How Is Your Garden and other things going on....

First off, coming next week I will have my first giveaway!  You all made it to 100 followers, so we are going to celebrate!  I will give more of that info next week.  Congrats!

Second, I have two sprained ribs that are killing me.  I think that is mostly because the chiropractor seem to poke and push and made my whole back sore.  I am sure I'll be fine, but today it is very sore.  I go back on Monday to see him.  Oh joy.

Third, here are some awesome pictures of the garden.  I have a friend whom I buy corn off of every summer and it's in a month early this year.  We played phone tag a bit, and then I called him last night. When he got on the phone he sounded, exasperated.  I asked him if this was a bad time.  He said, "No, I'm just trying to catch a donkey."

Huh?  Well, apparently he has a donkey on his farm and he ties it up every night.  Last night the donkey didn't want to be tied up, but wanted the feed behind Farmer Mike.  I was quite amused.  Anyways, I will be getting 25 dozen ears of corn on Friday for my Mom, kids and me to shuck.  Then Saturday AM, we will start blanching it, cutting most of it off the cobb and freezing it.  It is a hybrid mixture of the best corn ever!  Yummy.  So I have a lot of work for the weekend.  But it is so worth it in January to have that corn in Corn Chowder or veggie soup!

My watermelon is starting to bloom!  

The radishes are doing terrific.  I wonder when they are going to be ready?

The white looking things are actually my snap peas.  The camera flash made them look a lot lighter than they are.  But they are doing okay.  I think we need to water tonight.

See under the middle yellow bloom?  There are two little stalks?  Those are cucumbers. 

You can see the zucchini growing on the left site.  Objects in the picture are bigger than they appear.

Our beans are vining.  I can't wait to have green beans, potatoes and ham for supper!

These are the tomatoes.  We got them all staked this weekend. 

This is my cabbage plant.  I love cabbage in soups and Hopefully I can make cabbage rolls!

So how is your garden?  Let me know!

I Shoulda Been A Farmer's Wife....

Wednesday I canned green beans. Isn't it amazing that just two plastic bags from Kroger full of string beans makes 8 quarts of beans I canned and still there is enough for supper tonight? I love canning. It is hard because I am working full time, but it is one of my favorite things to do.

Two weeks ago my Mom, Dad, #1 daughter, #1 son and I did 15 dozen ears of corn. That isn't that much when you realize that we usually do 30 dozen. I have a friend who always gives us great corn and we love it. We shuck it, use the turkey fryer to parboil it, and then plunge it in ice cold water in a cooler to cool the ears down. Then we take it out, cut and scrape it off the cob and bag it. We have fresh, frozen corn for months.

I am proud of the fact that of my farming grandparent's grandchildren (there were 9 in all) I am the only one that has kept canning alive. Some of my greatest memories are of us all gathering out at the farm and doing corn for 2 days. We kids would sneek some of the cut corn in our mouths, we would all shuck the ears and then we would go play by the pond or in the barn. We also would gather to dig up potatoes. I only remember doing that once or twice.

But the best thing was the sugar cane. My grandfather would grow it and my grandmother would "raise cane" because she always thought he grew too much. :) Any hoo, we would strip the cane of it's leaves, press it through and the juice would come out. Then we would cook the juice until it thickened and it made the best molasses ever. It happened in October and was the best time ever! I don't have enough land to raise cane, but my husband and I have a nice small garden where peppers, cukes, beans and 'maters rule. Now if only the weather would cooperate and dry out. I need the sun to poke it's hot head out from behind all these gray clouds and warm the earth and turn my 'maters. I have a lot of green ones, but they don't make for good juice and chili. We aren't a green 'mater family!

Farming is a noble and dying heritage. I love my heritage and love the little portion that I keep alive in gardening and canning and sharing with others.