WormGuy

Why don't I see your name on the list Louis? John

7 half pints of pear jam. John

Some of you may recall last year when I posted about having a garden with a friend and it was going to be about 3 acres. Well, we only did about 3/4 of an acre and believe me that was big enough. It started off bad when his tractor broke down and I had to pay to get it plowed, disked, and tilled. The good part was another friend got included and helped pay for it. We planted a total of 850 feet of corn, 900 feet of purple hull peas, 1,100 feet of various beans, numerious hills of cantaloupes, watermelon, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, butternut & spaghetti squash. I knew going in that the property owner was not going to be able to help due to his health. The other guy promised to help and bring his wife and two daughters also. All was going well until about two weeks into to the season. The area is divided into two sections being divided by a berm. I didn't like the way the ground was tilled (too many clods for me) so as we would set up a section to plant I tilled it first with my tiller. First the crows pulled up about 450 feet of the corn, why they didn't get all of it is a mystery. I would find the 2-3" tall plants laying on the ground and the seed plucked from the end. I re-tilled and replanted the corn. Then we got no rain like everyone else. The second planting did not come up well at all. After about three weeks I tilled it agin and replanted corn again. I set six foot stakes, ran fishing line at the bottom and at the top. I had two boxes of foil sheets that I folded and then sewed to make a pocket and ran the top line thru the sheets so they would move in the wind hoping to keep the birds away. I also cut up an old garden hose and put the fake "snakes" in the patch. The crows never came back. The corn that the birds didn't get quit growing at about 4 feet tall, no rain. Also no help from the friend during all of this. He did bring his four wheeler and a small disk out and we ran it over the other plot for melons, squash, cucumbers, etc. I tilled and planted all of this area myself. I was out there every day with temps in the high 90's and heat index 105-110 degrees. Then the peas started to come in and all looked pretty good with them. Then the deer hit, I sat post and ran fishing line at 18" intervals hoping they would get scared by it and leave them alone. They wiped out all of the beans and peas in two days. I picked enough peas to make 5 pints. The third planting of corn quit growing just like the first patch did. The ears are not big enough to do anything with. We have had several good rains but it was too late to do any good. I have picked no tomatoes, maybe a dozen cucumbers & squash and 4 small eggplants. The watermelons are not good I see one that looks like it may make it. The butternut and spaghetti squash are doing quite well, I just hpoe the deer leave them alone. My garden here at home faired somewhat better since I could water it. My beans and Romas tomatoes did great but the peppers, and butter beans were a flop. So that has been my summer. I was so tired all I all could do was work the gardens every day and come home and crash. It has been a humble experience this year since I had high hopes for a large bounty that didn't happen. I ended up buying corn to can, freeze and dehydrate. I also helped a young couple with their garden and we did some canning together. I'm sorry that I have not been posting and keeping up with the recalls but I see Annarchy has filled in and I want to thank her for doing it. I should be around more now that things are slowing down. I am making plans for next years garden but it will be about half the size of this years. I'm getting too old to do what I did this year. I am going to take soil samples and get them tested to make sure the ground is good and not lacking anything but we all thought it would be in good shape since nothing but grass has been on it for at least 20 years. I've rambled enough and I have tomatoes and pears in the kitchen calling my name. Till later... John

18 quarts of great northern beans again today. I think I see the end of this. John

20 quarts of great northern beans today. If we don't get hit by a tornado tonight I'll do more tomorrow. John

They were dried brown beans. White beans are next. John

Very busy and I still have 43 pounds to go. John

Another 7 quarts for the day. I'm done... John

14 quarts of beans yesterday and 22 quarts so far today. John

Has any one used a juicer to make tomato juice? A friend of mine gave me new Miracle Juicer, Model MJ100 last week. He is an older person who comes over to visit since he is lonely. I always give him quarts of tomato juice, pints of jam, peas, corn, etc. when he comes. So he shows up with this juicer still in the box and said "here I bought it but never got around to using it and I thought maybe you would". I finally found the manual on-line and it says tomato's & bananas are not suitable for juicing. Okay, I would have never thought about bananas but I did think about the tomato's. Today I washed it up and ran a medium size tomato through it amd got a decent amout of juice. I washed the tomato and cut it into pieces so it would fit the chute. I did not peel or core it. Then I ran two Roma's through it the same way. I did get a smaller amout of juice from them but it did seem to be a bit thicker which I expected. The juice from both test had a frothy look to it and quite a bit lighter in color than than I see when I make juice normally. I figured this may be from air being "whipped" into the juice. The smell of the juice is different than normal and the taste is about the same as the smell. It is not a "bad" smell, just different. I plan to try the test again with peel tomato's to see if there is any difference. So I am wondering if any one else has done this. John

You can pick them, shell them, and eat them fresh. But since you want them dry you have to let them dry on the plant like others have said. John

Two weeks ago when I dried some hash browns I half filled a pint jar and pulverized them into a powder. They are a little grainy, but hey they take up less space and if I get hungry enough I'll eat them. Any jar that a standard ring will fit will fit the blender. John

I have sent her two PM's in the last two years with no reply back. John

10 Quarts of peach pie filling. John

21 half pints of peach jam...yummy. John

13 quarts of peaches with another 15 pounds to do tomorrow. John

Another 5 pounds of hash browns, I should get the last 5 pounds done tomorrow & that will make 25 pounds done. John

18 Pints of corn today. John

I did 14 quarts and 13 pints of vegetable beef soup today. Corn tomorrow I think. John

Welcome misskimie! Some of here do seem to put up a lot of canned foods but after a while of doing it, it's just another day in the kitchen for some of us. I do think that we all started out small and worked our way up to marathon sessions. It kinda gets under your skin after a bit. Plus there is nothing like knowing what you are eating and the different taste we get from our labors. I looked at your blog and it is very nice. Looking forward to more post from ya! John

I found that if I close the shoutbox the jumping/loading stops. John

Am I the only one that has the page(s) jump around when "loading" appears at the top of the screen every 30 seconds? And what is loading? Is it for the shoutbox? Is it for the entire site? It is driving me nuts when I'm making a post and the screen jumps or when I'm inserting a smilie and they disappear or it makes me click the wrong one. John

I had one that looked like it had been used for everything but a skillet. I use a sander on it to clean off the crud that was caked on. It took me several hours of sanding but I got it clean and use it now. It can be rather messy to clean but worth it to me. John

Slow down girl, your making me tired. That is a lot of work you have done and I know that it makes you feel proud of all that hard work, and you should be. My hat is off to ya! John