Ducks4you 2021 Ragtag Thread

[ducks4you]

PLEASE start seed shopping. I fully expect a recission in 2022. People in the cities are complaining that their grocery stores are out of beef and that milk and soup is 3x-4x what it was last year. They WILL be cleaning out seeds in an attempt to "grow their own food." I was surprised that there were seeds to be had this late in the year, so GO ONLINE and start shopping NOW.

 

[heirloomgal]

PLEASE start seed shopping. I fully expect a recission in 2022. People in the cities are complaining that their grocery stores are out of beef and that milk and soup is 3x-4x what it was last year. They WILL be cleaning out seeds in an attempt to "grow their own food." I was surprised that there were seeds to be had this late in the year, so GO ONLINE and start shopping NOW.

In my neck of the woods the seed companies, and there aren't that many, just can't catch up to the demand. And this despite knowing they need to grow even more. The seeds were sold out this spring the same, or more so, than the year before. I think without more sellers coming into the market, the current vendors just don't have the land nor manpower to adjust to the new level of supply needed. It is difficult to know how long this will continue in regards to seeds, but I honestly think learning to save seeds and keeping even a small supply of one's own is a good idea.

 

[ducks4you]

Amen to that!
Check out the seed saver's thread:

A Seed Saver's Garden

Seed saving is an essential part of my garden and garden activities. For several years now I have been growing, on a bit of a focus rotation, a number of different vegetables, and flowers, to build a 'seed ark'. Heirloom tomatoes, peppers, beans and peas have been the main crops, but I've also...

www.theeasygarden.com

 

[baymule]

I save a lot of seeds, but more sure couldn’t hurt. My garden was such a bust this year. Good thing last year was a great success, I still have plenty to carry me through to next year. But next year I’d better make it work.

Thanks for the warning. I need to get my seeds out and see what I have. I planted a lot of old seed just to see if any was good, it wasn’t, so I tossed those. You know, those packets that you didn’t plant all the seeds? Who needs 300 broccoli plants? I still have a lot of old seeds. Need to test, plant or toss. Maybe I’ll just put them in a mass grave next spring and see if any come up. LOL

 

[Phaedra]

I save a lot of seeds, but more sure couldn’t hurt. My garden was such a bust this year. Good thing last year was a great success, I still have plenty to carry me through to next year. But next year I’d better make it work.

Thanks for the warning. I need to get my seeds out and see what I have. I planted a lot of old seed just to see if any was good, it wasn’t, so I tossed those. You know, those packets that you didn’t plant all the seeds? Who needs 300 broccoli plants? I still have a lot of old seeds. Need to test, plant or toss. Maybe I’ll just put them in a mass grave next spring and see if any come up. LOL

me, too. so i just plant all those old seeds in the chicken run with vertical planters, whatever grow there belong to them

 

[ducks4you]

@baymule , if I hadn't fenced/tied up my tomatoes, I would have had NONE this year. IT has been SO WET!!
I spent 4 hours this weekend, pruning and tying. 19 quarts canned and in the pantry.
I attended to 32 tomato plants, still have 8 to go. I had had such massive fruit that one bunch of 3 very heavy green tomatoes snapped off. I brought the trio inside to ripen.
Great okra harvest. Since I rotate I will miss having them by the cistern next year, where I can climb inside on the cement slab. They are ALL 6 ft tall and growing. I will need a small ladder to harvest in 2022!
Lost count bc I cleaned out my 7 cu ft freezer on the porch, but I have at LEAST 23 quarts of okra frozen in quart bags. I use the cheapest bags I can find for this, and make sure that they are sealed. The rest are still in the 15 cu ft freezer in the garage. Glad to defrost and clean (w/bleach, of course!) my small freezer. Don't remember the last time I did it.
DD has instructed me to start freezing other vegetables, even If I didn't grow them, like bags of onions and carrots for cooking.
I interrupted my gardening for 9 days to repaint my porch. DD got me started, ( the DD who lives several hours away, not 12 minutes up the road!), or else I never would have done it. I will post pictures soon. It went from dirty grey ceiling and dirty grew floor, with white walls, to light blue on the ceiling and floor and semi gloss white on the walls. I Could have used 3 more days, but DH and 2 DD's were only gone on vacation so long, and I needed them gone to do the project.
THEREfore...the gardening chores got away from me.
My potatoes were a bust, aGAIN too wet, and they had partial shade during the day which contributed to their rot.
2nd corn harvest is Just for the horses.
I have 2022 sweet corn seeds in my grubby little paws. I am leaving the tomato fencing up for next. I will be planting 10 rows of sweet corn, one week apart and hope to get a better harvest. STILL, we consumed 30 ears this year, and it was ALL appreciated.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I will be planting 10 rows of sweet corn, one week apart and hope to get a better harvest.

I also stagger my corn planting but not in single rows. It's more of a block to help pollination. Instead of one row 40' long, think 4 rows 10' long or whatever your dimensions are. I do my corn in raised beds down here so I do it differently, but in Arkansas I'd plant two rows 12" apart, skip 32", then plant another two rows 12" apart. Eight rows 8' long planted like that would usually give me corn to eat on, 18 pints canned, plus corn left over to freeze and use when I made soup.

Watch the sun. Don't plant it where the new is shaded by the first planting. I'd plant a marigold at the end of each short row. That seemed to space it out enough so the first planting didn't stunt the second planting. The marigolds would not do much until the corn was gone but when the sun could get to it I soon had mounds of bright color. Sounds like an excuse to post a photo from 2014.

 

[ducks4you]

I have been BUSY!!!! Thought I'd post some before my annual Salsa Party: 11, "Pura Vida!"
Tomatoes have been Great this year, AND okra!

43 quarts of okra in the freezer now, but they are slowing down.
NO KIDDING--Farmer's Almanac is predicating WET SNOW for October 20th!!!
We have had snow as early as October 12th...
The okra is as high as "an elephant's eye." I don't know HOW I will harvest it next year. THIS year I planted around the cement cistern, where I can go on the 9' x 12' cement bed where I am higher. The Clemson Spineless is 8 foot tall.

 

[ducks4you]

HERE is yesterday's tomato harvest, now in 8 quarts with 2 pints of juice.

I thought I would give you a "Ducks Tomato Canning Primer", NOT bc I do it best, but to encourage those of you about to leap in canning.
First of all, water bath canning, IMHO is the easiest. DH and I have learned to use my pressure canner, and we have put up chili, but it is an afternoon event, and you need to wait for the pressure to go down before you start another batch.
Water bath canning can go all day, if you have the produce, energy and time for it.
ALWAYS research what you intend to can. Some things, like squash are not recommended for canning, just short term freezing.
Do NOT worry about poisoning yourself and your kin!
Whenever I open a jar of tomatoes, for instance, I smell it and look at the lid. If the lid is solid and it smells like I just put it up, no mold...yes, very old jars can rust, Virginia...I am fully confident it "can" (pun) be consumed safely. I won't add lemon juice to my tomatoes bc I am not canning lemon juice...but I Could...
I digress.
1) Harvest

 

[ducks4you]

Be picky!! When you eat your stuff you can cut out bad spots. Too much, and it slows down your prep.
2) Deskinning prep
For tomatoes and many vegetables you probably Won't want the skins. Best to bowl water and dunk for about 10-15 seconds, maybe more, then remove to help get the skins off. I used to watch for the skins to crack, but I have found that they really don't have to.
THIS is the tomatoes after dunking. They were VERY HOT, so I watched a 30 minutes program , "Mid American Gardener," while I waited for them to cool. Tired of burning my fingers on hot tomatoes!

I used 2 strainers, ran out of room and moved 1/2 of them to my large "coleslaw" mixing bowl, to rest and cool. They Will drip some water after dunking.