Harvesting

From Ginger's Farm Photos

This was today's haul.

Yes the zucchini is a tad large (but not the largest I've had before) and some are too small that looked bigger on the plant. I have to work on the harvesting technique though as those littler ones mostly split in half.

Not sure if I picked the patty pans too soon or not soon enough since the description on the websites I've gone to vary in the size they should be ... I've read just baby size (2-4inches) to saucer size (6-8inches) I guess we will have to see.

It sounds like I can just use them like I would a zucchini or a yellow squash ... Slice n eat or baked ... Hubby wants to try grilling them.

RECIPE: Stuffed Summer Squash

Harvesting Begins

We have begun to harvest ... A tad late by the look of things too.

I have two HUGE zucchini and one rather large butterstick.

I will be doing quite a bit of picking tomorrow after hanging up my laundry ... Barring more ran ... So I will hopefully have photos to show.

Have taken lots of photos but just haven't taken the time to post them here.

The deer have been munching on the ends of the plants again as they are trying to grow up the hill and out into the corn fields ... They have out grown the cover of meshing and there is nothing I can do about that so nature will take it's course I suspect.

Just so long as the giant rodents leave me some for my table in the winter I wont mind so much.

As of now - hubby likes pointing out that he feels the same way about the crows getting into his corn fields ... He is hoping they will leave the plants alone now that they are about knee high as well ... Yes they are about 2-3 weeks behind growth but the 5 1/2 inches f rain we have had this month has helped them greatly, that and the 90-100•F heat ... Nw if only they will hold off tasseling until later as well and not "pop" before they have gotten tall enough to produce properly size cobs ... And hopefully. We will be able avoid the schmutz this year.

But I am hopeful ... It is the best it has looked in years.

Yippee Another One

lookie Lookie!

I have squash starting to come in too ...

From Ginger's Farm Photos

Only thing is hubby didn't pay attention to how things got planted so I don't know which type it is ...

Guess I will have to wait and find out.

It looks too big to be a yellow summer squash ... It's too cylindrical to be a patty pan (which looks like a UFO) ... I'm thinking it's a Queen Anne ...

The wind keeps blowing off my netting exposing the fruits of my plants ... This could mean real trouble for them when the deer and other critters take notice ... Of I'm lucky the mere presence of the material will scare them off ... I guess it all depends on how strong the instinct to eat them is.

I forgot to mention ... For those who wonder how quick pumpkin grow ... The vines/tendrils that I moved yesterday of the pumpkins (see yesterday's post) already put down roots into the ground when I moved them a little farther into the garden ... They aren't deep roots but they are there ...

And prickly! If you don't know pumpkin, you might want to wear gloves if you have to handle the vines T all - at least until you know of you are going to have a reaction to the prickles and their juices.

Growing Wild

Well it's been a while since I've posted but I wanted to share some photos of my garden

From Ginger's Farm Photos

As you can see the crows have been having a blast eating the corn ... All those bare spots are where they snipped off the shoots to get to the kernel underneath.

The fields just started to sprout weeds this week after a good 3/4 inches of rain this weekend. ... And boy are they making up for lost time.

I did however come up with a pretty good way to keep the deer off my pumpkin & squash ....

From Ginger's Farm Photos

I used nylon netting - such as you would use on a wedding dress or a ballet tutu - and covered the top of the squash garden.

I have to keep going out to stretch it over the ropes, and it has gotten rips, but the thing that amazed me is that the pumpkin keeps trundling into it - it grips into it like peas to a trellis and they keep sending their runners underneath to try to climb the hill... but this would mean they will get mowed over which would be very bad for the plant, so I have to gently pull them up and send them back the other way into the garden ...

I had worried that having them under the mesh would prevent the bee from pollinating the flowers ... But today I found this:

From Ginger's Farm Photos

Look! Look! There is swelling starting behind the flower! Sweet!

Now to figure out a way to keep the raccoons, birds, and deer from eating it until it's ready for picking!

Meanwhile in the green house ...

From Ginger's Farm Photos

I finally have baby carrots ... They are all orange instead of the red, yellow or white I was expecting. I didn't think carrots "mated" but perhaps I'm wrong ... if so I would suspect that they would revert to the original type they were originally crossed with ... kind of like hybrid corn - some is so unstable that if they get pollen from another type of corn, they become field corn.

Speaking of corn .... what little crop we get will be coming in very late this year. I suspect somewhere around mid-September early October ... depending on the weather.

Bright side:
we will have sellable crop after the stores run out
The days will be cooler while I prepare it for freezing
It should tassel after the worse part of summer so it doesn't tassel too early

Dark side:
the kids will only be able to sell on the weekends or after school.
Those pesky animals will be trying to steal my corn for their winter stocks the same time I'm doing it.
We run the risk of the corn not tasseling at all because of the day light/warmth issues that come with the fall.

Personally I'm hoping to avoid schmutz ... it's a black fungus that occurs and can cause unusual growth of the cobs. The infected plant needs to be rep Ed completely and disposed of in such a way as not to infect the soul .... so no putting it in the compost bin or just tossing it to the side of the field ... I think of it a corn-cancer, but I've heard it's a delicacy in Japanese cooking.

Well have to go ... Didn't realize how late it was.