Fruit & Vegetable Report
The growing season began with lots of rain and great hopes. But, other than the 10 days around the Fourth of July, the weather has been dry again and has taken its toll on garden production.
The blackberry bushes are loaded with nascent berries with some canes bending to the ground with their weight. Unfortunately, without water many of the berries are small, having a half dozen seeds or less. Many have simply dried up. I was able to pick enough for cereal this morning but not enough for a pie. With a good rain, we till could get a decent crop.
The Early Girl tomatoes are fruiting nicely and I've eaten a number of them. Again, the fruit is small because of the dry weather but the flavor is there. My German Johnson's are also fruiting nicely and are nearly full size. The first will be ripe in a week or so. My late season Celebrity tomatoes are now nearing full stature and are producing the first tomato buds. The Big Boys, in the ground only a few weeks, are just beginning their growth spurt. With a little rain, we should have tomatoes until the first frost.
Green peppers are suffering from the drought but the hot peppers are beginning to spurt with the warmer weather.
The Mountain Half Runner green beans are going ape. In fact, they should have been picked again last week when I was in the flatlands. But that's okay because I can now have what my Grandmother called "shelly beans and corn". The pods containing fully developed beans are shelled and the beans mixed with snapped immature (green) pods and corn kernels. Cooked with little fatback, the mixture is a meal in itself.
We now have tiny squash not yet ready to harvest. The plants are growing rapidly now that the roots have reached the fish heads and guts I buried in the ground between plants. (The crows keep trying to dig them out!) And, the okra plants, now with their first pods, are growing nicely in the warmer weather.
The pumpkin plants are taking over the side of the mountain. Without rain, however, I'm not certain just how big the pumpkins will get. They will, of course, grow until frost kills the plants.
The only object failure of the season are the onions. The sets simply didn't get enough rain at the right time. Oh, well. Into every life a little rain must fall.
Hopefully.
The blackberry bushes are loaded with nascent berries with some canes bending to the ground with their weight. Unfortunately, without water many of the berries are small, having a half dozen seeds or less. Many have simply dried up. I was able to pick enough for cereal this morning but not enough for a pie. With a good rain, we till could get a decent crop.
The Early Girl tomatoes are fruiting nicely and I've eaten a number of them. Again, the fruit is small because of the dry weather but the flavor is there. My German Johnson's are also fruiting nicely and are nearly full size. The first will be ripe in a week or so. My late season Celebrity tomatoes are now nearing full stature and are producing the first tomato buds. The Big Boys, in the ground only a few weeks, are just beginning their growth spurt. With a little rain, we should have tomatoes until the first frost.
Green peppers are suffering from the drought but the hot peppers are beginning to spurt with the warmer weather.
The Mountain Half Runner green beans are going ape. In fact, they should have been picked again last week when I was in the flatlands. But that's okay because I can now have what my Grandmother called "shelly beans and corn". The pods containing fully developed beans are shelled and the beans mixed with snapped immature (green) pods and corn kernels. Cooked with little fatback, the mixture is a meal in itself.
We now have tiny squash not yet ready to harvest. The plants are growing rapidly now that the roots have reached the fish heads and guts I buried in the ground between plants. (The crows keep trying to dig them out!) And, the okra plants, now with their first pods, are growing nicely in the warmer weather.
The pumpkin plants are taking over the side of the mountain. Without rain, however, I'm not certain just how big the pumpkins will get. They will, of course, grow until frost kills the plants.
The only object failure of the season are the onions. The sets simply didn't get enough rain at the right time. Oh, well. Into every life a little rain must fall.
Hopefully.
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