WINDING THE GARDEN DOWN

 Already September 15th and the harvest is beginning to wind down.  I know that you must be tired of seeing my gardening and all the preserve pictures.  Sorry, that's all I have to offer right now. 

I harvested some Rhubarb from the center of the plant as these were still tender. The outer stalks were a bit tough and fibrous.

 

I made three batches of Rhubarb, Strawberry, Pineapple jam, one of my husband's favorite. Such a quick recipe to make. The recipe is available online. 

On the weekend  I dug up my Norland red potatoes and my Yukon Gold potatoes but forgot to take a photo of the Yukon Gold as I was pretty tired by then. They've been put in storage in the cold room.   I still have a lot more to dig up but I'm waiting for the tops to die down first. These are the earlier ones.

Still picking fresh veggies every day in my metal mesh basket. I love this basket as I can spray it with the water hose to clean it up. 

My little corn patch has been a great success with the corn bags and they stayed sweet and tender right to the end. We ate the last of the corn yesterday. The patch has been cleaned up but the stubs will have to be cut flush to the ground as it was too difficult to dig the roots up. I'll let them rot in the ground.

I saved the corn stalks and ties them up in bundles for fall decorations and George hung them up in the carport to dry upside down.  Once dried, they may sell at the church Farmer's Market. It's better than letting them go to waste. Someone may get some enjoyment from them, It was a lot of work...

And now flowers for your enjoyment and mine. They will soon all be gone. My photos didn't all

uploaded as I selected them. The Rudbeckias are for my blogger friend Elephant's Child, the fourth photo on the right.

 

 

There is still a bit of color left although the flower gardens are on the decline and are starting to look neglected.

Thanks for visiting and leaving comments.  I really appreciate them.

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SEEING THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

 It's been a busy August with freezing and bottling the harvest and we are now in September and nothing has changed. I'm still bottling and freezing. I'm glad that it almost coming to an end for the bottling at least.  There's still more harvest to do. 

                                

The big cucumbers don't go to waste and are perfect to make Lady Ashburnham pickles. These are good sellers and will be sold at the Church Farmer's Market since we can't have a church supper this year again.

More bags of green beans. These are freezer beans and don't go mushy after cooking. 

                                   Dill Pickles and  Refrigerator Pickles.

                                                          Sweet Corn Relish.

Another big batch of Medium Hot Salsa and the juice that was left from draining the tomatoes was boiled down and seasoned for tomato juice to be used in soup. So far, I've bottled 120 jars of preserves.

Tomorrow, I'll be making some Strawberry Pineapple Jam for the MR. He loves his jam. 

It's been a rainy day today and the sun is supposed to shine tomorrow. For me, Labor Day has always been a day to labor, lol...  There never seems to be time to rest on Holidays. I hope that you got to celebrate in your own way.

Thanks for your visit and for leaving a comment.

Hugs, Julia

MY REPORT ON HOW WELL THE CORN BAGS WORKED.

 When the critters overtake a corn patch, they can destroy it in no time but it seems like I foiled their plan this year. The electric fence deterred the deers and raccoons and the corn bags deterred the birds. My first attempt at growing corn has been a success. The corn had the chance to develop fully without any damage and was large and delicious. I've been giving some away to family and friends. I may try a corn relish recipe if I get the time. 

The cotton bags did get some mildew stains on them but a good soak in a mild bleach restored them to like new and ready for next year.

                                                          Corn fresh from the corn patch. 

My sister came for a visit today and I gave her enough corn for her and her daughter's large family, potatoes, green beans, squash, and tomatoes.  She was very happy with the fresh veggies, then I brought some corn and other veggies to my granddaughter also. It feels good to be able to give food to those who don't have a garden. 

 I've been pickling all my large cucumbers and made 14 quarts and 30 pints of Lady Ashburnham pickles, and a small jar.

9 pints of beets,  12 pints and 1 quart of Bread 'n  Butter pickles, 6 pints of spicy pickled beans, 5 pints of salsa, and a small jar, in all 79 jars... 

I still have a lot of green beans to process and I gave some away also. My fridge is full. The harvest was heavy this year and we've been eating a lot of green beans., despite the groundhogs eating the first flush of blooms earlier. The plants became bushier and loaded with beans.

I'll be making some more spicy green beans to give away.  My son and his friends love these. I'll admit that I love them too.

I made a batch of yummy salsa with the tomatoes I picked but didn't have enough for another batch. We usually buy a lot of salsa in the course of a year and I will definitely make a lot more when more tomatoes ripen. 

I always take off the rims when I  put the preserves away and put the rings back on when I open them,  or when I sell or give away. 

This is the damage the deers are doing to the cucumber patch at the farm. We usually have tons of cucumbers but this year, the deers have really damaged the whole patch and we had very few cucumbers in comparison to other years. They trampled the plants, chewed the stems and blossoms, and even ate the small cucumbers and many of the beets at the farm. 

You can see deer tracks everywhere in the farm gardens. 

This is the tomato garden. I picked all the red tomatoes and they are difficult to see as the plants are spreading far and wide, but there will be a lot more to come I hope.  I go check them every other day.

I hope that you are all safe from the hurricane and are all doing well. We are supposed to get two days of rain. 

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. 

Julia