Monday, August 24, 2009

Harvest time

Whew! It was a busy weekend, garden-wise. We froze beans, made more bread & butter pickles (8.5 quarts), dried peaches, made applesauce (1/2 bushel=18 pints), pickled beets (disappointing crop this year), made more rhubarb jam (11 half-pints—I really like this stuff!), stewed tomatoes (only 4 quarts so far) and pulled a good percentage of the onions (we really like onions).

Because of the cool summer, the tomatoes are just getting started. The cherry tomatoes have just started going nuts this last week, with the other ones slowly following. I suspect that this week, if it gets hot like it is supposed to, will cause a large harvest. Watch me fall behind in canning them :)

Oh, I almost forgot, the green peppers are doing well, too. I have been using them in bread & butter pickles, but now we will start to dry those for use this winter.

With all that, we still managed a nice bike ride Sunday evening (about 29 miles). Just don't ask what time we finished with the canning and drying...

3 comments:

Andrew said...

I will be starting my own garden next year and am in the process of learning what to grow and the best ways to grow it. Do you have any recommended resources for being a successful gardener?

Joel and Renée said...

Let me guess, about 2 am you wrapped things up and went to bed. :)

jps said...

Andrew,

The easiest way is to find other people who garden in the area and ask them what works for them. Another good source of information is the University Extension for your state. Lots of them have "master gardeners" who offer their services for free.

Most of what I know has been picked up over the years in various books, articles, discussions with others, and—most importantly—experimentation. I've had some spectacular failures over the years :( But, I have also had some great successes.

Renee, you're close...

James