Look At What I Picked Today!

The garden is busy this month, and summer isn't over yet! We have approximately 6 - 8 weeks of good summer weather left!

I must tell you, I am thrilled with my popcorn harvest! Growing popcorn isn't like growing sweet corn (we don't eat sweet corn). It is much easier to grow. It is a 'plant it, and forget it' type of crop. I didn't use any chemicals on it. (Well, I did feed it last month with a chemical fertilizer so technically, I did use chemicals - but the non-organic among us will understand what I mean!) It stayed bug free all season. The husks seem to be wrapped a bit tighter and the corn starts out much harder than sweet corn. No problem with worms at all! Picking it today, I noticed some ants enslaving aphids, but they were not on the ears of corn so I just sprayed them with the hose before I added the stalks to the compost pile.

Tomatoes are everywhere. At first I was thinking I wasn't going to can some sauce but now I am having second thoughts. I have given away so many tomatoes, I don't know what to do with them! Making sauce may be in the works for next month.

Also picked but not in the picture are 1 gallon of green beans and a pint of strawberries. (They didn't fit on the chair!) The strawberries are doing great this year because we are having cooler than normal weather. As a reminder, these are ever bearing strawberries, not June bearing. Ever bearing will produce strawberries all summer long - well into November here in the south.

The green beans will reach peak soon and I am so glad I bought a new canner this year! This canner will work outside on the grill. No electricity needed to pressure can green beans any more!

Watch for a post on how to pressure can foods without electricity next month!