the gate, I glanced over in the Okra field.... is that....yep spotted a handful of ready pods from the road. I told my wife I'm not going out there and cutting now, it was 8:30 p.m. and the temp was still 87 degrees with like 100% humidity. For those with no experience with cutting Okra, its a itchy experience for some. It doesn't bother me like it does most, and I don't have a problem cutting it but when your hot and sweaty and those spiny leaves hit a bare spot, instant itch, and it doesn't go away until you wash it off.
I got up this morning at 5 and hit the field it was a pleasant 71 degree's, a bit muggy, but a lot more comfortable than it will be this afternoon. I still need to go back and trim the bottom limbs, and work on some weeds, but I can do that this weekend, its not like its gonna rain or anything.

 

[flowerbug]

No I haven't, I've read a lot about them, seems vine borers don't like them.

along with the favorable mention of the rumbo squash i think for some people those are worth a try if they have a lot of vine/squash borer problems. the buttercup squash here seem to do ok too, even if they get attacked and have damage most of the plants survive and give a crop/fruits. and we keep on selecting from those that survive so i hope we're continuing a reasonable resistant seed line. they've seemed to have crossed with an orange punkin variety and so we have some we're growing like that which turn orange when ripening. Mom thinks they're sweeter than the regular ones. i think they're about the same. since i like about anything squash it's really hard for me to be picky about it. i just like grows 'ems and ettin 'ems.

 

[baymule]

I'm not growing okra. We decided it is easier to support our favorite vegetable stand guy. We order okra, he picks it that morning, we pick it up and I put it up in the freezer. Done. But when I grew okra, I wore a long sleeved denim shirt, okra stings!

 

[flowerbug]

I'm not growing okra. We decided it is easier to support our favorite vegetable stand guy. We order okra, he picks it that morning, we pick it up and I put it up in the freezer. Done. But when I grew okra, I wore a long sleeved denim shirt, okra stings!

i wear a long sleeved shirt for picking strawberries because those can make me itch like crazy.

the whole reason we started growing more garden vegetables about 12yrs ago was that the vegetable and fruit stand down the road shut down for a season and Mom wanted tomatoes for canning and also fresh sweet corn (we can't grow here - too many raccoons). ever since then we've been converting the perennial gardens into vegetable gardens, especially inside the fenced area. it is kinda funny in that about 20yrs ago when they built the place Mom did plant some vegetable gardens and then decided that she'd rather have flowers, so for a while the vegetable gardens were turned into perennial gardens.

the guy reopened the stand a few years later and then after about four more years shut it down for good. it was too hard for him to find decent help and he was doing better taking his produce to one of the city farmer's markets.

i think it would be a tough life to haul stuff around like that and have to set up a booth/table and all that on top of trying to keep up with picking and taking care of the gardens.

 

[6884]

@majorcatfish I know your out of town but hopefully yall got some of those showers that rolled through last night, I think we picked up .75" couldn't have come at a better time, my corn is still filling out.

 

[6884]

i think it would be a tough life to haul stuff around like that and have to set up a booth/table and all that on top of trying to keep up with picking and taking care of the gardens.

The Local farmers market here sets everything up for you. They supply the tables and the pop up canopy's over them. The county AG extension here puts a lot into it trying to promote it and get people involved. It jumps around town In different spots but total you can sell 3 days a week, they come out and visit your farm, and help advertise what you will have at the market. They have some stipulations but nothing unreasonable.

 

[baymule]

Our vegetable stand guy farms 20 acres, he does buy watermelons and cantaloupes. He buys other stuff, like fruits, but grows a lot of what he sells. That is his job. In the winter he does odd jobs to get by. His wife holds a job, I don't know what she does.

 

[majorcatfish]

@majorcatfish I know your out of town but hopefully yall got some of those showers that rolled through last night, I think we picked up .75" couldn't have come at a better time, my corn is still filling out.

We got .05 but we did get rain here in tn it was a pleasant day

 

[majorcatfish]

Well the rain finally got to us last night 1.16’ dw gets a break from watering this evening

 

[6884]

We've gotten rain every evening this week thank goodness. I pulled a few ears of corn yesterday, when I got home supper was ready, everything on this plate except for the green beans came from my garden, or I shot it and processed it Lol.
Fresh pan fried Okra, Tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, Deer tenderloin.