The good news is the canning is officially rockin. I have put up salsa, blackberry jam(w/o pectin), blueberries, and tomato sauce so far this season. It is a great feeling to see the shelves begin to fill with goodness form the garden. Feeling really good about some things, but bummed about others. My peach trees aren't going to provide much in the way of peaches this year. I will throw away about a bushel due to pests and fungus. I am still hoping I can get a few jars of jams, but that is it. I am planning on buying some from a farmers market to put up. I still feel that is cheaper than the price of peaches at the store. My mom used to put up frozen peaches. Oh boy where those things good on a summer night. Eat them slightly frozen....Ummm. Might do that if I can get a good price on the peaches.
Yesterday I had to pull up some corn and bean plants. I don't care who says it, you cannot use corn to support pole beans. I read that, seriously, and I have tried for the past 2 seasons to get them to work that way. It doesn't. Know why? Because pole beans aren't happy with grabbing the corn they were planted with. Oh no, they have to grab the one two rows over. After a bit of many pole bean plants reaching for different corn stalks, the corn just falls over. Or I should say is pulled down. Yes, corn and beans derive mutual benefit,but if you want to plant pole beans with corn, plant the beans against a trellis or something else they can climb on. The good new on that front is I have more corn planted and at least I can plant still more before it gets too cold. I am also going to plant more green beans, but not with the corn. Lima beans... well they are going gang busters. I should have plenty to put up this year. Instead of drying them, I am going to can them up like last year. Funny, I wouldn't have eaten limas as a kid, but last year I fixed some for dinner and WOW were they good. I guess your taste buds do change as you get older. I am keeping a tally of my gardens output this year to see what does well, what doesn't, what to change for next year, how much I saved, things like that. I will post it when the season is over.
I did find something useful. I had some t shirt sleeves left over from where I converted t shirts to yarn. You can see that post http://frugalmavensdailyrave.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-to-do-with-old-ratty-t-shirts.html. I have my watermelon(volunteers from watermelons planted last year from seeds saved from a store bought watermelon from the year before that) plants trained to a trellis, so to take the weight of the growing watermelons off the plants, I put a "shirt" on each of my three growing watermelons. Then I attached the shirt sleeve to the trellis with a clothes pin. Kinda like a melon hammock. Seems to be doing well for now.
Well I am off to make more tomato sauce. Just wanted to check in . Hey Mama and Daddy! love you!
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