With fall upon us and frost and freezing not so far away, we’re hauling in the harvest by the crate load. On Saturday, Will went out to the Wolf Garden and cut and crated a whole row of Black Manitoba dry beans while I picked two crates of tomatoes to can up. Yesterday, I sat on the front porch and picked two five-gallon buckets of those bean pods off the vines so they would dry better.
Today, some of the folks from the homeschooling group that toured our gardens last week came over to help out and also get some of my books. The big bunch of us made really fast work of harvesting Simonet and Damaun sweet corns. Then we all sat down to husk all those crates of corn ears. It was a real, old-fashioned corn husking bee! What fun. While we husked, we explained a lot of corn lore, from what the silks do, finding corn ear worms, smut of a couple of the ears, and how corn is pollinated. I think everyone learned a lot, plus had fun. Thank you, guys, so much!
When we took a break, we all pigged out on some Oka muskmelons from the Main Garden. Boy were they ever juicy and sweet! Gee, it’s so tough, saving seeds! You have to eat all those melons. We were supposed to have a chance of frost last night. Will covered the melons but no frost. Thank you, God! Neighboring towns did get light frost though. Now we’re supposed to have another week that’s frost-free. Yea! — Jackie
LOL.. I see Sarge is on-duty – he’s eyeing that crate of corn like it might escape!
It may be into early October before we get a frost. Tomatoes are *finally* down to a crawl so we’ll break them down this weekend. Then till to plant garlic. We got close to an inch of rain (over a couple of days) so I plan to weed the perennial gardens (patches compared to yours). I think I see a poison ivy plant in the strawberry patch (of all places).
Did a bit of weeding this past weekend and found a tater we missed. I’m sure there are a few more. If we don’t find them now, bonus plant(s) come next year.
Another likely homeless cat in the yard today. I put out a bowl of food but s/he did not come to eat it. I’ll try again next time I see it. Might be setting up another insulated tote, we’ll see. Hard to tell if a barn cat from one of the farms nearby or could be a cretin dumped it.
Bonus help, who looked like they had a good time. You can’t beat it. Not enough good people helping good people these days.