July 18, 2011

The Almanac called for a wet summer, and it’s been wetter than many years in recent memory.  We received nearly three inches of rain this week, making the garden appear rather jungle-like.  None of our large melons split, thanks to consistent watering even during dry spells.  This week has been much like last week, only more so.  In about one month’s time, we rake in enough food to last our family all year.

We gave up canning extra green beans in order to harvest the first half of our corn crop.  Bryan picked more than 100 ears of sweet corn, which isn’t even half of the first planting.  There is more than twice this much still to come.  We blanched it (and helped ourselves to some fresh), cut from the cob, and froze it - 12 quarts!  We made such a mess in the kitchen; corn kernels and spurts landed all over the floor from one end to another and up the refrigerator door.  We had to mop and wash everything down before it dried into a sticky mess.  What are we going to do with all the corn that's still coming!  We've never seen a harvest like this - many of the stalks have 3, 4, or 5 ears growing on them, and many produced side shoots that are bearing sizeable ears themselves.  The only difference this year was the incorporation of “green manure,” a red clover cover crop.  That stuff really works! 

We ended up canning green beans after all – our winter pantry should thank us.  Hate to admit it, but weeding is long overdue; we haven’t had time.  When does the resident gardener come to do chores?  We’ll put it on his list.  Garden mulch is the only thing keeping weeds from growing with wild abandon.

The first 12-ft.-tall sunflowers are blooming, fruits of harvest are ripening, and cicadas are buzzing from tree to tree as midsummer winds down.  All nature is preparing for the harvest to come.  These cute mini pumpkins now decorate what was our Spring pea fence.  They will ripen no larger than the palm of your hand, and as a true C. pepo are delicious to eat baked in their own jackets.