Beans, Garlic, Fishing, Tomatoes, Sandhills, Rudy’s, And First Melon

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We are getting a lot of beans.  More than we can keep up with eating fresh.  I already have about 50 frozen quarts of them, so I started pickling them.

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I jam them into the jar by hand, filling as much of the jar as I can.

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That is what they look like when done.  Pickling solution is what I do carrots in.  Pickling spices, garlic, fresh ginger, hot peppers, sugar, vinegar, and water.

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The garlic was all cured, so I cut it for storage.  Much of what I have this year was grown from bulbils instead of full size cloves.  Above is a Spanish Rojo.  Just 4 cloves there, and though much smaller than if grown from a large clove, each of those 4 should give me a large head of garlic.

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This is another one grown from a bulbil, and curiously, at its roots it formed more single individual cloves.  Have not had this happen before.  Curious anyway.

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Hardy German bulbils are tiny, but each one still gives you a single good sized clove.  All of these are going to get replanted this fall.

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Claire and I took an hour to pull panfish from The Narrows near where we live (a canal between two bays of Lake Minnetonka).

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Just fun to catch fish nearly as fast as you can cast and reel in your line.

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All of my tomato plants are loaded with green tomatoes.  Above is plant #3 of the F4 Lauerer/Terhune cross.

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Nell’s Sweethearts have outgrown 60″ supports, and have grown down into the compost bin I have them planted next to.  Have never grown anything here intentionally before, but these tomatoes apparently love it.

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Super Canabec tomato plants are loaded, and at least 3X larger than they have been any previous year.  They are breaking the bamboo supports they are tied into.  Not a lot I can do about that now except wait for the fruits to ripen.

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Just a shot of the front garden with Patti and Baby Violet grazing on Siberian Galina cherry tomatoes.

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This photo shows the hybrid I have been growing out, being an F3 this year, from fruits gleaned from an old garden after frost a few years ago.  The 3 plants I kept and put into the ground all had approx same growth early, and it has stayed consistent between all of the plants.  What they are is much larger than last year.  These two plants are occupying an area more than 6 feet wide and 7 feet tall.

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On the way to and from the Ness Farm garden we have been seeing Sandhill cranes.  Just fun to see them.  They are huge birds, and I got a couple of shots of a pair only 70 yards or so from the road.

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We took an afternoon with our friends Rudy & Rita for swimming, dinner, and admiring Rudy’s garden.  He really intensively plants an area between the swimming pool and driveway, about 10 X 30′, running most plants up bent re-bar cages.

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Cucumbers and pole beans are on 10′ high cage systems, while tomatoes and squashes are on 5′ cage systems.

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As you can see, even his zuc plants get 6′ high done this way.

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Rudy is who taught me how to make saurkraut, and his cabbages are looking great.

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Baby Violet enjoyed playing around the pool, but spent more time in a splash pool than the big one.  She did like throwing all of the pool toys in though.

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Claire jumping in, Phoebe on a floating mat.

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Baby Vi trying to escape getting dried off and dressed.

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Some cuddle time for mommy and baby.

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And last but not least, just the first of the melons I have found growing in my backyard.  It is about a foot long already, but no where near full size or ripe.  <grin> Looking forward to it ripening and the subsequent eating of it.  Hoping that these show the great eating traits of their parent fruits.

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2 Responses to Beans, Garlic, Fishing, Tomatoes, Sandhills, Rudy’s, And First Melon

  1. Steve Tweed says:

    Very nice, Tom!