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Post by 12540dumont on Aug 18, 2011 18:44:12 GMT -5
Joseph, I feel for you. My dear spouse snapped off my seed pumpkin, while re-arranging it out of the path. There's not another 100 days to get another. dagnabit.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Aug 19, 2011 7:33:41 GMT -5
Oh my stars and stripes. I am so sorry to hear about that. Do you know the person well enough that you can educate them? Explain why the zukes needed to remain on the vine? Do you have spare seed from last year? I sure hope you didn't loose a year of breeding. =o(
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 19, 2011 8:49:42 GMT -5
No clue who did it.
No left over seed.
One year lost.
I guess it's karma saying (with a push/wave of the hand) "You don't want to be working with pepos..... This is not the squash you are looking for."
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Post by ottawagardener on Aug 19, 2011 11:32:06 GMT -5
Aack. You reminded me why I insist on doing most of the work in the garden. I'm the conductor and everyone else can't hear the song.
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Post by bunkie on Aug 19, 2011 18:22:04 GMT -5
sorry to hear of the zuc seed trouble joseph. your CSA baskets are beautiful!
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 26, 2011 15:44:33 GMT -5
This week's CSA basket (August 24th):  Contained: Ashworth se sweet corn (the last of the Ashworth, starting on the Astronomy Domine patch next week), green onions, leeks, carrots, apples, cucumbers, slicing onions, green onions, fantasy eggplant, summer squash, the first slicing tomatoes, sweet pepper, jalapeño, and new potatoes. |
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Post by 12540dumont on Aug 26, 2011 17:14:11 GMT -5
Joseph, I'm always struck by how similar our baskets are, I had leeks, onions, potatoes and cucumbers. I'm out of corn till September (due to pigs), I'm shy on peppers and eggplants, but I had a lot of melons, green beans and tomatoes coming out of my ears. I've picked a lot of squash, so I'm filling in with it till I have greens again. These were the extra's that I took to a shop for sale. Last week they were paying $1.50 a pound. This week only $1.00 per pound. I sold 52 pounds and I've run another 50 through the dehydrator. Attachments:
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Post by 12540dumont on Aug 26, 2011 17:14:47 GMT -5
Oh, and I forgot to say...I'm green with envy over those apples.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 27, 2011 11:22:13 GMT -5
If someone shows up at the farmer's market with a lot of something that I don't have in my baskets I may buy/barter enough for the baskets. (This week the apples.) My daddy also provides some things for my baskets since we both go to two markets together. (This week the green onions.)
Perhaps in a week or two I will have enough tomatoes to put some on the table.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 1, 2011 9:42:44 GMT -5
CSA baskets for August 31st. Contained: jalapeño pepper, poblano pepper, bell pepper, Egyptian onions, apricots (not in photo), tomatoes, yellow onions, potatoes, summer squash, cucumbers, astronomy domine sweet corn, and the first of the fall planted turnips, but they ended up being slightly woody.  |
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Post by mnjrutherford on Sept 2, 2011 4:04:01 GMT -5
You have such a unique artistry when you arrange your photos Joseph. The corn is just amazing.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 2, 2011 22:48:30 GMT -5
I spent the day harvesting onions. Pulled about 800 row feet of onions and left them on the ground to dry. About 1-2 weeks ago I started stepping on the tops to stop their growth if they hadn't already fallen over.  While taking breaks from bending over so much, I had time to play with plant breeding. I harvested a patch of radish seeds, and I washed two batches of potato seeds that were done fermenting, and I started a couple batches of tomato seeds fermenting, and I marked segregating corn seeds with a Sharpie marker, and I harvested some corn seed from the frost tolerant landrace, and I cooked up a pot of beans, ham, and tomatoes using the snap/dry bean landrace that I winnowed seed from yesterday, and I weeded the strawberry patch, and since they are day-neutrals - strawberries were my lunch, and I sorted pea seeds. And I took a mid-afternoon nap in my hammock under the only shade-tree in the onion fields.  As I type this I'm eating the beans. This is the first time I have ever eaten snap bean seeds as a dry bean. They are very acceptable and I plan on growing more next year. This is in partial fulfillment of the "Grow and eat more of your own food challenge" that was issued by Atash and others. I've forgot the exact title of the post, and I'm way too tired to want to look it up.  And of course I had to participate in my favorite plant breeding activity today: Taking photos of Astronomy Domine sweet corn:  And finally, the weather has turned markedly cooler. I'm feeling nostalgic because another year has come and is all but gone. We had dew this morning. A sure sign that the first fall frost is days away. |
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Post by 12540dumont on Sept 2, 2011 22:56:03 GMT -5
I thought I smelt fall, it must be coming from your farm. I'm still a few months away, but have spent all morning pulling beans out of the field. Dry beans, green beans, beans of all nations. We picked load after load of tomatoes and keep checking that dry corn.
Hey Joseph, when do you stop irrigating your flour corn? It's been in the 90's here (but dropping to the 50's at night). So I'm still irrigating.
Ohh those onions are purty!
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 2, 2011 23:27:00 GMT -5
Hey Joseph, when do you stop irrigating your flour corn? It's been in the 90's here (but dropping to the 50's at night). So I'm still irrigating. I keep saying that next year I will plan far enough ahead to be able to make that decision.... When I water I have to water a section of garden 120 feet wide, so if I plant tomatoes next to the flour corn patch, and the tomatoes need water then the flour corn gets water even if it doesn't need it and could be damaged by it. This is particularly troublesome with pea seed. I end up picking the dry pea seeds immediately before turning on the sprinklers. In an ideal world where I could water only the crops I wanted to water, I would stop watering the flour corn when it's just past the milk stage and the outer leaves on the husk start getting a hint of dryness about them. The problem with sprinkle irrigating corn after the late milk stage is that the water can get into the cob and cause mold, or the seeds can split, or start germinating. I'm fond of removing the husks from the corn while it is still in the field and letting it dry a while longer on the stalk. This can minimize the mildew problems. I don't have animal problems except for pheasants, and they rarely eat anything over a foot off the ground. Oh duh!!!! I love the collaboration of this group.  If I wanted to spend $450 I could replace my current rain-birds with reciprocating heads so that I could have more control over what got watered. It would help if I only upgraded one set of pipe. That would give me lots of options regarding water. I could space my seed crops to match the spray pattern of the irrigation system. Oh my gosh!!!! And while we're asking questions... When is the ideal time to plant garlic (based for example on days before/after frost and/or snow cover). |
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Post by steev on Sept 3, 2011 0:17:15 GMT -5
I especially like that orange ear.
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If I wanted to spend $450 I could replace my current rain-birds with reciprocating heads so that I could have more control over what got watered. It would help if I only upgraded one set of pipe. That would give me lots of options regarding water. I could space my seed crops to match the spray pattern of the irrigation system. Oh my gosh!!!!