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

IT'S AUGUST AND IT'S FULL STEAM AHEAD

 I know, August is almost gone already and I only turned the calendar page a few days ago it seems. The weeds and harvest have kept me busy. Everything is ripening fast and in some places, the weeds are still ahead of me but little by little, I'm gaining momentum.  

George is busy with the haying and there is an abundance of hay this year. He's been filling his hay barns and selling large and small truckloads of hay from the field. He goes out early in the morning and comes back just before it gets dark. Too much work for an old fella. He's been dodging the frequent rains and lost two fields of mowed hay all ready because of the rain. Thankfully, they were smaller fields.

This is only a straight-ahead view of one of the baled hayfields. I took the camera and made a 360-degree turn and there were bales everywhere until they looked tiny.  It would take many pictures to show all the bales. Each bale weighs approximately 800 lbs.

My husband will be cutting hay into September he says. 

This is my potato garden at the farm. I planted two rows with four different types of potatoes. My husband George dug the rows for me but he dug them too close together and not deep enough.  I dug them deeper before planting my potatoes and he added the compost and I planted the spuds. Because of an ample supply of rain, they grew big this year.

These are called Norland and are good potatoes. 

This is the first year that I planted corn and it grew fast and furious. I can almost see it grow before my eyes. I keep checking up on it often and no beast has attacked it yet but the blackbirds and the crows have their eyes on them.  So I purchased 3 yards of sturdy unbleached cotton and with my serger machine, I sewed some little bags to protect the ear of corn. With the Serger it went super fast. In no time I had over 100 bags sewed and on the cobs. As soon as the silk on the cobs turns a light brown, it means that the cob has been fertilized and the bags can be safely put on to prevent the birds from pecking the kernels.

It looks pretty funny if you ask me. I sure hope it works. This will surely not please those feathered thieves. I wouldn't mind sharing some corn with them but they only pick open the top and go to the next and when it rains, the corn rots and is not edible. This is supposed to be super sweet corn and I can't wait to sample it soon.

The pattern I made was 9 1/2 inches wide by 7 1/2 inches long. Nothing fancy, I serge the edge. 

I thought I was thinking ahead and went to the Co-op and bought  6 ears of fresh corn and tried my first bag on this very long ear of corn. Then I went to the garden to put it on. It was way too long. 

My first prototype was 12 inches long but I had to reduce the length because I had not noticed that the long leaves on each side of the cob are halfway up the cob which made it impossible to fit the bag all the way down, silly me.  Of course, by then, I had already cut 75 pieces, thankfully, I had only sewed one before I tried it on the cob. No problem, I just cut off the excess on all 75 pieces and I just serged the two cut-off pieces together and it made just the right length for the bags as you can see on the left top corner of the photo. I'm always experimenting with something it seems.  

I have no rack to dry my onions so I used one of my swing seats in the gazebo. 

This year, I put some wood ash from the woodstove and they grew big. I have used a lot for my Lady Ashburnham pickles already. I've picked loads of cucumbers and made 3 batches of Lady Ashburnham pickles, and two batches of Bread N' Butter pickles. I didn't have time to take photos. 

The tomatoes are ripening fast also but I only have a few plants this year as my husband has some planted at the farm.

I'm showing off one of my large peppers that survived the deer and gophers attacks. Most of my peppers blossoms have been eaten.

I have to process my beans tomorrow and there's plenty.  There will be more garden stuff later on because I'm a farmer's wife after all. 

Stay safe and well. Thanks for visiting and leaving comments.

Julia