Yesterday, I spent the day mowing big weeds (yep, we sure have those) with the riding lawnmower, in between plots and down paths, not to mention those growing in areas we’re leaving fallow due to earlier drought and then rain, then more drought, killing corn and plants in other plots. Whew! I’m talking about two acres of it. Then I went back and got the baby Kubota and tilled the fallow areas in the Sand Garden. I’ve still got to do those in the Wolf Garden again this afternoon.
I went out just now and picked another ripe Sweet Granite muskmelon. They’ve been ripening quickly and there are a lot of nice, big ones out there! I am teaching seed saving classes at two of our local Chippewa reservations and am saving a couple of different kinds of seed tomorrow and Wednesday so folks can not only see how it’s done but also taste a bit of the reward.
Our corn is coming on nicely and I should get a nice bunch to can up, despite the third planting being done in late June. For a while, I was kind of hoarding the canned sweet corn I have, thinking I wouldn’t get any. Now, it looks like there’ll be a nice big crop. Thank you, God!
The beans, also, are coming along wonderfully. I even picked a few that had already dried to take to the seed saving class, as I will some tomatoes also, along with some lettuce heads with seeds already on them. It will be a fun class! And boy, do we have the nice squash this year! I have Hopi Pale Grey and Porcupine squash that must weigh 20 pounds already and we have about a month (I hope) before frost. And Gete Okosomin? Wow, there are some as long as my arm and as thick around — so early too.
The peppers are slow, due to the heat causing their blooms to abort, but now they’re blooming like mad. I’m hoping for a late, bang-up crop. We’ll have to wait and see. But isn’t that what most homesteaders get good at? Ha ha! — Jackie
