July! July? JULY!!!!!!
I'm SO excited! It's J~U~L~Y!
Know what that means?
Sweat. LOTS of it. But, it also means. Ice tea, lemonade, grilling, broken air conditioners (in Alabama FUN!) Lots of work outside, and lots of cooling of in the shade.
This week the work was clearing out the rest of the broken corn. I got a few more ears of corn, but a lot of it hadn't matured right. It simply wasn't able to fertilize being mashed down.
Some of the corn did better than others.
It seems that even the ears that got fertilized was stunted in other ways. Some of it had rows missing, and other ears were stunted in length.
But, all in all it only took another 3 weeks out of that part of the garden it's the time of year that I can't grown much anyway so I don't feel that I've lost anything by trying. We actually had enough corn to throw on the grill for all of us with some left over and we each ate an ear or two of the decrepit corn with only a few kernels while we were plundering through the garden. There is just nothing like fresh veggies in the world and this is one of my favorites. All told we had 4 pounds of edible corn. More went to the hens that was demolished by the caterpillars. Because the corn was laying down it was hard to keep it treated with BT and soap. I don't normally treat with anything else so I did lose a bit to that. Luckily those ears were also quite small.
Also in the mix this week a couple of choice blackberries and some tomatoes.
The tomatoes are a bit sun burnt I was trying to keep the dang stink bugs off of them, but apparently that didn't work out so well. I can see the little points of color change on the skins where the bugs damaged them. I was thinking sun burnt might be better than stink bugged, and I didn't see any signs of the bugs when I went out tot he garden. However, apparently not having the leaves cover the tomatoes must have simply given the stupid bugs a better lookout and not so much less of a place to hide. :-( It just didn't work. Bad thing is the bugs aren't even that bad this year - yet.
Ah- so that is my report for Harvest Monday. I'm hoping the blackberries will be strong in Alabama. I'll report back next week! I'd like some black berry syrup and some blackberry jam and just black berries! Wish me luck!
Oh, and don't forget to check out Daphne's for more Harvest reports from all over the world.
See you soon!
Barbie~
I am not going to get any corn to speak of this year either. I direct seeded (twice actually) when I usually start them ahead of time and transplant and doing this differently this year cost me as the germination was extremely bad. (sigh) Oh well. Lots of other stuff to eat in the garden! Looking forward to enjoying this month myself. Lots of good things happening - like my daughter coming home from Pennsylvania for a nice visit. :D
ReplyDeleteI only ever splant a small 4ft square of corn so I know I won't get much even if it all does very well. I figure if I ever get it just right i'll plant like crazy the next year! As for the crop failure - sorry to hear that. It's so disappointing. I had that with my dragons tongue beans. :-( It's hard to watcht he garden falter.
DeleteEverything looks delicious. I always struggle with the squash bugs, but they have been few this year. I am so glad.
ReplyDeleteBugs in general are bad here because we don't have seasons to run them off. But over all they aren't as bad as some years right now. I have a few more months of heat and humidity to keep them coming though!
DeleteHi Barbie--we're fighting maybe the worst bug year I can remember. All part of the game, I guess. I just came in from finding a few more blueberries and raspberries.
ReplyDeleteIf you have some canning questions I can help you with, I'd be glad to. Check out my food blog too--I have some posts on there.
http://www.dragonwomansmysticalmeals.blogspot.com/
Aw, I appreciate the offer. But, in my case it's more of the jumping in to do it that is the problem. I havne't even SEEN anyone can something since I was a child and I am not comfrtable jsut jumping in by myself. I've done some jams but I keep them in the freezer rather than processing them. LOL. (Chicken, I am!)
DeleteNice harvest! Canning really isn't bad Barbie. I only do stuff that goes in a water bath, not a pressure canner, like pickles and jams. Read a few reputable books about it and watch videos on Youtube. Try it on something relatively foolproof like a jam or jelly and I bet you'll get into it quickly.
ReplyDeleteOh blackberries! I can't wait to go picking in the orchards in a month from now!
ReplyDeleteYep, it is the time of year for heat and humidity, where you step outside and am immediately drenched. Except the last couple of days we've been having an odd cold spell. I'm glad you were able to salvage a few good ears of corn!
ReplyDeleteCanning is kind of nerve wracking. I am glad the sister in-law showed me how the first time.
We've been getting lots of blackberries in SC this week and there's still plenty of ones yet to ripen. I didn't have a good corn harvest last year, mostly due to squirrels, so 4 lbs sounds like a lot of corn to me!
ReplyDeleteSorry about the corn and tomatoes! Bugs can be so frustrating!
ReplyDeleteLol...your enthusiasm about July is awesome! Happy July!!! Um, and that blackberry looks divine! I really do need some more berries in my life!
ReplyDeleteThe blackberry looks yummy, hope you continue to get more.
ReplyDeleteStink bugs are becoming a huge problem and of course we have the other bugs too, hoping the extreme cold winter we had decreased the population.
ReplyDelete