With several crates of ripe tomatoes on the front porch plus other “must can soon” crops waiting, I’ve been kind of busy lately. Yep, it’s getting colder every day now. Tonight, it’s supposed to get down to 27 F. We’ve got to heat the hoop houses again to protect the peppers. And turn on the heat in the greenhouse to protect the squash, onions, and pumpkins in there. Meanwhile, I’m getting set to can Sherri’s big celery that I thought I’d have done sooner. But those darned tomatoes and sweet corn got in the way!
After a freeze the crates of sweet corn for canning had to be put up or I would lose them. The corn had been planted twice, and the second planting wasn’t quite as mature as I would have liked but oh well, you take what you can get. I did get many pints and half-pints of both plain sweet corn and Mexican sweet corn with chopped sweet red peppers in it. And, as I’m getting near the end of the tomatoes for seed, I also had a roasting pan full of leftover tomatoes to roast and whiz down in the blender to can as tomato sauce.
Will picked all the Seneca Sunrise sweet corn I had bagged up in the Wolf Garden to protect against bird damage, husked it, and then I started roping it up to hang and dry down for seed. All in all, we had a great crop this year. However, due to getting drowned out twice, some of our corn, like Bear Island Chippewa, did not make it. That’s gardening; some years you get this and lose that.
I also have been shelling out more dry beans, which, all in all, we had a great crop. Some, like Brita’s Footlong and Chippewa, astounded us with their productivity. Most were well above average, despite the crazy weather. Thank you, God! — Jackie
