Ducks Ragtag 2019 gardening

[ducks4you]

you must not have raccoons around there? here, without an electric fence they will take down sweet corn. possibly can grow corn for corn meal, but i haven't tried it yet.

I am growing blue dent and I have ears. How do you go about making that into corn meal?

 

[flowerbug]

I am growing blue dent and I have ears. How do you go about making that into corn meal?

i think the old traditional way was to dry them (hang 'em out of the rain and away from the critters until needed and then shuck 'em ) then pound them with rocks into fragments... or perhaps wooden mortar/pestle if you didn't want the minerals. the modern way is to use a food mill of some kind, for small amounts perhaps a food processor would work? i don't know for sure as i've not ever done it.

 

[digitS']

@seedcorn had advice for me when I grew Painted Mountain flour corn. It was fun having that corn in the garden and I had an okay harvest but no mill. He told me to soak the seed overnight and use a blender.

Albers regular cornbread recipe was my model, Ducks'.

Since the seed was whole & then soaked, I measured it before soaking and decided to use 1 1/2 cups of corn and called that 1 cup of corn meal no matter what it amounted to after soaking and processing.

I sifted the meal thru a screen strainer and ran the heavy stuff back thru the food processor, then sifted it again and discarded about 2 tablespoons of what remained in the screen. Then, I made cornbread!

This procedure was followed several times in several seasons. It was my only use for my little patch of Painted Mountain and it was a tasty, good one .

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

When i was a kid dad would grow two acres of field corn, mainly for livestock. We'd let it fully mature in the field and stand until it was dry enough, pick the ears by hand, and haul them to the corn crib. as long as it was dry enough when we picked it, it stayed dry, and the mice didn't get it, it would easily last a year. When we wanted corn meal we'd husk some ears, shell the corn, and take it to be ground. This was a long time ago, they still had these things called "country stores". Dad would take the shelled corn to one of those and they'd grind it for him. Dad might even have paid for that with extra eggs. Like I said, this was a country store and a long time ago.

Ducks, good luck on finding someone that will grind it for you, even for cash. You can always try an internet search, you might get lucky. I'd probably call the county extension office, see if they know of anyone reasonably close. Or you can try the method Steve mentioned, soaking it. If you have a dehydrator you might even be able to dry it afterwards for storage. Steve mentioned a problem, how to measure it either before it's ground or after it i wet and has swelled. If you could dehydrate it and crush it so it flows you might take care of that problem. Don't let it mold while drying.

I probably would not try grinding it dry in a blender or food processor. It might be able to grind it, not sure how good a job it would do. But putting something that hard in either would scratch the inside of the bowl so badly you would not be able to see through. I'm not sure how much it might erode the inside of the bowl and add that stuff to the meal. It may not erode enough to contaminate the corn meal, but to me it just doesn't feel like a good idea to try a blender or food processor unless you have a metal bowl. Once it is soaked, the hardness problem goes away.

 

[digitS']

Once it is soaked, the hardness problem goes away.

Not completely, Ridge'. I remember thinking that it was tuff on that little blender. We bought a replacement more recently . Dry: my coffee grinder should be up to the job. Ya know, for 1 pan of cornbread at a time - it would be worth the bother . As it was, my Painted Mountain cornbread was a little coarse, dark and delicious !

Country stores: From a consumer perspective, we now have these wonderful farmers markets. Thinking about @Pulsegleaner 's melon posts ~ I remember in both Redding CA and Medford OR ~ the only thing resembling a farmers' market was when a couple of trucks showed up in the feedstore parking lot. They had one product to sell off the tailgates - watermelon.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

There WILL be gardening today, just weeding. I will try to take some pictures when the clouds clear off. Last Christmas DD's bought tickets to "Weird Al: Strings Attached." Here are some memories from Last Friday, August 30th, when DD's and I drove to their sister's house in Pekin, to see the show at the Peoria Civic Center. Here is the "pregame" at the restaurant. They wouldn't allow regular cameras, so I let my daughters take the phone pictures.

 

[ducks4you]

THE Concert...with a Local Orchestra, The Peoria Symphony
We got photobombed.
DD selfie
Weasel Stomping Day
Dare to be Stupid

 

[ducks4you]

...More Concert...
Yes, Virginia, There IS an Accordian Playing Rock Star!
This here Anakin Guy
End of show, adoring fans, and confetti.
REALLY nice to have a great performer that puts on a FAMILY show.

 

[ducks4you]

Been working HARD to prep my yard for my party, and to try to keep up. The only Fall planting was Supposed to be beets, but somehow I had put radish seeds in the same jar, the the 4 x 12 plot is a mix. I think I will cover the rest of the garden with cardboard. I transplanted the Brussels Sprouts and have three groups under grow lights, and one group growing on the porch. I have decided to give them a few more weeks indoors before putting outdoors, and then I think I will make a plastic frame to keep them growing into November. EVERY YEAR is a gardening learning curve for me. I will NEVER, EVER use those dried up pellets to plant in aGAIN!!! My Brussels Sprouts pretty much didn't grow for 6 weeks past the 2 week stage. Those that I transplanting into indoor growing medium have doubled and look great, but STILL look to small to put out, lest they dry out. I Still have plastic over their future beds.
I have been weeding, mowing, and using herbicide under trees, around stumps and along the old cattle fencing along the street. Today I sawed down 12 ft of saplings and weeds--especially bindweed that had gone to seedpods, which reminds me of that 1950's sci fi flick--and will go out to take all of it to my burnpile in the north pasture, exCEPT the seedpods, which will be burned this afternoon.
I harvested 17 pears from my poor Bartlett tree that almost died of blight 2 years ago--I Think it was 2...maybe 3? I had left the plastic corrugated wrap around it and some of the tree grew around it.
Been eating on those pears--REALLY tasty!
This tree REALLY wants to live! When I go out this PM I will spray with a fungicide bc the trunk is wet. I also dug out and sawed out a Tree of Paradise growing 8 inches from the trunk. I got the tap root and all 3 side roots, and I shoved cardboard on top and dirt. In my herb/really oregano bed I dug out 3 Tree of Paradise saplings and I shot herbicide right in the holes.
This is almost like cleaning house.
Pictures later...

 

[ducks4you]

Pears, which are rapidly disappearing...must be magic.

Tomatoes FINALLY turning red.

Gave DH the job of labeling all of my jars. Too tired at the end of a canning session to write legibly. Ended up with only 3 1/2 quarts of grape juice, BUT, better than nuthin'!