Will and I went out to the Wolf Garden yesterday evening to check the watermelons. We picked more of those, and yes, more Sweet Granite muskmelons, and some tomatoes to seed out. As we checked things, Will picked 12 more muskmelons that were very ripe. Then we found a nice big Leelanau Sweetglo watermelon that was ripe. The nearest curly tendril has dried up, and the bottom spot is now yellow instead of white, both signs of ripeness. Yea!
But when I went over to pick some tomatoes, I was shocked. In just a couple of days, we’ve got ripe tomatoes everywhere! Where I had planned on just picking a couple of varieties to seed out, I have to change my plans. It’s time to begin canning tomato recipes very soon! I could go out right now and pick a bushel full. Seriously! And boy are the tomatoes (and squash, watermelons, and muskmelons) big this year too. They liked all that manure, I guess. I have pound and a half Mia’s Italian paste tomatoes that double as a slicer for our BLTs and don’t ask about our Bill Beans. Some will easily weigh 3 pounds when ripe.
We’ve started letting Sarge, our English Mastiff, who’s almost 3 years old and still a pup, out in the fenced front yard to play with Gypsy, our Dutch Shepherd rescue, who loves to play rough. They make us laugh every time they are out there. Zoomies, wrestling, and playing catch wears both of them out after half an hour or so. They lie down and then play some more! Good exercise for them both.
I also went down to check the Gete Okosomin squash in the Main Garden. Nice, big, orange squash there! And, driving down through the plum orchard, I was astounded at the hugely abundant harvest of plums hanging there, ripening slowly but surely. I know one old lady who is going to be very busy in the near future! Likewise, the apples scare me. The poor trees are loaded and bending down with the weight.
Unfortunately, our potato crop this year is a dismal failure. They got overtaken by pigweed and the plants are struggling to be even visible. Luckily, I canned up a bunch. Oh well, in gardening, we always get crop failures each year; we’re not perfect, just like everyone else. — Jackie
Speaking of gardening this summer, I had a small garden. 3 zucchini, lots of tomato plants, 2 bell pepper plants, cantalope and watermelon, and a pot on the porch experimenting with a purple bush bean, and a small patch of corn. I picked one cantaloupe and ate it. I am getting zucchini, had a couple bell peppers, the tomatoes are taking forever to ripen, the corn is questionable. I had a couple rows the corn didn’t really grow tall, and another partial row where half is tall and the other half short. I see some corn forming on the tall ones. I did everything I could think of to correct the stunted corn but it failed.
My only crop that was not dismal this year was potatoes. Bugs got cantaloupe, squash and cucumbers. Tomatoes are ripening but cracked, small and generally ugly … but they taste good. Not enough to can but more than I can eat so I send them to the senior apartment complex across the street. Deer got my beets except for a few pints early on. It was too dry to plant a fall garden plus the grass has overtaken most of the garden to the point future gardens are going to be a major struggle. All in all, very discouraging and disappointing this year.
Gee, that’s too bad. We all have those years. It’s tough to keep going but do it anyway. Hopefully, the weather will be nicer next year. Hang in there!
It is the great produce conspiracy! Longer shelf life produce ripens at a reasonable pace while shorter shelf life produce (like TOMATOES) like to keep you hopping by ripening en mass.
And don’t forget produce that likes to “hide” – looking at you cucumbers and zucchini!
Better half gifted tomatoes to a friend today. I’d eat BLTs twice a day but better half finds that excessive (guess who tends to eat healthier lol).
While they are no longer kittens, the recent additions still tussle like litter mates. The established cat (well the now longer established cat) is getting back in shape. So a bit more chasing with the two newbies. I expect to see flying tigers through the house, up the stairs then down here soon.
We were out of town this past weekend so more weeding on the docket for this weekend. Of course it is now hot and muggy (usual August weather not September). Heat index today was 105.
Puff, pant! That’s hot!! Yep, our cucumbers are great at hiding. I planted my Suyo Longs on a trellis and they’re halfway up on it. But down on the ground are hiding 18″ long cukes! We’ve been enjoying them regularly.
Sounds like your kitties are going to be a lot of fun.
I’ll trade you some potatoes for apples 🍎
Hey, Tom, you don’t even need to trade. Although most of them are sweet crabapples, they make lots of applesauce and apple butter. Come any time!!
Oh how I dislike technology- type something and it pops up wherever you Don’t want it. Oh I too gotpigweeded out of potato What is there is beautiful but scant. Dragon tongue beans Il have to try as I to find my green beans are ready then gone Both trellis and bush. Huge Georgia candy roast squash can verily lift some !Hopi Grey is minimal this year . Thank goodness for the bounty last year still have. Every year is truly different
It sure is! If you want longer-lasting green beans, give Providers a try. They will make fresh sets of beans all summer long, right up until frost. They’re our favorites for green beans.
Yes, it’s a very good idea to cut out the things you just don’t like. But if you like wax beans, try Dragon Tongue. They’re our favorite and hang on the plant quite a while without getting tough. We grow extra squash for our critters; it’s easy to grow and very abundant, pound wise. Anything you can grow for them sure cuts down the feed bill.
The few potatoes I planted did well, sweet potatoes are in mineral tubs and will be ready to dig in a couple weeks. I’m getting a few more green & wax beans since we had a couple weeks of fall, now we’re back to pushing 100. Summer squash did great, winter squash didn’t. Question about dry beans…even though some leaves & stems are still green, many pods are dry & leathery. Should I pick them and dry indoors or leave them awhile yet? We do have very high humidity & I’m concerned they might get moldy.
I’d be interested in what Jackie says.
I pick our dry beans all at once, pull the plants and bring them up to the back porch to remove the pods, then I lay the pods all out on a screen – green and brown – up on the second floor of our garage for a few days, then I put them into 5 gallon size metal mesh trash bins that I got at Home Depot, the kind you use in offices, but the sides are all mesh instead of solid. I can put a 5-gallon lid on them and it lets the beans dry out without mouse intrusion. Every couple of days I stir them up so nothing gets stuck in the middle of the pile for long.
Here’s what the trash cans look like:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rubbermaid-Commercial-Products-5-Gal-Round-Mesh-Trash-Can-in-Silver-FGWMB20SLV/205188540
I’ve got a bunch of them and I find they’re great for allowing stuff to dry in the warm garage attic while keeping small mammals out. I used to use paper bags, but that was pretty much an open door for the mice and chipmunks. Otherwise all these things would be piled up in my kitchen, which isn’t all that big.
What we do is pick the dry pods, leaving those that are green. I then shell them out by putting them in a 5 gallon bucket and beating them with a baseball bat, shattering the pods. I then lift out the empty pods, leaving the beans. Or with just a few, I hand shell the beans and keep them in an open container inside until they are very dry.
This was for Vermont Farm Wife; the computer stuck my reply way up here instead of where it should be!!
We’ve canned 50 quarts of tomatoes and I’ve started taking tomatoes to the local food pantry. I’ve done one 10 gallons crock of sauerkraut. I still have 20 feet of potatoes to dig. Just standing still in the garden I’m dripping with sweat. It seems warmer than usual. I went to the grocery store (10 miles away) to get canning salt and I was stunned by the diminished inventory and prices. What special items (canned) with tomatoes do you like to make ? Ketchup? We made that a few years ago. My squash-butternut-didn’t produce much . Usually I get an abundance of butternut. Every year is different.
Well, I make 3 different flavors of salsa, pizza sauce, ketchup, 3 flavors of barbecue sauce
4 kinds of spaghetti sauce, enchilada and taco sauce. I’ve probably forgotten something here! Yep, I’m shocked at the increases in prices and empty spots on shelves!
You’re so right; every year is different. This year is the first in decades we will have very slim pickings with potatoes.
Good for you with your sauerkraut and tomatoes!!
We did quite well with potatoes this year, I was diligent about the potato beetles, which decimated our crop last year. We’d gone three or four years without any beetles, I suppose they were bound to find our garden sooner or later, and I was asleep at the wheel in 2025 and wasn’t expecting them. Oh well, live and learn.
For years I’d plant new stuff just to try it out for the sake of experimenting, but now I’m paring all that back to the things that we actually like to eat. No point in giving pantry space to some nifty canned goods that we simply don’t eat much of.
I’m also cutting back on the things that are fiddly or annoying. We have some bush green beans that produce like champs every year, but as much as I like wax beans, I’ve found that they go from too immature to overripe in about ten minutes, and if I don’t get out to the garden RIGHT NOW they’ll be all tough. Okay, I exaggerate, but not by much. I’ve decided to give up on the wax beans and stick to the nice green ones that give me a little leeway.
On the plus side, this opens up garden space for things like amaranth and extra mangles that I can store for the animals over the winter and reduce feed costs, so it’s a win-win.
Sorry to hear about your potato crop. Mine did great this year, but my zucchini and kohlrabi have been a sad affair this summer. One small zucchini so far all summer! It is a huge embarrassment to have to buy zucchini at the store during summer. The kohlrabi plants themselves were big and beautiful, but not a single kohlrabi have I been able to harvest. It was my first time trying kohlrabi out. I haven’t decided if I am going to waste garden space next year on them or not. I’m glad your melons are turning out so well! Mine are still the size of tennis balls. Best of luck in all of your gardening endeavors. Your articles are very informative and you are truly and inspiration to me and many other homesteaders as well!
You have to buy zucchini? Around here, you have to lock your car when you go to church or you’ll come out and find bags of zucchini gifted to you every week….even though you have lots at home!
Do give kohlrabi another try. It’s the nasty summer we’ve had. They don’t like heat, like broccoli.