Garden Update August 18

  • Corn:

Still working on our sweet corn. Unfortunately we kind of lost track of our harvest numbers. But at least we know what we froze so far:

  • 180 quarts of corn for our family
  • 140 quarts we helped family/friends

We have also sold some corn and given more away to neighbors and friends – we just don’t know how many dozen – or even wagonloads… Oh well, we do know that we are over half done with the corn.  Our Silver King variety is ripening now, and our best guesstimate is that we have at least 300+ dozen of this.  We actually put an add on Craigs List this morning, just to see what might happen.  We had 2 calls so far 🙂

  • Tomatoes:

We are on our 4th batch of spaghetti sauce, and there are still loads of tomatoes left.  We’ll just keep plugging away at them.

  • Melons:

Never ever grew such nice melons before.  We think it may be the plastic that we used, as all our viney plants did much better this year (sweet potatoes and pumpkins are going nuts).  We have amazing cantaloupes and very tasty watermelons – every day! 

  • Grapes:

Our Chambourcin grapes are ripening nicely.  We took some sample grapes from different vines, smashed them, and then used our refractometer to figure out the sugar content:  It is currently 17% Brix, so definitely getting closer to picking time – we think about 2 weeks or so.


Shrub & Zucchini Bread

  • Blackberries:

Made one last batch of Jeff’s Shrub recipe, with lots of lemon.  Turned out very tasty.

  • Other:

Still picking potatoes (did not harvest them yet, we just dig out what we need for dinner).  We have lots of onions, which we get for our spaghetti sauce, and as needed.  Have lots of herbs, especially basil, which we use for different recipes.  Started cleaning/weeding both blueberry patches  – nearly done with those and ready for mulching later on.  Also still grilling zucchini for dinner and using them for zucchini bread.

August 6 Garden Update

  • Blackberry harvest is coming to an end, we picked over 500 pounds.  A few bushes are still bearing, but we are trimming out the old growth and tying up the shoots for next year.
  • Doing well with watermelons – we have yellow and red ones.  Both have amazing tastes!
  • Picked enough tomatoes and onions for a batch of sauce
  • Still making pesto dishes from all the basil
  • Made 2 batches of blackberry jam (with Anja and Anna)
  • Most importantly: Chambourcin grapes are ripening!!

Trellis Building Done for 2012!!!

We actually finished installing all the posts and wires for the Triple Crown blackberries and the Vidal Blanc grapes. The last wires were stapled in this morning.

Balckberry Patch June  2012

All rows are numbered
Each young bramble is trimmed and tied up

Stringing Wire and Tying up Grapes

Started anchoring the trellis end-posts so that we can run at least the bottom wire for the Vidal Blanc vines.  So far, two of the six rows have wires and this evening, we started pounding in the 3 ft. bamboo stakes – one for each grape – to support and guide the vine up to the wire.  It rained most of the day, which softened up the ground nicely and the little stakes went in rather easy.  We are using zip ties to hold the bamboo stake to the wire, hopefully that is sufficient.  We got about 100 done, not even a quarter yet… 

June Grape Update

We got all our Chambourcin grapes tied up to the double row of catch wires (second row of wires), and we added the post extensions to run the 3rd – high- wire to eventually position the shoots on.  We are using the VSP (vertical shoot placement) training system and the grapes look great right now. This year is only their second growing season, and to be safe and not stress the vine too much, we left one bunch of grapes for just the nicest vertical shoots.

Our new Vidal Blanc patch is growing nicely and we have no deer nor rabbit damage so far (knock on wood).  We have all the trellis holes drilled, and most of the posts are already pounded in.  We are just working on the end posts, where additional cross pieces need to be installed – then we can start running the bottom wire.  We ordered 500 bamboo stakes today – to place by each growing vine – to guide it up to the bottom wire.  The stakes should be here in 2 days – we hope!

This “patch” consists of 500 vines, whereas we only have 200 Chambourcin grapes so far.