Vegetable Garden September Update

Clearing out the garden...end of season

Middle of September and the vegetable gardening season is near its end. Here is an update on what we have removed from our garden. You can see from the photo, there are large empty spaces now.

We have pulled out:

27 pole bean plants, the first planting

8 foot row of jade green beans

8 foot row of yellow wax pencil pod beans

8 foot row of purple beans

My DH reports we harvested approximately 50 pounds of beans from these rows. We are currently harvesting the next planting of pole beans.

We saved five large pumpkins for our grandkids. The punkins, not the kids, each weighed about 25 lbs.

Pumpkins and butternut squash harvested and area now planted in new strawberry bed (see previous post on 9/15/11)

One lonesome zucchini left

Pulled muskmelon and watermelon plants

Last planting of corn

Removed four plantings of sweet corn. There were four eight foot rows in each planting. We planted Northern Extra Sweet..each planting got sweeter! We ended up with short ears of corn due to the dry weather. Still tasted good.

Dug all potatoes--Red Pontiac, Yukon, German Butterball, and Fingerlings (which grew the best and our first year to try them)

13 Avalon butternut squash

Next posting I'll tell what is left in our September garden!!

Sweet Corn is Ready!

July 16, 2011--first pick of the season

Mmmm...sweet corn is ready. One of the best times of the gardening year, I think. We've watched over the corn all this time waiting and waiting for the first picking. Today, July 16, 2011, is the day! This is all yellow corn, Northern Extra Sweet. One of the tastiest we think. My mouth is watering just thinking about what's going to be on the menu tonight....

Three plantings of corn 

This photo shows how my DH spaces the corn harvest. He has three plantings here.

Tip:  Be sure to check the back of the corn seed package to find out how many days it will take for corn to be ready to eat...then figure out your timing for the next planting and the next, depending on your growing season.

Fresh Sweet Corn Time is Over for Us

My DH picked all the ears of sweet corn from our patch and pulled up the stalks. The garden looks so different without those stately plantings of tall corn with waving tassels. We froze the last 60 ears. We were pleased with our harvest of tasty corn this year.

If you want to try something different this year when freezing your corn, click here for a recipe.

The powdery mildew is on our squash leaves and cukes. Cukes are about done.

Sad time to see the garden in the end of the season, but already my DH is making plans for next year's garden. New varieties, size adjustments, rotation of crops. I love the gardener's never ending hope for a better garden next year.

Recipe: Freezing Sweet Corn

Hooray! It's finally that time of year when sweet corn grows abundantly. If you can't eat all your harvest right now, freeze sweet corn for a taste of the garden in the winter. This year has been a fantastic growing season for us. We grew Northern Extra Sweet and How Sweet It Is. Both varieties are filling out the cob well and I can't decide which one I like better.

My girlfriend gave me the following recipe to add to your bags of corn before you freeze them.

FREEZING SWEET CORN ADD-IN

9 c. Corn  (I blanch the corn for about 4-6 minutes, cool, and cut kernels off the cob.)

3 c. water

1/4 c. sugar

1 T. salt

Mix the water, sugar and salt together. Add a small amount to each bag, then freeze.

When cooking, dump the contents of the bag into a microwaveable bowl. Depending on your microwave and amount in the bowl, cook for about 3 minutes.

Deliciously sweet, sweet corn!

Freezing Corn from Our Vegetable Garden

My DH and I spent a little over an hour freezing sweet corn from our garden this afternoon. We process it very quickly by boiling it, after shucking it of course, for about 3 minutes in a big tub of water. We immediately throw it into a sinkful of ice water to cool it down and keep it from cooking anymore. Then drain it in the other side of the sink on a rack. We cut it off the cob and then place it in the quart size freezer bags. DH came up with a great idea of cutting the corn off the cob on a plastic, flat cutting sheet. Then when we had the corn cut off, we just picked up the sheet and used it as a funnel to place the corn in the bag. We quickly bagged 9 quarts in that short time. The cutting sheets save a lot of time and clean up. He is so clever.

My DH and two grandsons dug potatoes yesterday. Surprisingly we had great success with them. The ground seemed pretty hard where he planted the eyes, but he mulched the plants, so it helped to keep them cool and moist. The little boys are so amazed when the potatoes are dug and love to see who can pick up the biggest ones. That really helps Grandpa's back!

We have been camping and I have neglected writing the blog. I apologize, Dear Readers, for not keeping up. While we were gone the blight got our tomatoes. I have heard several gardeners in our area suffering the same misfortune with their tomatoes. But gardeners will be gardeners and all are still planning on raising tomatoes next year. My hubby pulled all of our plants up, so that is the end of the 'maters for us.

Garden Check Up

Checking in on the progress of our veggie and fruit production. Yes, I have to include fruit because the strawberries are absolutely going bananas! In our patch that we planted Spring 2008, this year we are taking out 12-15 quarts of berries every other day. AND they are nice sized berries, and may I add, delicious. The neighbors and our kids love them too. Yes, we are sharing rather than making jam or freezing. Check out my strawberry pie recipe in an earlier blog if you are in the midst of berry season.

The following is my husband's garden report in a nutshell:
Have bibb and romaine lettuce galore, but with the heat it is starting to bolt.

The first sweet corn I had planned on having by 4th of July tassled out at 2 feet, so it will not have ears worth a darn. It has been too cold this spring and early summer.

I planted tomato seed the end of April and those plants are just as big as the plants I bought in May. Go figure.

I have 36 pepper plants. They are doing real well in the heat-- yellow, red, purple, brown, green.

We have eaten all the broccoli up. Now waiting on side shoots to grow out. Cabbage is just heading up. Cauliflower is still a ways off.

Beans aren't growing worth a darn, but the onions are growing great.

Watermelon and cantaloupe are just limping along.

We have little zucchini forming on the plants.

Pumpkins are going great. We have a new one this year called Knucklehead. It has warts all over it. We haven't told the grandkids yet, so that will be a surprise. Maybe they can win the Ugliest Pumpkin award at the Harvest Festival this year.

That's the run down on the garden at this point. Summer is half over. Hope your gardens are growing well. Leave a comment and let me know how you are doing. Thanks.