More beans, more ditches and finally some elderberry picking!

Elderberries

When I got there this past weekend I noticed how dry it was and that the elderberry area was probably mowable with the riding mower.  So I took down the electric fence and gave it a shot.  I was able to mow it down good and trimmed a bit too.  Some of the berries were ready to pick!  I picked one entire bush clean and nipped a few clusters off of the big bush.  I got about a half gallon all told.  I think I will be getting a lot more next weekend.

The first picking.  I got another lot like this later.

Squash

I picked the squash again this weekend.  They were prolific, as usual.  I dried the zucchini and yellow squash in the dehydrator.  I set the temp to 140F and then switched it up to 150F after about 10 hours.  I cut them thick using the mandolin.  These are almost crisp!  They are a bit sweet though, I don't think just seasoning them with salt and flavorings is going to make them palatable as a snack!  We will see.

My squash.  The ones on the left look kind of like spaghetti squash, but the skin color seems wrong.

Cucumbers

I picked the cucs again this weekend.  I got a few, then I saw some outside the garden fence - some vines had grown out on the fence.  So I went around to the pumpkin side to take a look.  Yep!  Big ones were there - overripe, of course, but salvageable.  Here they are:

I used some Mrs Wages Kosher Dill mix and canned these up in pints.  I got 16 pints (or 8 quarts!).  I don't need more pickles, but I am not wasting them!

Tomatoes!

It's been relatively cool this past couple weeks and I think its helping the tomatoes to ripen early! I like having them ripen now so I can get more (maybe - depends if it cools off even more later or if we just get a longer season out of this).  I used the ones shown below to celebrate "Lammas Tide" - the beginning of the harvest season - or as I have been calling it - "First Eating".

Back-Hoe Issues

I haven't heard anything from Hines about coming to pick up and work on my back-hoe and I would REALLY like to have a functioning backhoe to dig some of these ditches and my walipini!  I tried to take the front panel off to get to the leaking area.  Here are some pictures of what I was able to get to.  Nothing helpful.  I put it all back together and will call Hines again this week to see if I can get them out.

More Green beans!

I picked the green beans in my patch and pulled a few weeds (thats a joke - MANY weeds!).  I got about 2 quarts.  I stopped at mom's place on the way back and picked another bus-tray full of green beans.  A bus-tray full is about 12 quarts from past experience.  So all told I put up 14 quarts of green beans this weekend.  Mom also gave me some more peaches - these were a bit less ripe.  I will can these as well (I got 4.5 quarts from the last batch).