Chris 2,154 Posted August 22, 2021 Wel if you’re looking for a good sponge bath… I picked a bunch of green peppers today. They were on the smaller side, but that’s okay, I slice them up and freeze them for later use anyway. Also picked the first corn of the season, which amazingly the coons didn’t get to yet. We have a handful of really nice pumpkins out there that are just turning color. A sure sign Fall is around the corner. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hal 340 Posted August 22, 2021 Okay , well the cukes were delicious! But you need … Bee’s ! 😎👍 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hal 340 Posted August 22, 2021 Pics later , but my beds were taken over by the Violina Rugosa’s … what the hell is that you say ? Giant Italian Butternut squash basically! These things are not even full grown yet but the way they took off when i started them in the greenhouse i should have known geez ! They are from Heritage Stock seeds and come to find out a somewhat of a rarity . Poor ‘maters never had a chance in the fight for space ! I’ll be saving seed from these but next year they are going to grow in the field !! 😆 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kevin 334 Posted August 23, 2021 3 hours ago, Hal said: Okay , well the cukes were delicious! But you need … Bee’s ! 😎👍 Now that I know you are mended up, I will be in touch for a hands on tour. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kevin 334 Posted August 23, 2021 4 hours ago, Chris said: Wel if you’re looking for a good sponge bath… Are you offering? If so I must decline, I am afraid you would go blind and have a memory you could never escape from! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris 2,154 Posted August 23, 2021 35 minutes ago, Kevin said: Are you offering? If so I must decline, I am afraid you would go blind and have a memory you could never escape from! LOL oh sweet Jesus that backfired on me didn’t it?? 😂 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hal 340 Posted August 23, 2021 2 hours ago, Kevin said: Now that I know you are mended up, I will be in touch for a hands on tour. Going to be pulling for honey extracting in a week or two , i will let you know ahead of time . Best way to get your feet wet , close up and personal with the girls ! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris 2,154 Posted August 25, 2021 Best damn corn we've had all year has been from our own garden. Other corn we bought, even locally at a farmers market, SUCKED. I'm planting more next year, and staggering the plantings so we have it coming for a couple weeks. The peaches are starting to take on that reddish tint and should be ripe soon. Good thing, even with the supports I can hear the limbs groaning under the weight. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hal 340 Posted August 26, 2021 Terrible problem to have too many peaches , i’ll keep an eye , a close eye on them for ya ! 😉😎😆 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris 2,154 Posted August 29, 2021 I found one of the limbs busted on our peach trees. At first I thought it was from the weight of the fruit, which are almost ripe. On closer inspection it looks like an animal got up in there and busted it. Could have been a bear but more likely a coon. Honestly the weight of a sparrow would be enough to break a limb right now. It’s almost completely severed, I doubt there’s any fixing it. Sucks, but the tree needed pruning anyway. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kevin 334 Posted August 29, 2021 When I moved into my house 3 years ago we discovered 2 pear trees. They had no blossoms or pears the first year. Between the 2 of them they had about 6 last year. I also pruned them the best I could with what little I know about pruning pear trees. I discovered today that 1 has a couple dozen pears and the other about a dozen. Some more pruning this year and they could be good producers next year or the year after. I also had to cut away most if the leaves from my pumpkin plants, they came down with a powdery mildew fungus. The ones that were not covered we are treating with a milk/water mixture. We have 5 pumpkins growing. 2 are already orange, 1 is green and 2 are yellow. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris 2,154 Posted August 30, 2021 All but of our pumpkins, at least the ones I can see, are bright orange and could come off the vine now. We didn’t get a lot of them, but the ones we got are nice and big 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kevin 334 Posted August 30, 2021 12 hours ago, Chris said: We didn’t get a lot of them, but the ones we got are nice and big All the rain has been good for pumpkins. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris 2,154 Posted September 4, 2021 I picked a bushel of peaches yesterday: Some of them were barely ripe, but I needed to get some weight off the branches. A couple more were in bad shape. I watched some YouTube videos and decided these were ready to harvest and ripen indoors. Helps keep them from bruising too. The ones on the ground the chickens have been enjoying. BTW, those are the trees Chuck recommended years ago on iElmira. They're the Finger Lakes Super Hardy I believe. But it's been years so I could be wrong. They're a great tree though, so thanks to Chuck for the tip. The apples are hit or miss. From some trees they're pretty good. The others, they're still small and hard. I don't know if we'll get a good yield of edible apples, worth making cider from, or what. Wait and see I suppose. I yanked out most of the garden today. I only need so many peppers, especially jalapeños. Although we may try to make a peach-jelapeno jam similar to one we bought at a farmer's market in Bethel. We got a couple huge pumpkins and a couple smaller ones. We use them for decoration so it's not like we needed a lot. I think next year instead of beans, which we never even ate this year, I will devote a bed to more herbs to cut and dry as well as peppers. Might plant some garlic too. We will definitely do corn again. Man that stuff we got from Banfield Baker this year grew wonderfully and was delicious! I might do a whole bed of them instead of zucchini and pumpkins. Total yield for Yukon Gold potatoes was a full bushel; it was a great year for the spuds! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kevin 334 Posted September 4, 2021 If you're planting garlic, I just harvested 75 bulbs and can give you some as seeds. They need to go in the ground within the next month. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris 2,154 Posted September 12, 2021 Surprisingly, the apples turned out to be pretty damned good on five out of the six trees. I picked about a bushel and think the rest should work for cider, if we can coordinate pressing it. I'm tempted to back the truck over there and see how full I can get the bed. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hal 340 Posted September 13, 2021 I’ll get the press ready tomorrow just in case ! I am so tired of working on honey some cider would be great . my trees are still loaded so we shall see ! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris 2,154 Posted September 16, 2021 All the cider is pressed, we got 10, hell, probably 12 gallons. I have 10 2-liter bottles here, nine of them in the freezer! All that's left to do now is chop down the corn and sunflower stalks and cut the remaining herbs to dry before first frost. Overall, it was one hell of a gardening season. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hal 340 Posted September 18, 2021 Yeah , so the cider ! Great taste ice cold home pressed Cider … old man touchy stomach and doesn’t know enough to stop drinking it 😂! Watered it down and seems to help some but will be making deliveries this morning getting temptation out of sight don’t ya know ! Garden wise . As with bees i will be selling most of my machines and implements so as to down size since we don’t do huge gardens any longer. If not for the money invested to have the equipment sitting around , just to free up some space in the barn ! To Quote a fairly wise old gentleman ( me 🤔😆😉 ) “Time is the Great Accumulator” Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
