Looks good. I have so many green and blk. ,it will be a couple of more weeks. My canning has always started the week school starts so I'm right on schedule. I did pick red and green cabbage plus pole beans and cukes yesterday.
I do not have a garden or chickens but we go to my inlaws every Sunday evening for dinner and my wife normally takes the kids once during the week and they have a 2 gardens, a small orchard, berry patch and like 20 chickens. I haven't purchased an egg in like 5 years. He has these yellow heirloom tomatoes this year that are amazing Also the really big dense heirloom tomatoes, slice kind of thick, grill and put blue cheese crumbles on them. Kids often eat a very large bowl of blackberries everytime where there and the peaches are just coming in. I have a peach tree and 2 kinds of apples at my house, my peaches are just starting to ripen and I'll end up with a ridiculous amount of apples this year. We make a lot of crisps, pies, canned fruits, veggies (Love me some pickled beets) and homemade wine.
I've been thinking on this rare crazy fruit production this year. I'm mean we had a very late freeze this spring, it did get my peaches and persimmons . Everything else is at limb breaking capacity. Well it comes down to no gypsy moths or tent caterpillars.
First canning done today. Some green beans , carrots and beets. I also did up a bumch of beet greens for the freezer. They take an hour to process so just freezing them. Now it's s on to blueberry jam. I was going to do one of the turkeys today but an early storm caught me in the garden trying to get more beans. He will be processed tomorrow then brined to eat this week.
It is so crazy that until I was 63 I'd been terrified to pressure can . Water bath and then freezing and drying. I finally decide at my old age fear was stupid, man oh man is that a correct sentence. All these years afraid of nothing really. It just so easy when you dial in how soon to start lowering your temp to reach and hold pressure. I now can most things even deer meat. I can soups and stews.
brought home about a dozen cucumbers yesterday from the im laws so made some pickles today. 3 different cuts. super thin kind of "Normal" thickness and short spears. I made a homemade brine with no real recipe. after just 2 hour those really thin pickles are amazing.
My daughter is a canning fool, so blessed to get farm meat and canned veggies, all for spending time with the grandkids. About time to start canning tomatoes, probably will do salsa and tomato sauce.
Well the smallest Tom was an ace ache to me this morning so he's now chilling ing the frig. Hhhmmm. Zero fat for the feed and pasture he was on but he dressed out at 18#'s got them a little over a week old maybe 2 on April 7 th. Not the prettiest job but he was hand plucked and finished. Had a huge heart. Because I phys8cally move them 2x's a day his dispatch went very smoothly. Though the "cone" was a kitchen sized waste basket I cut a hole in and made a hanging handle. That was perfect.
First batch of no sugar blueberry jam. Oh man doesn't fresh roasted turkey with a dab of blueberry jam sound good....mmmmm
I looked in the panty last night and did an inventory, we still have many jars of tomato products from last year. My neighbors tomoto crop is a failure so I have decided I will donate most of my crop to her. She loves canning.
Driving me crazy, tomatoes coming out of my ears in the garden....not one ripe. I had to buy tomatoes today.
I commented in the other post about a great raspberry year, but the choke cherry trees and our two wild plum trees are loaded this year also. We are in a pretty severe drought. The wheat and barley crops will not do as good as they normally do but not looking horrid. The corn and pinto beans are taking it hard and starting to die. It is a month early for pintos to be dying off and the expected yield will be lucky to hit 600 lbs an acre. Normally they run 1800 to 2000 lbs an acre. That is going to be a big kick in the arse. Corn is still too early to tell but it is not looking good. Yields and test weight are going to be bad. Soybeans are still hanging in there so we have hope for them. Canola looks to be our best crop this year.
Due to a lack of any fat on this turkey He went into a brine late last night. Sitting the frig a few days got his legs to relax so I could push them down into a trusted position. One of the biggest turkey Ive roasted whole. So different than store bought thats been literally fattened and liquid injected . How to describe not loose and hhmmmm...spongy is the only word that comes to mind. He is just solid meat. Had to put him in the pot breast side down because just part of his back and bone of legs wouldn't fit under the brine. That's always picked for soup so no biggie. Now to get the roasting time right. They say a pastured bird should not be covered and cooks faster. Brining cuts cook time as well.
I have pumped over 300,000 gallons of water on my lawn this summer. My lawn is 2" of black dirt over gravel, sand and glacial till. Like a golf green it needs alot of water.
Well I can't like that! Best of luck in getting better harvests than you think. I'm hoping to get my aronia bushes picked today to do the steamed juice. I have 2 more Blue berry bushes just starting to ripen. To be honest it's all starting g to over wrelm me and I woke with a very sore face this morning, jaw clenching. I'm picking 5-8 cukes twice a day now , but that's OK because we love them to eat fresh. BTW did you know they have cancer fighting properties? Our weather looks to remaina classic. That said,cool nights are going to have all nightshade family plants ready mid Sept.. works for me do to massive beans ,cukes ,cabbage, greens, beets, carrots and fruits now. Oh let's not for get the squash...Oh boy squash...smaller garden ...lol
Oh the farmers corn tallest I have ever seen it. My corn is above my head and tasseling out. I have the hardest time with corn and this year is great. Now if I can only keep the coons out of it. All the ag corn will help because it's ahead of mine. Also the maze of fencing all around the gardenshould help as well. I hope
My little garden is still producing well. I think we’ve bout enjoyed the produce to our fill so it’s time to start canning! Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Very nice. I gave some stuff away to daughter yesterday. OH HEY, I'm getting jalapeños after all, that's a biggie for us. More so than even tomatoes.
