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Post by macmex on Jun 21, 2016 11:27:48 GMT -6
Hey folks,
Life here has been more hectic than I care to admit. I've had too many irons in the fire. Nevertheless, there are some encouraging things going on in the garden.
1) I got all my sweet potatoes planted by the end of May. For me, that means close to 100’ of sweet potato and now, I’m up to nearly a dozen varieties. In the last week those slips have started to really grow and spread. This is encouraging. For, in reality, a really good gardening year for me MUST include a good crop of sweet potatoes.
By the way, if you would like to plant sweet potatoes, and haven’t yet, and if you live in Oklahoma or a place with similar climate, there is still time to do so. I’ve planted as late as July 18 and had them make a decent crop.
2) I am now able to pick beans by the bucketful. I planted Cherokee Trail of Tears Pole Bean, as seedlings, back in the beginning of April. A friend gave them to me, that’s why they were seedlings. Anyway, this bean is showing great promise. It’s a beautiful plant, with purple flowers. The pods are green and have strings. I like true “stringed beans,” as generally the stay tender much longer than “stringless.” Here’s a picture of the flowers and another picture of pods.
I also planted Woods Mountain Crazy Bean on April 16. These are now producing a “gusher” of pods. My wife and I have concluded that this one variety is the “must have” for our garden, on account of its dependability. You can see the thread on this variety in our beans forum.
I planted Long Cut Old Timey Greasy Bean, from North Carolina. Normally this one would be in full production. But I’ve had to replant and I need to replant, yet again, because of rabbits eating the seedlings. This probably isn’t due to variety, but rather its location in our garden.
The same is true for Tennessee Cutshort. Perhaps today I can replant these two.
3) I’ve planted quite a good amount of winter squash. Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin is the main one I’ve planted. But I also put in a hill of White Cushaw and am leaving one volunteer from Seminole. I am struggling to get some weak seedlings from old (2007) seed of Warsaw Buff Pie Pumpkin to grow. I like to start these by the beginning of June. But Ron Cook (heavyhitterokra) has started them in the beginning of July and harvested a decent crop.
A good crop of winter squash is a wonderful thing for us, when we go into the winter. We eat a good deal of squash and we also make a wonderful hot drink from it.
4) My okra is looking pretty good. I started most of it (Stewart’s Zeebest) on May 26. This assures a good crop for us. During the hottest part of the summer okra is our main vegetable, and we like both to freeze and dry it for winter. I have three plants of Glen’s hybrid Coffee/Heavyhitter okra as well. These got in a few weeks later. But they are looking good.
5) Tomatoes: I have some black cherry tomato plants which are presently 8’ tall and covered in green fruit. We look forward to this variety, as our chore time snack. I intentionally plant these where we walk past while doing chores. Black cherry rarely makes it into the house.
Baker Family Heirloom – Started from seed on February 12 and 18. Transplanted into cold frame March 14. Transplanted into permanent garden spot on April 24. I put out 12 plants. They are looking spectacular. At this point they are putting on lots of green fruit. They have more than filled their cages and have reached about 4 ½’ in height.
Sioux – Started from seed on February 27. Transplanted into permanent garden spot on May 3. I put out 7 plants. These were started from seed on February 18 and transplanted into their permanent location on May 5. These plants are shorter than Baker Family Heirloom. But they make many branches and produce excellently, particularly after “lesser varieties” are exhausted by our summer heat and drought.
6) Peppers I started Chile Rayado, which is a jalapeño type from Central Mexico, in March and planted 10 plants out, into the garden on May 2. These are growing well and flowering freely right now.
My favorite, Ají Yellow #2, flopped, even though I started seed twice. I think the seed got chilled in one case and cooked in another. I currently have two tiny seedlings which need to get into the garden.
Frank’s Thai Hot – This is like a miniature cayenne pepper and very ornamental. I hadn’t grown in in a couple of years and when I tried to start the seed in March… it didn’t germinate. Fortunately I shared seed in years past and was able to request a sample from a friend. This seed did germinate, and I now have a number of plants growing at work, and a number which need to get transplanted into the garden.
Okay, there’s more. But that’s all for now!
George
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 21, 2016 17:17:53 GMT -6
George,
I got great germination from the Old Timey Cornfield pumpkin seeds I saved from the hog pen last Fall. Looks like there will be plenty to go around this Autumn, if nothing gets them before then.
I've noticed over the past few weeks that I have a pretty bad white fly problem in my tomato patch. I'd never had them until last year's heavy rains. They seemed to thrive in those too humid, and too cool conditions, then just disappeared one day.
This year started out pretty much a repeat of last year, so I guess conditions were just right once more and they came back.
Due to familial obligations recently, I've not had a chance to spray them. I'm Certified Organic, so I had to order a pint of 5% Pyrethrin from Ever Green to spray them with.
Pyrethrin is derived from Chrysanthemum flowers. It smells like donuts frying when you spray it, and works as nerve agent; it only paralyses the bugs it hits, rather than killing them. Then, they stop eating and eventually dehydrate, so it's not a very effective process, but I guess it beats poison.
It costs a little over $50.00 per pint, so it's pretty cost prohibitive to use it, but that's about all there is out there on the market that's OMRI listed.
Pyrethrin mixes 1/2 ounce, per one gallon of water, so one pint will make 32 gallons of spray, but it takes a lot of spray, as it only works in direct contact. Unlike poisons, there is no residual to be ingested by insects later.
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Post by glen on Jun 21, 2016 21:20:13 GMT -6
Hey George, thanx for the great garden report. We need to hear a lot more from you. And, please post any observations you have to time for concerning that experimental okra on my thread. We need your input.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 22, 2016 14:43:50 GMT -6
Great pictures George!
If that second bean picture was a wall poster, I think I'd buy one. That's got a lot of peace surrounding it. Very enjoyable to look at; thanks for sharing, we'll appreciate those photos this Winter, and will long for the days of crisp, fresh steamed, snap beans.
Savor every moment of your hard earned gardening treasure.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 23, 2016 10:13:01 GMT -6
I finally got the last 36 of my sweet potato slips planted. Some were replacement plants for the 14 plants that deer or rabbits have killed, so I've only got about 79 total now.
The high winds yesterday took down a 150' foot row of caged, staked, and cabled tomato plants. The whole row is laid over to the West. It's too heavy for me to stand back up by myself, so I guess I'll have to get some help from my Son this weekend, and reinforce the whole setup with added Tee posts.
The Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin patch is looking good. I added several ornamental gourds to the mix, mostly for ground cover to help suppress weeds, but we'll enjoy the added color this Autumn.
My ch-f1 okra is looking good, and my Heavy Hitter is getting blossom heads about an inch and a half long, some have as many as 5 branches already, but the cold weather in May stunted their growth, so they are not very tall. (Good thing I planted 300 more on the opposite side of the garden during the first week of June).
All in all, everything is looking several weeks behind, due to such a cold, and cloudy, Spring, but I think things are about to improve.
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Post by john on Jun 24, 2016 5:08:42 GMT -6
Hi George Thanks for the pictures and the update. I feel the same way as you about too many irons in the fire. I feel like I am juggling like 60 balls and it is hard to keep them all in the air. For me June is the busiest month. If I don't stay on top of the weeds, they will beat out my crops and I will get no harvest. If my plants can get a decent start, I can relax a little bit and know that I will still have success. By mid to late July the work should slow down and the vegetables should start coming in.
It has been terribly dry here, I can't remember a June this dry before. The lawns are brown already which doesn't usually happen this early. It seems like it is always feast or famine as I read about the flooding happening in various places. I guess that is just the way of it. It reminds us that there is only so much that we can control.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 1, 2016 20:25:38 GMT -6
Today is July 1st, 2016
This morning, I picked blueberries for breakfast, and ate them with George's Greek yogurt. Thanks George, that was awesome! George makes some really good Greek yogurt from the goat's milk he gets from his nannies. The blueberry variety I picked was called Climax. It's a late season blueberry that gets ripe in July, rather than June, so it extends our harvest by almost three weeks. Premier is the blueberry variety we pick in June. Both varieties are heavy producers. I would recommend both of these varieties for gardening in Northeast Oklahoma.
This evening, I harvested a pound and a half of okra for our dinner. I got about a pound of ripe cherry tomatoes, and two ripe Early Girl tomatoes to go with that. For a side dish, I picked green tomatoes for frying with new red potatoes, and about a dozen yellow squash, and some dill to go with that.
It's time for fresh corn on the cob too.
I love this time of the year!
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Post by macmex on Jul 2, 2016 9:27:52 GMT -6
July 1st we picked our first Baker Family Heirloom tomatoes and had them with supper. Black Cherry beat BFH by a couple of days. My okra isn't ready yet. Sure been battling the rabbits!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 2, 2016 19:41:32 GMT -6
George,
If you get a 'hankering for okra' I think I'm going to be covered up in it in another week or so... (I hope).
When it comes on heavy, I always have more than I can use.
I just gave away half a paper grocery sack of banana peppers to a neighbor who helps me out in the garden. There are only 4 plants, but they are bearing like crazy!
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Post by macmex on Jul 5, 2016 4:54:15 GMT -6
Thanks Ron! That would be great! I've been in New Jersey for a few days, visiting my parents. My wife has gone to town picking beans (mainly Woods Mountain Crazy Beans). Last I heard she had buckets and buckets of them to process. But our okra will be a while before it's ready.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 9, 2016 10:34:55 GMT -6
The garden is doing great this morning, I probably need to pick my heavy hitter okra again tonight, or tomorrow. Everywhere I look, I see new blooms!
I have two ch-f1 okra plants blooming this morning also, and 12 more ch-f1 plants about to bloom in the next few days. These are single blooms so far, all on separate plants. None on my runway model yet. I guess it's still too busy growing all those branches.
That was pretty awesome to go out to feed the chickens and the hog this morning, and see two new blooms on the ch-f1 plants at the same time! It made the day seem worthwhile.
I was out picking bitter melon leaves this morning and saw about half a dozen blooms there too. Lots of the old ones have fallen off after only one day, but no fruit buds yet. I guess those were probably the male blossoms?
The ch-f1 plants are incredible! They loved those mulch rings I built for them. I've spent the last month or so, pulling weeds and laying a wreath of those fresh pulled weed 'greens' around the base of each ch-f1 plant. I left the topsoil intact around the root ball of each weed clump I pulled, and laid them carefully, so that each root ball rests on top of the weed greens below it, in a circle similar to a Christmas wreath. No roots are in contact with the ground. I needed the top soil on the weed clumps, intact for the enzyme action to begin the decomposition of the weed greens.
Over each wreath of weed greens, I laid a sprinkling of chicken litter, and a thick ring of leaf mold from my giant pile of oak leaves that I raked last Winter. I've repeated this process every week for a month, until each plant has a wreath about two feet in diameter, and about 6" inches thick.
When it was so hot and dry last month, the wreaths didn't seem to make much difference; but ever since God took over the daily watering for me, the plants that have wreaths of mulch have been growing by leaps and bounds!
I have a 6' foot chain link fence around the hog pen, and my tomatoes out there have topped that, and are running sideways along the top wire. I've got about 10 pounds of tomatoes in the house sitting on the table right now, and 5 pounds of HH okra that needs cutting up. I've also got jalapeno peppers out my ears.
I guess I need to make some pico De Gallo today.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 17, 2016 5:15:48 GMT -6
We have been eating like Kings this week! Everything good, is fresh from the garden, our hen house, from butchering our hogs, from our neighbor's corn field, or a gift from George, and his wonderful goats!
We've been enjoying fresh corn on the cob from the Kelley's and their abundant harvest of sweet corn. We have had fried, and pickled okra, lots and lots of Pico De Gallo. We have had pizza with fresh toppings of garden raised onion, bell pepper, farm raised sausage, and fresh, homegrown tomato.
We have feasted on a whole rack of home grown, hickory smoked pork ribs, smoked by my Daughter, with hickory and pork, from our own farm. We have been enjoying smoked and roasted pork, with sauerkraut and potatoes.
We've had fresh blueberries, with the Greek yogurt that George has made for us. We have had fried eggs and sausage, or French Toast, from our own fresh eggs, every morning for breakfast.
We've had fresh picked blackberry cobbler whenever we desire.
We've had fresh smoked bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches at lunch.
We've had Hungarian Goulash made from the abundance of fresh tomatoes, Summer squash, onion, bell pepper, and ground pork from our farm.
We've had a medley of grilled Summer squash, fried with green tomatoes, freshly dug Irish potatoes, green bell pepper, onion, fresh cabbage, and fried okra.
That particular dish doesn't have a name yet, but is to die for, and is the rendition of one of our best friends, Sarah Dunlap. She combines all those things, seasons them well, and performs a combination of both frying, and baking them, in a deep aluminum casserole dish over a bed of red oak, and hickory coals, on her grill.
Today is Sunday July 17, 2016... The Lord's Day. He deserves all the glory, honor, and praise, for the abundance he brings to our farm, our neighborhood, our extended community, and to our great Nation. Although, far be it from me to understand how he tolerates our collective disobedience.
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Post by fourteenmilecreek on Jul 19, 2016 7:39:18 GMT -6
Last night, I made bout two gallons of'Americanized' Hungarian Goulash. I used ground pork and just about everything I could find from our garden. I didn't follow a recipe, I just followed my instincts. First, I salted and browned 2 pounds of ground pork, then I added two yellow onions diced, and two cloves of minced garlic, a good sized yellow Summer squash diced, three bell peppers chopped, two banana peppers chopped, two ears of fresh corn cut off the cob, one jalapeno pepper minced, 6 or 8 pods of sliced okra, one Irish potato cut into small pieces, then one more for good measure. To that, I added about 20 blanched, and diced, fresh tomatoes, and a generous portion of salt to compliment all those vegetables. I added a little more garlic at this point, and about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of Italian seasoning, and some Paprika. Finally, I added a quart jar of Marinara sauce that I had made, and canned, last year. (It's always a really nice feeling to use your own homemade sauces from a previous cooking adventure). It brings back memories from that day, captured in a jar, when you open it and pour it in.
By now, that had become a huge kettle, and had to be transferred to a 3 gallon simmering pot with a thick bottom. While that was simmering and boiling down into a rich, thick sauce, I began boiling water for my wagon wheel pasta. I used one pound of wagon wheel pasta, boiled it in about a gallon of salted water, with a teaspoon or so of canola oil, and two teaspoons of salt. I cooked the pasta about 3/4 done, then drained it and added it to the meat sauce that I had been carefully stirring every 10 minutes or so for the past couple of hours.
Once it was all together in the same pot, I turned the flame to its lowest setting, and continued to stir the pot every 10 minutes or so, until I achieved the richness I desired, which was until I could ladle up a spoon full of it and turn it out, as I watched to see it form a slight mound at the point of impact on the surface of the sauce, rather than making a watery splatter.
I ladled up a big bowl of it, turned the radio to NPR, and sat down to enjoy me endeavors. By bedtime, I had eaten more bowls full than I care to admit, then put the entire pot in my commercial refrigerator out in my farm processing kitchen.
Today, I'll ladle up several 4 person portions of it, place them in labeled and dated Ziplock freezer bags, and have something good stored away for Winter; when I'm tired of eating the 2 gallons of chili that we made and froze earlier, or blueberries, pecans, and bananas I froze for making banana bread, or the smoked pork steak, and all the smoked Boston Butt Roasts I prepared and froze earlier this season...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 23, 2016 10:13:16 GMT -6
I picked another 60 pounds of tomatoes this morning from 6:00 am to 8:00 am. It was already getting hot by then... It's going to be a terrible day for canning, but hopefully next week will start cooling down some, as I hear it will only be in the mid 90s and cloudy by then.
For some reason this year, my yellow Summer squash has never been tender. Even when it's small, it's hard, like winter squash, or gourds. I've never encountered this before.
It sure keeps good though, but I have to cook it forever to get it tender.
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Post by macmex on Jul 24, 2016 5:06:19 GMT -6
Ron, I bet your yellow summer squash has a bit of ornamental gourd DNA in it. I've heard of breeding programs crossing yellow summer squash with gourds, in pursuit of a squash vine borer resistant summer squash. They're both from the c. pepo family.
I picked about 20 lb of tomatoes yesterday evening. Most of our tomato plants are looking terrible because of blister beetles. I sprayed with NEEM, understanding that it is not a quick fix. We'll see if it saves the rest of this year's crop!
George
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