What Did You Pick Today? 2014

[Lavender2]

Yesterday I picked a bunch of catnip to hang and dry for the denim cat toys I sell in my craft booth. Picked MORE jalapenos, they just went crazy this year, buckets and buckets! This batch went home with my son. Now if the little chilis would hurry up and ripen a bit more.

Tomatoes are about done and the neighbors have been invited in to finish off the green bean picking... a nice change to share with them instead of the deer! Just some beets and carrots yet to dig, and still enjoying the cukes... I will miss them very soon.

This is a rare but awesome Sept here! It's still so green and warm, I should be working the crafts for fall shows already, but nope, not going to happen!

 

[ducks4you]

I having been picking and bringing in giNORMOUS, GREEN tomatoes. I've been fighting slugs, the chickens have gone one strike (molting), so the eggs and their shells are fewer. The only good tomatoes have been the Rutgers (ALL volunteers) and the cherries, (Also volunteers.)
I've been getting a pretty good okra harvest, but once the first frost hits, that will be the end of it. VERY mediocre gardening year for my vegetables. I'm waiting for my late planted beets to get big enough to harvest. I've given up on the brussel sprouts for this year. I guess I'll try starting them inside next July, and we'll see. =/
I planted TOO many ancho problanos and only 5 sweet peppers, NONE of the sweet ones really took off. I have 3 jalepanoes, so it was not a good harvest for them.
My FLOWERS however have been doing well. Didn't take any pictures of the gladiolas that I planted around the planting hole for my Magnolia tree, but they did well and we got to watch hummingbirds feasting on them while sitting on the front porch this summer. Now that they are done, and I am NOT digging them out (they are annuals in my zone), I've knocked down the stems for mulch for the tree. I guess I'll be surprised if any of the 12 of them make it to next spring.
I bought 3 hardy mums to replace the 2013 ones that didn't make it, so I have 6 growing along the sidewalk to the front door (that we hardly use.) It has steps and was impossible to mow, so I put in an 18" border on each side, with mums and roses and a pineapple sage (needs moving next year--too big for it's spot) as the perennials, and petunias and allysium as the perennials. I also have a couple of ground covers, but I forgot what they are.
I also, per DH's suggestion, made a bed around the satellite dish, which is next to a light pole and is ALSO impossible to mow. I put in two roses, some chocolate mint, 4 geraniums, moss roses and even a couple of spider plants. It's amazing what does pretty well outside in the summer. BOTH of these beds are for the enjoyment, too, of my neighbors. Kinda running out of the clearance bricks I bought last year, but there will be more for sale. I have 5 acres and can always find a place to stack some bricks.
I'm pulling the geraniums before we get a frost, but everything else annual gets to dies back and mulch for next year. I still need to repot 4 red tuberous begonias. I stuck them in with my shady annuals on the north side of the garage, and they got kinda tall and really pretty. I'm giving one to a friend, but the others have houseplant written on them, and I'll bet they will do well at the office, which has north facing windows, this winter.
I'm waiting for the first frost to start harvesting all of the carrots which sprouted amongst my beefsteak tomatoes, so that should be fun and tasty.
A LOT of this year's garden will just be pulled up and BURNED...but we do THAT well at our place.

 

[canesisters]

Cane, can you post a picture of you auction produce? I have a hard time visualizing that. I think I know what a bushel is.

Mary

Sorry @ninnymary , I JUST remembered the pictures....

This was the old barn fridge after I stuffed all that stuff in there


The 'bushel' bag in the den ready for shelling (which took hours!!!)


I had no idea what 'crowder peas' were - this is what I ended up with.


Once I got the peas out, I had boxes of cukes to deal with


No problem ... LOL

 

[ninnymary]

Thanks for the pictures Cane. That bushel bag by your coffee table are crowder peas? I've never had them. Are they dried? If not, are you going to freeze them? I think I buy maybe 3 jars of pickles per year. I can't imagine some of you who can so many of them. I only use them when I make macaroni salad or egg salad sandwiches.

Mary

 

[baymule]

@canesisters those pickles look sorta familiar....... if @ninnymary had some of those, she would eat a lot more pickles! Sometimes I get a jar out of the refrigerator and just stand in the kitchen and eat them!

You got a nice haul! Those crowders look good! Mary, they call them crowder peas because the peas are really packed in the hull. The peas get a flat spot on each side from being "crowded" in the hull. There are several different varieties of crowders, silverskin, black, red and probably some more that I can't recall right now.

 

[canesisters]

I canned the peas - 16 pints (I think). They sort of taste something like a lima bean.

YUP @baymule - those pickles aught to look familiar. LOL I use them in salads like @ninnymary does, also on burgers, on sandwiches, as a sandwich , right out of the jar, and have even tossed them in the pan with porkchops to make them sweet&sour. YUM-O

 

[secuono]

Front yard pumpkin vine, just the one plant, had 70+ of the white ones. There's still some more on different vines in the dog yard. The light orange/pink big pumpkin came from one small vine in the back, I can only ever grow one large pumpkin. But these tiny gourds and such, they just go on forever!
I'm running out of room for them, anyone want to buy some??
Then picked the rest of the corn, some edible, rest for the livestock. About 80 of those.
Lastly, some cucumbers that hopefully have viable seeds in them. Left them on the vine until the vine dried out.

 

[canesisters]

Those little white ones are adorable!! Are they pumpkins? Some look a little different shaped.
But different is good! At the acution last Thurs, a 'pink' pumpkin - just a bit lighter than yours - went for $30!!! Two pallets down were the plain'ol pie pumpkins that I got for $1.75/ea. If they're unusual, people will go nuts for them.

 

[Smart Red]

My Gypsy didn't exactly pick this monster, it was a gift from a seller at the farmers' market where she is a volunteer helper.

Mom says it will make lots of zucchini bread. I'm not sure getting the largest squash at the market was all that great a 'gift' but it made Gypsy's day.

 

[ninnymary]

She has beautiful eyes! Tell her I love her braids and gloves. Actually I love all of her style in general. She still looks clean cut but with her own stamp of style!

Ok, I guess I'm happy that she got that hugh zuchinni!

Mary