Farm to Table

I would dig them now and see what you have. Since the plant has died they won't gain anything and they might rot or start to sprout. You know to allow them to cure for a time before putting them away, right? If you don't and you have a decent amount they'll spoil quickly if left uncured. Just allow the skins to dry and thicken before storing them touching each other.

I like a variation of your wifes way on summer squash. I don't peel. They need to be small. Then I slice and fry in whatever, but I add S&P and what grabs my fancy. A bit of hot pepper, garlic, fresh ground pepper, whatever. If I'm lazy and have some, a bit of Slap Yo' Mama does it.

Anyone wanting to experience a bit of rural Maine life just go to my website and go to the about us section. Let me link to it to save you from the business pages.

http://www.krampertsfinest.com/about_us

Thanks for the read ShadowsDad. Very cool! I like your dogs too. The one in the bottom picture reminds me of mine.

Oldschoolsteel: don't know what part of the world your potatoes reside in but shadowsDad has it right. If you have hot weather I'd leave them in moist not wet dirt until the skins set tight then dig them. Spuds have a dormancy period before they want to begin to sprout and that dormancy is lengthened by storage at 40 degrees F and as close as you can get to 100% humidity. My vote? Eat em. And when they are gone get some Idaho potatoes (and eat em too)

I spent yesterday morning excavating my taters. There were two still alive so I left them alone till they die off.

Looks like a pretty decent harvest. Now the mice won't get them.

Well the melons, cucumbers, and everything else but the tomatoes are pretty much done. So to avoid the boredom of maintaining some plants I dont eat, I decided to till up a few rows and I re-seeded 4 rows of beets, 1 row of carrots, and a row or 2 of cucumbers. This might be a bad idea on the first week of Aug but I wanted to try to put out some hot weather veggies to see if I could groom them till the first frost some time in Oct.

I worked in the garden today too OSS. Asked the neighbor if she wanted the first head of broccoli, she did. Hopefully we'll get side shoots; they're just as good as the head of broccoli. Lots more broccoli yet to come, and cauliflower. The kale is doing good and always does.

Something was in the corn and pulled some over, probably raccoons. So I put the fence charger in the sun to charge it and tomorrow I'll buy some electric fence stakes and electrify the patch. I hope I'm awake to hear the sounds as they discover it for the first time; that'll be an enjoyable sound of frustration; not enjoyable for them, just to me. I still don't know why they did it. Normally they get the corn just as the ears are ready, and this is way too soon. Corn gathers it's strength for a time at the knee height stage, then bolts up and sets the tassels up top to pollenate the ears down below. The corn is just now gaining that height and no ears are even close to being ready. They're weeks away yet. But after tomorrow there won't be any more raccoon problem.

Also tilled what I could get to to discourage the weeds, and I've been waiting for the right day to clean out the chicken coop to get the high N2 bedding that has accumulated for the past year. I gave the corn some and have a large pile for next years garden. I still have the guinea fowl coop to clean out and rebed. I also gave the crucifers (far above) and basil a scoop each. They'll love it after the next rain.

I need to get some black radishes (nero tondo) in for autumn. Both we and the dogs love the things.

Edit: Whoops! Forgot... the blueberries are ripening and we're beginning to harvest them. Just hand picking at this point. Told the neighbors to come and pick, and other friends. We can't use them all and it's either us, neighbors and friends get them or the birds get them all. Better that humans get them but the birds will get their share as well. If the harvest was all ours it would be gallons of blueberries, but the bushes are so large that we just can't net the row over. I need to prune them way back but that can't happen until next march or april. I need to check with the extension service to see just how to do that. They've been in the ground for at least 25 years and the roots are fully established but I don't want to damage the plants.

Blueberries... my fav' way to eat them is a bowl of berries, some sour cream and honey. Mix together until the sour cream and honey form a sort of translucent syrup and just scarf it down. Blueberry coffee cake isn't bad either. I might make one this week since we have a week of cool weather.

Well I learned a tough lesson when I tilled (back in Aug). Mow the weeds down first. I thought I would take a short cut and just till weeds and all. Big mess. The thick tough 2 ft tall weeds wrapped around the tiller tines and I spend most of my time pulling wrapped hemp rope out of the tines.

After I planted and watered, it stopped raining. It didnt rain again till last week. Then it turned cool, with highs in the 70s. So I had 1 inch sprouts as the only thing green in sight. Then came some bugs just to munch on the tiny leaves that had sprouted. Now we are back in the 90s. Almost everything just stayed dormant till the rain and heat returned. Amazing. I had retilled the area where the taters WERE, and I have about 4 volunteers that popped up again. Must be from those acorn sized spuds I didnt keep for the table. None have blosommed yet so time will tell if these volunteers will actually make anything for me.

Beets are almost ready to pull. The cucumbers have bloomed with baby fingers under them. Tomatoes and peppers are still going strong but the stalks on the peppers are getting weak. The rainstorm we had snapped a few limbs so we had alot of small peppers to cut up for meatloaf, taco Tues etc. I may cage them next yr like tomatoes next yr.

All in all I dont think it was too much of a waste. If I plant twice in the same garden next yr I think I will start earlier, like mid to last week of July. I am going to have to research a weed barrier technique, like visqueen (plastic) or something along those lines.