Will picked tons of Dragon Tongue snap beans, the third picking off that 50-foot row and I was busy for three days, canning them all up. Each day I got 28 pints! Our pantry is very happy. Then, yesterday, I seeded out 25 varieties of tomatoes and saved the leftovers to make more salsa. What a win-win situation! I ran the tomatoes, some onions, and sweet peppers plus some Cowboy Candy syrup through my Ninja blender and put the puree in my handy-dandy turkey roasting pan in the oven overnight. Today, I added some seasonings like powdered garlic, cilantro, and powdered lemon/lime and got it all canned up. Nine pints! This is really adding up fast.
Today, our friends, Sherri and Dara, came and picked a 50-foot row of Black Manitoba dry bean pods. I was surprised yesterday, when I went to get some onions for the salsa, that they were already dry. And there were lots of them! The girls picked two five-gallon buckets, nearly full. And there are more, which are more shaded and greener yet. Wow! I love those beans and use them as I would Black Turtle beans. Fortunately, Black Manitobas are much earlier. They’re talking about lows in the thirties on Friday night. I sure hope they’re wrong! Everything is doing so well; I hate for it to be stopped dead. There’s no way we can cover everything or even mostly everything.
Sherri and Dara also picked a crate of tomatoes each, to take home and process. As the tomatoes are doing so well, I was glad to see some of them go where they’ll be well-used. Sarge and Hondo went with us out to the Wolf Garden to hang with us and Dara’s dog (Hondo’s brother), Norton. They all “protect” us from lions, tigers, and elephants while we work. Ha ha! Tomorrow, I’m going to pick more jalapeños to make more Cowboy Candy. Boy, do we love the extra syrup in everything from stir-fries to pouring over meatloaf or baked chicken. Yum yum! — Jackie
Great harvest!! I sure hope it doesn’t dip that low tonite! Eeek. Perhaps you could share your tomato seed gathering process in one of your blogs. It would be great to see how you do it. We are starting a farm over near Ely to grow food for our food shelf and the local folks. If we can’t get food from Duluth we will be in a bad way since so much of the land here is filled with either rocks, trees or water. Sometime I hope you can come and do a tomato tasting for us. Maybe next year?
Nancy
Okay, I’ll do that. Why don’t you take a run over here and see it in person? We’d be happy to have you. Just email me at jackieclay2007@yahoo.com and we’ll make a date.
We have lots of rocks, trees and swamp but we’ve bit-by-bit, carved out 5 acres of gardens. Maybe we can have a tomato tasting here next year; there are just too many varieties to haul!!
Your beans and tomatoes look delicious! I notice some of the tomatoes in the crates your friends picked look almost black. What is the flavor of those dark tomatoes like? I really like to grow something new each year and that may be something I want to check out. Those Dragon Tongue beans sure keep pumping out. I may try those next year too. I’m glad your harvest is going so well and I also hope your temps do not get too cold on Friday. We have been having lows in the mid 40’s this week. It is supposed to warm back up next week and not much rain is forecast. That seems to be the motto of this summer. Sending prayers for a blessed week.
We really like the black tomatoes. They are also healthier for us as they contain antioxidants that help prevent cancer and other diseases. The flavor is rich and almost smoky. Very nice!! And beautiful too.
Yep, we got that frost, but we had a lot of warning. So that did help. It was only spotty so many frost-sensitive crops did survive. Now the weather’s warming up. Crazy!!
Hello again, it’s great to see the gardens are bring productive after such a weird weather summer.
I was wondering if you could tell me which of your books has the cowboy candy recipe? I know I used to have it but I think it was on an old laptop that died
This year has given us our worst garden season ever. But we’re so grateful to have had such a great harvest anyway. Unfortunately, the Cowboy Candy recipe isn’t in my books as I discovered it after they were printed. Here it is again:
3# jalapenos
2 C vinegar
6 C sugar
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp celery seed
3 tsp granulated garlic
Mix vinegar, sugar and spices in a large stockpot. Bring to a boil and boil 5 minutes. Remove the stems from the jalapenos and slice about 1/4″ thick, seeds and all. Add peppers to syrup and boil 4 minutes. Remove peppers with slotted spoon and pack into half pint jars, leaving 1/4″ of headspace. Ladle boiling hot syrup over the peppers, leaving 1/4″ of headspace. Process 15 minutes in a boiling water bath. Don’t forget to check your time if you live over 1,000 feet in elevation. I save the syrup to use in other recipes also. VERY good!!
I went swimming today at Moose Lake State Park and it was pretty cold 🤗 I’m 73 with back pain so I don’t garden but I love following yours!
I used to go swimming there after a day in the hayfield when we lived east of Sturgeon Lake! I’m 78 and also have a bad back. Not fun, is it??
I knew fall was coming extra early on August 15, when I saw our poison oak already turned red. It is our first sign here in far north California. While visiting in central Oregon, the city of Bend, there were signs; a liquid amber turned completely red. About August 15 I was outside and noticed (and have noticed since) a peculiar wind; way too early, from north. Actually very strange this time of year, supposed to be THE hottest month of the year and summer. Very strange, indeed. There is more than one “fall” coming to this nation. That’s why the sign of early fall.
Our August was 14 days above/15 days below average (or was that vice versa), with one day (didn’t catch the weather on the 31st) being average. Regardless, an odd August here too.
The weather (and country!) is very crazy this year. We got a light frost last night but were pretty ready for it. Now it’s going back to the high 70’s and 80’s F.
Stock up your pantry. November could be very challenging, indeed.
Picking tomatoes every day.
I picked 10 crates yesterday, alone, ahead of frost!
Fingers crossed the weather stays on the side of warm. The beans are beautiful and so delicious.
We do need a couple more weeks of warm weather to mature some of our crops. Here’s hoping….
Heffalumps lol.. dogs are always protecting and cats are always “helping”. We had a puppy and kitten who were raised together. The cat thought she was a dog/part dog and I’m sure she’d have tried to tag along to the Wolf Garden.
Seeing signs of fall already. Doe was at the feeder and she’s already showing her winter colors. All but tomatoes are done, garlic will likely arrive soon. I *really* need to thin out the strawberry patch. Will remind recipient neighbor tomorrow. Weather has been great I must add.
Yep, Mittens thinks she’s a dog. She wags her tail when happy and follows us to many of our gardens and even climbed way up on the barn rafters to make sure Will was putting them up right. She’s quite a boss!
Our deer are still summer red, but soon that’ll change.