Daughter Gina and I have been trekking to the 'other house' every other day to pick whatever produce is ready. This was our haul on Tuesday.
With two of us working this takes 2-3 hours.
Then there are beans to snip and can, tomatoes to stew and can.
In between I seem to be reduced to witlessness!
First picked of the watermelons weighted in at 27.4 lbs!
Every counter in my small kitchen groans with heaped up produce.
Ripening tomatoes need to be set on trays or with newspaper underneath. The odd one turns weepy and smelly when I'm not looking.
Thursday morning's garden gleanings.
I hoisted this watermelon and staggered with it to the shed where Gina helped me lower into a wheelbarrow.
W have been giving away produce--handing out canteloupes, offering tomatoes and cucumbers, pleading with friends to have a few green beans.
I'm aware of the truth we reiterate--that it is lovely come winter to browse the basement shelves and bring up all manner of canned goods to make a meal--but at the moment I am more impressed with my creaking back as I pick the long rows of green beans.
Surely next year we must plant in moderation!
My garden here is just starting to kick off. Not that I shall be doing any picking today as it is raining extremely heavily outside and so I guess the slugs may beat me to it today.
ReplyDeleteYou have some great produce there. I can never have too many cucumbers or runner beans, and the French beans I freeze - I have various colours this year - green, yellow, purple and stripey! Those melons though - gosh, how can you eat that many? Do they can?
BB; I have known of folks chunking up the melons and freezing--think I tried it years ago and they took on a mushy consistency. I've never achieved a good end product in freezing green beans--it would be a far less time-consuming endeavor than canning them.
DeleteWow, quite the haul. How wonderful to have such goodness canned and ready to eat during your winter months.
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely weekend ~ FlowerLady
Rainey; I keep going with the canning as I never know what we or someone in the family may need during the lean winter months.
DeleteOh, how many times I've thought the same thing - "This may be the death of me". Every picture looks very familiar to me along with produce on every surface except for the watermelon. We never had good luck growing watermelon. Great pictures.
ReplyDeleteLillian
Lillian; I can't think what we shall do with the watermelons! Along with the produce on every surface come the fruit flies--its a busy time.
DeleteIsn't geting old a *******, We are even thinking of scaling down the flowers in the Bijou Garden next year as watering each night plays Tom's back up, who would have thought it, we used to run 2 allotments and think nothing of working on them from morning to dusk.
ReplyDeleteAccept gracefully is the answer, if you can?
Great haul of fruit and veg though...
Briony
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Briony; I'm feeling seriously that we must cut back on the amount planted. Jim does the tilling and hoeing but I do the hand weeding necessary when plants are small and most of the harvesting. My interest is still keen, but knees and back protesting mightily!
DeleteIf we lived closer I'd be stopping by to take some produce from you. We've had too much rain and many plants have rotted. We get our best produce in the spring, summer is always iffy.
ReplyDeleteLove your watermelon.
Janet; If you lived closer I'd be pressing all manner of spare produce upon you! This has been a better July for gardening than the the 4 previous years here.
DeleteI always overdo the runner beans and have to give them away. This year I've underdone the broad beans and an getting two or three at a time...not enough for a canape let alone a meal!
ReplyDeleteEm; Each year seems to be different in production. I dislike the point where we have too much of something to be consumed in a meal or two but not yet enough to justify the effort of canning. Still, we take what we get!
DeleteWow! Lots of good bounty there, but I can understand how overwhelming it might be! I am in garden envy as we have too many wild critters to grow a garden. I do enjoy the farmer's market, though. xo Karen
ReplyDeleteKaren; The over-whelming bounty continues! We have to outsmart possums, sometimes a coon, fence to keep out deer.
DeleteAn active farmers' market here--sets up at the extension office grounds twice per week in growing season.