2020 Victory Gardens

[WhistlingBadger]

The Badgerling helping me get the oat crop in!
Harvesting Oats! by Whistling Badger, on Flickr

[HH~]

Oats look healthy. Elk like oats once snow flys. Hunted them in MT in oats during late hunt.

Shawn~

[Eric Krewson]

Something was eating my best cantaloupes, I put out a trail cam to catch the critter in the act, it was a coon. He is next to the cage I put over a couple of good ones to keep them safe.

Ordinarily I would trap him, I  have picked most of the crop and will let it slide for this year.

[HH~]

Thats fix able. 22lr and a good light. Sugar content must be high in melons for coon to be on them!

Go out twice a night and you should clean them out foe a good while.

Shawn

[WhistlingBadger]

Thats fix able. 22lr and a good light. Sugar content must be high in melons for coon to be on them!

Go out twice a night and you should clean them out foe a good while.

Shawn

Nah, work on the primitive skills and rig a figure 4 under a boulder.   

We got the buckwheat harvested today, clipped the chickens' primaries (sick of 'em flying over the fence) and butchered a couple of the big roosters.  Extremely fresh fried chicken for supper!  The Badgerling is getting to be a pretty good hand in the garden. 

Harvesting Buckwheat by Whistling Badger, on Flickr

[Hawkdancer]

Sign her up for 4H!  Good that she is learning early!  Not sure how thick to plant buckwheat, might try it next year.   I may have to expand my garden to the "north Forty" out around the shop, but the deer and the rabbits may figure it out!
Hawkdancer

[WhistlingBadger]

Sign her up for 4H!  Good that she is learning early!  Not sure how thick to plant buckwheat, might try it next year.   I may have to expand my garden to the "north Forty" out around the shop, but the deer and the rabbits may figure it out!
Hawkdancer

Yeah, we had to fence it pretty well to keep the deer out.  I'm sure they'd have really enjoyed all this grain.  I planted the buckwheat really thick to choke out weeds, then about half of it froze out and died, and the remaining plants filled in and choked out the weeds anyway.  So...the answer is, plant it about half as thick as I did, and don't let it freeze!

[Marc St Louis]

Almost had a disaster in my garden a couple weeks ago.  I went out in the early morning and saw these tracks at the entrance to the driveway, those are my size 13 feet. 



I followed the tracks and he ran all the way down to the end of the driveway and then hesitated.  Turning right would have taken him through my garden.  Fortunately he turned left and went down towards my shop.

[Hawkdancer]

I don't think a/the fence would have stopped it!
Hawkdancer

[bjrogg]

Had busy day harvesting yesterday.

Susie started early and put up a bunch of really nice applesauce. I was fired from this job years ago for scorching a batch. Now I’m just allowed to pick the apples and sometimes grind them. My wife and our kids love applesauce.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Then it was time for sweet corn. I think I picked these bags full 12 times. My daughter husked them, two of our grandkids helped later in the day. I helped in between picking and cooking.
Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

We have a good efficient system. I cook the corn outside to keep the heat out of the house. After it’s cooked it goes in the kiddie pool to quickly cool down or “blanch”.  My mom always did everything in the house and used the bathtub, but this works much better. Then the cooked,  blanched corn goes into the house and Susie cuts it off the cob and bags it. Then in squeeze the air out and zip lock the bags closed and to the freezer they go.

Not bad for one day. I’m not sure how much applesauce Susie made but it was a bunch. The sweet corn we filled 52 zip lock bags. One a week for a year. I like to get two a week and still have lots of corn left. Only picked six rows. Still have 18 left. We will give lots away.  Also 4 one gallon ice cream buckets full for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.

This is a lot of work but it’s so worth it to me. It’s is like candy. Nothing at all like the stuff in cans you buy at the store.

Bjrogg

[WhistlingBadger]

Homemade applesauce and sweet corn.  Yummmm.  We planted apple trees a couple years ago.  Hoping to get some apples from them next summer.

[DC]

Is there a special tool for cutting the corn off the cob or do you just use a knife?
Not from corn country

[Hawkdancer]

Managed a few cherry tomatoes yesterday, the other 2 tomato plants are starting to make fruit, got zucchini blossoms and buds, so maybe fresh zucchini in a couple of weeks!  Birds got what few cherries there were.  Got to figure out how get picture posting going again!
Hawkdancer