Last year we had everything planted by early March, I was canning up a storm by late April-early May, and other than the Chandler Mountain tomatoes I bought in September ~ and the hot pepper jelly I discovered I could make in August! ~ the garden was done by mid to late June.
This year? We aren't worried about a drought.
It has been a cool, wet spring and summer so far. It reminds me of the summers we lived in western North Carolina. According to AccuWeather, we have had less than five days so far with temps in the 90's. My porch thermometer has said otherwise, but OK. We were very late planting potatoes. At one point after Mr. Marvelous had tilled the ditches and before we could get the potatoes in the ground in between each 3-day rain, I honestly thought about giving up on potatoes and buying some ducks!
We finally managed to get everything in the ground. Now we are finally beginning to have enough of a harvest for me to start canning. Have you noticed the calendar? It's July!
So far I have managed to put up 37 pints of squash, 6 bags of zucchini (I freeze that for my favorite casserole), 12 pints of green beans, 6 pints of kosher dill pickles, 9 pints of watermelon rind pickles (Wow, those are good!), and CORN. Did you know that three bushels of corn makes eleven 2 cup bags and THIRTY-SEVEN one cup portions? Guess what we were doing on Saturday?? We did buy corn this year. Once again our corn crop wasn't anything to brag about and once again Mr. Marvelous is swearing that he will NOT mess with corn anymore. We'll see.
In addition to that, I have 17 bags of rabbit in the freezer. It's nice to feel as though we are finally making some progress in the preservation department. And I am thankful that:
- We are able to do grow and preserve so much of our food
- We are not having to water
- We are not having to rush to get things up before the heat and the drought kill all the plants
- We are not having to do this in triple-digit temperatures.
No comments:
Post a Comment