Green beans, powdery mildew, ditch digging and a hawk!

Green Beans

I picked what I could of the green beans in my patch - only about 3 quarts.  Then I went to the patch I have over at mom's and picked a whole half bushel (well - a bus tray worth - its a lot).   I also picked some peaches while over at mom's.  She has several trees that came up from the pits they use to throw out!  Anyway, I took the green beans back to my farm house and started cleaning them and prepping for canning.  Long story short: I was up until 4:00 am canning 12 quarts of green beans!  I went back the next day and picked another bunch to take back to SS for processing.  The ones I took back I froze in quarts - 8 quarts!  All told I put-up 20 quarts of green beans this weekend!

Hawk

Well, I found out what was removing the bird protectors and breaking the persimmons tops out.  A Hawk!  I got a pic of him on the game camera.  I looked it up and found out he is a "red-shouldered" hawk.  A small hawk that eats small critters - voles for instance - which I think I saw him pick up!

Ditch Digging

I finally got around to working on the plow - man that was some work!  I removed one of the two plow blades.  I found that the plow framework is a bitch to work with due to its heavy nature and tendency to get out of alignment.  Anyway, I finally got the plow ready and started plowing the ditch along the driveway to the barn when the shear bolt broke!  I went back and installed 2 more before I gave up and replaced the bolt with a drill bit!  Here is what the ditch looks like after I used the frontloader to clean it up a bit:

Ready for some rain!  I am hopeful that this will keep some of the water out of my garden

Grape vine powdery mildew

I was trimming around the grapes vines and looking them over.  Most are growing nicely.

Almost to the top of the trellis!

But then I noticed that some of the vines where having some issues.  Powdery mildew!  I looked it up to be sure.  The articles that I read indicated that it can ruin fruit but that it is not fatal to otherwise healthy vines - unless they are young vines!  I looked up how to treat this problem - organic solutions exist: garden sulfur or potassium bicarbonate.   Fortunately I bought some potassium bicarb last year for treating squash leaf fungus (I never used it for the squash).  I mixed up a gallon an saturated the vines good.  It is supposed to be re-applied every week.  We will see if it works.

powdery mildew causes those brown spots on the leaves.

on the back of those leaves you can see the mildew itself - its quite thick on the leaves.

Elderberries

The elderberries are getting close to ripe enough to pick!  Unfortunately, I have noticed on the big bush that some have already ripened and been eaten off by birds!  Arggh!  I hope enough survive that I can make some jelly this year.

Sunflowers

Here are some pictures of the sunflowers!

More greenbeans, squash and cuc's. Canned pork

I picked some of the larger squash when I got to the farm as well as more cuc's.  

I brought some pork that I bought at Safeway for $2/lb.  I want to PC it - I have never done pork before.

I spent some time and set up the dehydrator (a Cabela's purchase earlier this year) then I used a mandolin to slice the squash thin (about 1/8th inch) and then placed the slices on the racks and put them in the dehydrator.  I set the dehydrator to 115F and set the time to 24 hr.  While those were dehydrating I set to work on the pork.  I cut it into 1 inch cubes (and cut some of the fat off while doing so) and raw-packed it into 5 pint jars (along with 1 tsp of salt per pint). I left about an inch space at the top - maybe a little more in some.  I was super concerned about the fat melting and screwing up the seal at the top.  I cleaned the tops of the jars very carefully before I put the lids on to make sure there was no grease between the lid an the jar.  I tightened the lids up and placed in them in the PC. Cooked them for 75 mins after pressure came up.

While the pork was canning I sliced a bunch of cuc's up readying them for bread and butter pickles (I found a Mrs Wages mix in the back room so I decided to use it).  I got a bit scared when I couldn't find enough jar and lids - but then I realized i actually had some brand new jars in a case from last year so I was ok.  I put the cucumber slices in the jars and then covered them with the hot mix.  cleaned the jar tops and put on the lids as usual an then loaded 7 quart jars into the water bath canner.  I was just putting the canner lid on to help the water come back up to boil when I heard a "crack".  Sigh.  I little investigation turned up that one of the older jars broke a bottom out.   I took the broken jar out an removed as much of the cuc's as I could grab safely.  I added some hot water (carefully, not wanting to do any more damage from thermal shock!) to bring the water level back up and brought the water to boil.  Processed the remaining quarts for 10 mins.

I still had to wait for the pork to finish canning after all of the pickle shenanigans - was up until almost 2 am!  Good news was that all of the jars sealed and look pretty good.  Of course, the pickle jars needed to be washed and I gave the pork jars a good washing too to make sure the grease was off as best I could.

The next day I checked the squash in the dehydrator - they had turned into paper thin slices.  The weren't crisp though.  BTW, I did use some salt (salt flour from Zimmerman's) on the slices.  They really aren't that good to eat straight.  Maybe I will try toasting some to see if they crisp up...

Anyway,  before I left I picked (and continued to de-weed) the green beans in the big patch.  Maybe got 1 1/2 quarts.  I picked some more squash an cuc's as well.  Also picked a couple beets and 5 Kohlrabi.   Also stopped by mom's place (she needed gasoline for mower) and picked a couple of handful's of green beans there.  There are lots of beans there but they arent quite reay yet.  Next weekend I will have a good harvest there!

Here are some pics:

The 6 surviving quarts of bread and butter pickles

Canned pork!  5 pints. Cold/raw-packed works fine for pork.  Lean meats should be hot packed.

The squash in the dehydrator.

Processing some veggies ...

A bit overwhelmed due to miscellaneous issues. Rain and uncooperative weather/soil conditions is likely to ruin my crop this year.  I have been trying to amend soil an keep weeds at bay - but we shall see.   Been busy at work too, so I haven't been able to slow down much.

Katherine got Lyme from an attack of 4 ticks!  She's on antibiotics - got it very early so its likely to be a complete recovery.  She's wiped though.

I brought back some green beans I managed to salvage from the rainy patch.  There is still more in the patch but I was out of time.  Taking this Friday off to go up early and see if I can get that patch into shape.  Anyway, I processed them today.  Got 2 qt and 1 pint frozen!  Not bad for what I thought would be a total loss.  Probably more to come.

I made stuffed zucchini for dinner tonight - it was AWESOME!  I adapted of course.  Used fresh basil and not pasta sauce - just tomato sauce (a pint of our own home made) and basil (from our basil pot out back).  Also used some turkey sausage we got 50% off at safeway today.  Last night I fried a couple smaller squash.  Just sliced, breaded in corn meal and almond meal then fried in peanut oil.  I still have plenty of squash to process.  I want to try drying some in the new dehydrator this coming weekend.  I read that you can dry them as chips an then use salt/seasoning for a nice snack!

I cut and froze the Kale that was growing here in raised beds.  I estimate I got a whole gallon froze!  4 foodsaver bags which look like they got about a quart each (eyeballed - based on what a quart of greenbeans look like in the foodsaver bags.)

While at safeway we also picked up some pork loin (also 50% off!)  that I wanted to try and can today, but way too short on time.  I haven't even got to the cucumbers from last weekend!  Probably have 4-5 quarts of pickles worth of cucs to process!

Well, to tired - its a bit after 11pm.  night!

Family reunion, mowing, fertilizer, milky spore.

Cooked up my beets that I gathered last (week before?)  week while mulching the front patch.  I made Harvard beets.  I used the recipe that substitutes half of the vinegar with orange juice.    It was about a pound of beets.  I left out the sugar (I forgot) , but it was plenty sweet from the OJ and the white beets are sweeter they say.

Harvard beets

Katherine came along to the farm for the family reunion! Yay!  Since Katherine made it, I wanted to go to the bulk/Mennonite store - so we did - with Mom and Tom & Julie!  We got lots of baking needs, canning supplies (salt) and too much junk food - lol.

After returning home, I mowed the far field - mowers are in good shape now - except front right tire of Huskee is leaking now!

The reunion went well - we took pulled pork and rolls.   The event was bigger than it was last year - so maybe its on an upswing.  Joe B's entire family was there.  Even Connie went!  I think for first time in decades!

After the reunion I mowed some more - the "near" field needed mowing because it has been too wet for past couple of weekends.  It was still a bit wet - but I didn't want to let it go any longer!  Also mowed around the persimmon trees.  Eventually, I mowed around the orchard trees too.  The pumpkins are really making their way into the orchard grass!   After mowing orchard grass, I applied a bag of milky spore (the japanese beetles are really working over my trees this year!)  I really need to get a couple more bags of milky spore granules.  I got this last bag at Zimmermans in Everett.

I picked several good sized squash and a handful of cuc's.  The green beans need weeding.  Everything looks pretty rough.  I got some lawn high nitrogen fertilizer at Zimmermans last week - but wanted something "safer" - so we stopped at Southern States in Warfordsburg on the way up and I got some blood meal.

Corn is coming in tassel - still looks mighty rough though

That kohlrabi is ready to eat!

Dill is blooming nicely!

Onions look a bit battered.  Hope they are ok.

I got the flail mower attached to the big tractor and mowed the hill.  I need this for more mulch!

Zucchini going crazy!  Took 4 big ones off this just 2 days after picking it clean!

Thee green bean issue ... see the first part that I have weeded..

And then the rest of the rows in back to go..
I still haven't picked any yet, but they have beans on!

Enough with this rain! July 4th weekend

Got up to the farm Thursday about 2:30pm.  Rain started about 3pm.  Lasted about an hour.  dropped about 2 in!  Enough!  My poor corn and cabbage patches are sooo wet and the plants are rotting and dieing.  Not to mention that the ones that are surviving need some TLC.  They desperately need nitrogen - but I can't get in there to amend their soil.

Anyway, after things drie out I was able to mow a bit.  But first I had to do some repairs... After last weeks mower breakdowns (stripped spindle on huskee, broken deck on husq, broken deck belt on husq, 2 (actually 3) broken blades and a flat tire on the Huskee... sheesh..  I was able to repair all and even patched the tire of the UTV thats been leaking for more than a year!  

Anyway, lots of trimming - despite the water I got into the elderberry patch and cleaned it up a bit.  Only one (good sized) copperhead - whew - he avoided me, although I noticed he slithered out from an area I was just done trimming in!  Unnerving.  

Here are some pics:

Water flowing over the base of a persimmon tree.

In the persimmon tree orchard - a river ran through it.

Water flowing through the Walipini site.

I trimmed around the blueberries too.  I got a handful of ripe blueberries! Not bad for the first year.

Blueberry looks a bit odd.  I am sure it needs some kind of nutrient.

The big patch.  The squash are doing well.  I did stake some of the tomatoes.  The corn is pathetic.

I will be getting plenty of squash I think!

I actually picked several of these round zuc's

The trimmed elderberry patch.  This took almost 2 whole days!  You can see that I wasn't able to get to part of it - there was just too much water standing there.

The harvest from both PA and MD gardens.  Squash from the PA, cucs from MD.