The Beginning of Okra Season

Cut the first two okra pods this morning. Made a pot of tomato sauce with Roma and Early Girl tomatoes that have piled up on the counter. Cooked all the "scabby" and very small potatoes. Stored the rest of the potatoes in brown paper bags in the bottom of the pantry.

Blessed Rain

Yesterday morning we had a nice rain of 3/4 of an inch. Everything looks fresh and clean and "perked up". There's something about rain water that can't be matched by watering from the hose. Today, the humidity is low, temps are comfortable... it's a beautiful day out there!

Future Veggies

First okra blossom and immature butternut squash...

18 Pounds of Purple-Skinned Potatoes!

In light of the nasty potato beetle larvae invasion, I went ahead and pulled up the plants, then dug the Purple Viking potatoes. There are lots of nice sized tubers! 18 pounds in all.

Fall Garden... Already?!

Betsy forwarded me Al Cooke's newsletter. He says it's time to think about the fall garden! Wow, I'm thinking about reaping the reward of the summer garden, not tearing those plants out. Plus, I got a really late start on some of my summer plantings. They're going to be producing late into the summer. Hmmm... time to get organized. Here's the go-to article about fall gardens, complete with recommended planting dates.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/pdf/hil-8001.pdf

Colorado Potato Beetle Larvae

Today I saw a "new-to-me" bug... larvae of the Colorado Potato Beetle. They were feasting on the Purple Viking potato plants. The first one I saw was small, and at first I thought it might be a different kind of lady bug beetle. But then I saw more, bigger and juicier specimans!
I picked all I could see off the plants and fed them to the chickens, although they didn't seem to be too interested. Maybe the potato bugs are toxic, since they feed on plants of the nightshade family.

Ring Around the Roma Stems

The not-quite-ripe Roma tomatoes have been falling off the vine... every one of them. At first I thought it might be related to drought, but upon closer inspection I discovered a white, fuzzy ring around the stem of several tomatoes. The fruit breaks off easily at this point. The problem may still be related to drought... fungus? Insect damage? Tried to google for an answer, but didn't find anything that I thought fit. In the meantime, I'm grateful the other tomato varieties don't seem to be effected. I bring the fallen fruit into the house to ripen on the counter.

Aerial View of the Garden

The other day, Noah was WAY up in the oak tree that grows next to the shed, trimming branches to open up space to allow more sun to get to the garden. While he was up there, he took an aerial shot of me in the garden. There's a different perspective!

Ducklings and Chicklets!

Andrew went to Southern States yesterday and bought 3 Pekin ducklings (think "Aflack") and 2 Barred Rock biddies. We'll put the ducks on the pond, in the hope that they'll eat up some of the aquatic plants that are taking over up there. Andrew and Noah will take the chickens to Asheville as soon as they've finished building a coop.

"Black Snake in the Hen House!!"

... Sue hollered. That got the attention of Rouse and Andrew, who came running in time to see this bad boy hanging out in the corner of the hen house. He's been helping himself to eggs for awhile, and I think he ate the baby cardinals from the nest in the wine berries. Rouse jerked him out by the tail, stuffed him in a box, and relocated him. My hero! While Rouse was handling him, he spit up egg yolk. There's the incriminating evidence! He was 4 - 5 feet long, and very healthy looking. And why not? He's been well fed!

Butter Beans

I can't believe how quickly beans and peas grow! Take butter beans, for example. The bed looked like a patch of dirt on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon, I saw sprouts pushing up through the ground. Sunday, they were sure enough plants, with stems and leaves. Today, they're standing 3" tall! It's a late planting, for sure, but maybe we'll get a good mess or two out of 'em.

Yesterday I fixed a big bowl of potato salad with our very own Red Pontiac potatoes, enhanced with boiled eggs fresh from the chicken coop. Mmm, mmm, good!

Guidelines for Storing Potatoes

• Potatoes need to be stored somewhere cool and dark. Any light will cause the potatoes to go green and a green potato is a toxic one, so this point is vital.
• They need to be stored in brown paper sacks, wooden crates, or cardboard boxes. Polythene anything won’t be very successful due to the ease with which condensation can build up and cause mold and rot to set in and spoil them all.
• When you’ve harvested your potatoes, leave them in a cool dark place for 2-3 days. This will help the skins mature and protect them a little better throughout the storage period.
• Don’t rinse the potatoes before you store them. Even if you dry them as well as you can, there will always remain little pockets of moisture that can start up the mildew process, and allow bacteria in.
• As you place each potato into storage, examine each one. Do not store any that are sprouting, green, that have any soft patches, or damage from harvesting etc. Either throw them out or use what you can.
• It’s important that the air can circulate to as much of the potato as possible. Some people hang them up in old pairs of tights or pantyhose. The method is very good at allowing the air to circulate.
• Like a lot of plants, potatoes will enter a period of dormancy. This is the process they enter prior to sprouting, and obviously you want to delay this for as long as possible.There has been quite a lot of research into this topic and the findings suggest that if you storing potatoes at a temperature of 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit, will encourage the longest length of dormancy. A temperature any warmer than this will cause the potatoes to sprout much more quickly.
• It’s never a good idea to store potatoes in the fridge, despite this being a cool and dark place;(the light doesn’t stay on when the door’s shut!) The temperature is too cold and will turn the starch into sugar which will make the potatoes taste sweet when you cook them and they will go dark.
• Do not store potatoes with onions, or next to fruit. They produce hormones and gasses which will spoil both crops.
• When stored properly, potatoes can last 3-6 months. It’s important to check them periodically and remove any suspect characters that have gone brown, green or shrivelled, before they spoil the rest.

http://www.garden-pots.com/storingpotatoes.html

Sweet Potatoes in the Ground

This morning I dug up half of the Red Pontiac potato bed. Replanted it with 9 Beauregard sweet potato plants. Did the same with the rest of the red potato space this afternoon. That gives me twice the number (18) of sweet potato plants I had in my 2008 garden. I'm going to leave the Purple Vikings in the ground for a little while.

The wineberries are on the way out... picked only 1/2 cup this morning. The wild blackberries are starting to come in strong. I picked my first (and likely, only) crook necked squash this evening.

Field Peas Starting to Come In Today

Black Beauty

The hybrid blackberries really are as big as my thumb! Tasty and thornless, too.

Dry and Hot Weather

After all the nice spring rains, we are dry, dry, dry. Andrew and Noah put mulch out for me yesterday. The beds look "finished", but more than that, I'm counting on that mulch to help keep moisture in the soil. The boys watered after placing the mulch in the morning, and I watered again in the evening. I want to encourage plump blueberries and tomatoes that don't fall off the vine!

Last night I prepared wineberries for one more batch of jam, which I intend to process this morning. Of all the jams I make, I think wineberry is the most beautiful to look at... and the taste... fabuloso!