Road Kill Cafe

Yesterday I snapped and blanched the third picking of the green beans. Even after giving away a bunch of the green beans, I ended up with another 30 generous pints. That makes a total of 76 pints that are now tucked away in the freezer. I have pulled the green bean plants since they were yellowing and no longer looking very healthy. They produced a good crop and it is a good feeling to have that bounty processed.

I have also done the last picking of the cucumbers and have pulled the vines. Once again I had mostly filled the 10 cubic foot wheelbarrow with cucumbers. That makes the third time I have done so. I will be making some more pickles out of some of them, a few will go into the fridge for salads and the remainder Mr.B will taking to work as give aways. If I had not pulled the vines, I am sure that I would have ended up with many more cucumbers, but it was time to call a halt. I was running out of places to give them away.

While I was out in the garden yesterday I took a close look at the tomatoes. Like everything else this year they are loaded with fruit. None of them are ripe yet, but it won’t be long before I will be knee deep in them. At least with the tomatoes I will be able to can them, and am sure to have many jars of whole tomatoes, diced tomatoes and still be able to make sauce as well. Needless to say I am also looking forward to eating quite a few of them fresh.

Both of the types of sweet corn are looking good. They are both well tasseled and putting on what look like good sized ears. I should have enough for both fresh frozen corn on the cob and to make a batch of cream style corn. I am just so pleased that the garden is producing so well. It has made all the work of preparing, planting, weeding and picking very worth while. It is also such a good feeling to have all that produce both for eating fresh now and knowing that it will most likely last until next years garden.

I had to come up with something to do with the cucumber bounty from my garden. I had already made some pickles. We have eaten cucumbers for just about every meal. Still there were more cucumbers nestled in just about every cooler and spare space in the refridgerator. MrB was bringing home pounds of ice from work to help keep them cool. There were more cucumbers ready to be picked in the garden. What was I going to do with all the cucumbers that were threatening to take over the gulch?

Saturday morning I packed up all those cucumbers and few other tid bits of stuff gathering dust and trucked on down to the local flea market. I rented a table (for their summer special price of $2.50 a day) and set up shop. I had a bunch of pretty glass ware to set out with the cucumbers. That stuff sold like wild fire. It was gone within 20 minutes of my putting it on the table. Cucumber sales at first were a little slow but picked up. At the end of the day I still had far too many left.

Sunday found me going back to the flea market with few other things I had grabbed, just so I had other things besides cucumbers to put on the table. Cucumber sales were better, since there was more folks browsing the flea market. Towards the end of the afternoon, I still had cucumbers even though I had sold quite a few of them. I really did not want to take any home, because I knew there were going to more needing to be picked.

Fortunately, a local charity group that cares for children and the disabled had come to the flea market looking for donations of unsold produce. I gladly gave them all the cucumbers I had left. Even with that donation and having to pack up the bits of other unsold things I had brought with me, I cleared around $200 for my efforts. Not bad for sitting at the flea market, chatting with customers and the other vendors around me.

I had a number of folks ask me if I was going to be back the next week end. I really hope not. It was not that I didn’t have a good time. I just hope that I don’t find enough cucumbers to make a repeat trip necessary.

in a sea of cucumbers. I went out again to day to pick the bigger ones. I ended up with two large regtangular laundry baskets full. I had to bring them to the house in the wheel barrow since I couldn’t lift and carry either basket very far. Most of the cucumbers are 8 to 10 inches long and a good 2 to 3 inches in circumfrence.

The plants are huge and still loaded with more cucumbers in various sizes and still blooming like crazy. In the last garden here at the gulch I planted the same amount of seed and got one lone cucumber. I think this years crop is making up for that dissapointment. I have never seen so many cucumbers from one row.

We have been eating fresh cucumbers every day. I have made pickles. There are four ice chests stuffed full, there is a 12 volt cooler stuffed full, along with every available space in the refridgerator. I think I am begining to have nightmares about cucumbers.

Yesterday I went out and got a second picking of green beans. Out of this batch I blanched and froze another generous 25 pints! The garden is producing very well. I have been amazed at the sheer quantity of most things. The quality of the produce is wonderful as well.

Even though I said I would not start tomatoes from seed again, I did. The tomato plants are huge, much bigger than in my previous garden. They are loaded with blossoms and fruit. I have a feeling that when all the tomatoes begin to ripen I am going to have a substantial crop.

The cucumbers are producing like wildfire. The plants, like most everything else in this years garden, are huge. They are still loaded with blooms and I have alreay harvested a large amount. I have made pickles and had fresh cucumbers for dinner every night. I need to go out again today and I am sure that I will find another abundance of cukes ready to be picked.

I have harvested one of the two kinds of carrots that I planted. Those are now snuggled into the chest freezer along with the peas and green beans. There is still another type of carrots that will need to be picked here shortly.

I planted two different varieties of sweet corn and both seem to be doing quite well. Both are looking very healthy and are tasseled out. I see the beginings of ears forming on both types. With all the deer we have seen on a regular basis lately, I am hoping they leave my corn alone. If the corn does as well as just about everything else I will have a good supply both fresh eating and to put in the freezer.

Staying ahead of the weeds has been an ongoing chore as they are growing as prolifically as everything else. Since I have had Mr.B’s help with the weeding we are doing a much better job of staying ahead of them than I could ever do by myself. This is his first experience with a garden and I do believe that I have him hooked. Even with all the wok of preparing the soil, planting and weeding.

We have been enjoying fresh lettuce salads every day for quite a while. However, with the recent heat just about all the lettuce has bolted and is or already has gone to putting out seed heads. I have more seed for some succession planting and need to go out and strip out the rest of the remaining lettuce and get more planted.

Yesterday was a busy day, as predicted. The jars were purchased to make the the pickles and then I headed out to the garden to pick green beans. I had taken along my good sized basket to put the green beans in to carry back to the house. However, in a very short period of time it was quite obvious that I was going to need something bigger. I had filled the basket to overflowing and hadn’t even made it a third of the way down the first row.

I trudged back to the house with my overflowing basket, dumped it out on the kitchen table and grabbed a 4 gallon bucket to go along with my now empty basket. Back out to the garden I went, wondering if the bucket and basket were going to be full at the end. I filled the basket again and still had about 3/4 of a row to pick, and the remainder filled my 4 gallon bucket!

From the first picking of green beans I now have 21 generous pints of green beans ensconsed in the chest freezer. There are more beans that will need to be picked probably next week sometime and all of the plants are still loaded with blossoms.

After processing all of the green beans I moved on to making pickles. I haven’t made pickles in years. It all came back to me fairly quickly. The tactile memory of stuffing cucumbers into canning jars made it feel like it was only a short time ago that I had done this. Or maybe it was some form of weird dejavu…….. I really am not sure at this point. But I now have 7 quarts of Kosher dill spears proudly sitting on the counter…….and more cucumbers still to address. I am thinking about making sliced pickles out of those and trying not to think about all the cucumbers still growing (and the myriad of blooms) out in my one row.

I really am so pleased that the garden is producing so well. I am sure that when we are enjoying the fruits of my summertime labors in the middle of winter it will be very satisfying indeed.

in the garden. I have neglected to go out to the garden for a couple of days due to some craziness going on here. Well I trekked out there yesterday afternoon and found about a bushel of cucumbers ready to be picked, so pick them I did. Today will be partially spent making pickles out of that bounty. I also found that I need to go out, probably today, and pick green beans! Also upon looking around the peas are ready for a third picking. I hope that I have enough day to get it all addressed.

A garden is a bad thing to turn your back on. It has surprised me with the sheer amount of produce that can and will sneak up on you. So now I will be playing catch up for the folly of not going out daily to check on the status of my crops.

However, the first thing I need to do is make a run to the store to buy jars to make the pickles in! Just one more task in a suddenly over crowded day. I will count my blessings in the fact that I finally got a good nights sleep last night, and now I get to put it to the test! I am off to the tasks. Wish me luck.

In some ways it is hard to believe that this year is half gone already. Yet strangely, in other ways I could say wow it’s only July?  Part of it, I think, is because I got a late start on the garden. But things are growing well, especially the weeds which are hard to stay ahead of their fantastic growth rate. Yesterday was spent weeding, again. Fortunately I had Mr.Bs help or it would have taken me two days to rid the garden of the weeds.

I pulled the last of the radishes yesterday. This leaves me a row in which to do some succession planting. Now I just have to decide what to replant in that row. Later this week at the now weeded far end of the garden I will be planting the sugar pie pumpkins. The first rows of sweet corn are begining to tassel, even though they are not very tall. I am hoping for a good result. I have also found deer tracks in the garden. So far the only thing the deer have been intrested in have been the jalepeno pepper plants.

We have gotten some rain, which was good for the garden, the yard and the level of the cistern. Unfortunately the rain also caused the explosion of the weeds in the garden. If all the veggies I planted grew at the rate of the weeds we would be drowning in produce. Too bad it just doesn’t seem to work that way. There is more rain in the forecast for late tomorrow night and into Wednesday.

We are getting a good head start on fire wood for the upcoming cold weather. The landscape company that Mr.B works for has some trees that have been cut down, so they are letting him haul the wood home. He brings home a pick up load every evening. This really a plus! All that needs to done to it is splitting it into smaller pieces. From what Mr.B has said there is quite a bit left for him to bring home.