Re: [gardeners] Putting it by
Billie (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 09 Jul 2002 15:07:34 -0400
on 7/9/02 2:47 PM, George Shirley at gshirl@bellsouth.net wrote:
> Well, the old spring garden is about played out. We're still getting tomatoes
> and various sweet and
> hot chiles and the limas haven't matured yet. Okra is coming along at about
> the rate we can eat it
> up so haven't put any by as yet. Same with figs, production has slowed way
> down.
>
> So far production has been disappointing. Pressure canned 14 pints of green
> beans and ate probably
> half that many fresh. Usually can put up 40 pints by now, too hot, too early,
> 14 pints of bread and
> butter pickles, 7 quarts of sour pickles (grandkids like
> them), 7 pints of fig preserves (pain in the you-know-what to do but tasty and
> pretty), and 9 pints
> of
> hamburger dills.
>
> Scored two more cases of widemouth pints at Big Lots last week at $5.29 the
> case, they run over
> $8.00 a case at the local market and Walmart. Being a compulsive food
> preserver I try to keep lots
> of jars handy. <VBG>
>
> About the middle of August we will plant the fall garden, broccoli,
> cauliflower, more green beans,
> fall tomatoes, radishes, lettuce, cabbage, etc. Gotta go back and get more
> jars. So much to do and
> so little time.
>
> Life is good.
>
> George
Right now I cannot manage to put food up but I can live vicariously by all
you who do! I can barely keep stuff watered this year - it seems like every
other day there's something in distress that needs babying, and right now
the Japanese beetles are out. But the birds are doing some good work for us
- I see them flying into my sweet althea bushes nabbing the beetles right
out of the flowers!
I can report that our fruit trees (2 apples, 2 peaches, 2 pears) are doing
wonderfully - when we planted them they were around 1.5 feet tall and now
they're around 9 feet tall and beginning to bear fruit. I was advised to
pull the fruit off for the first 3 years so this should be the last year of
that, though I confess to leaving a few peaches on one tree and a granny
smith apple on another b/c they escaped my scrutiny earlier and now they're
bigger and lovely enough I can't bear to pull them!
Hope everyone is enjoying the gardens in spite of the drought that seems to
be making it more difficult this year...
billie