Rainfall
- 5th: 0.01"
- 7th: 0.31"
- 8th: 0.19"
- 12th: 0.11"
- 13th: 0.51"
- 14th: 0.02"
- 16th: sprinkle
- 17th: 0.25"
- 19th: thunder
- 24th: 0.17"
- 25th: sprinkle
- 26th: 0.32"
- 28th: 0.03"
- 29th: 0.12"
- Total: 2.05 inches
Temperature
- range of nighttime lows: 57 to 72°F (14 to 22°C)
- range of daytime highs: 79 to 95°F (26 to 35°C)
Weather Notes:
- Fortunately, it hasn't gotten as hot as our weather forecasts have predicted!
- Small rainfall amounts are welcome, but tend to evaporate out of the ground quickly.
- With the fairly frequent rain showers, the humidity has been high and so has the heat index!
Garden Notes
- Every day has been busy with preserving. The month began with daily picking and canning of peaches, cucumber pickles, or greens. I've been able to rotate these in a way to keep busy but not overwhelmed.
- Sadly, something ate all of my dill transplants so I've had to buy dill for the pickles.
- The peas are about done. I'll have plenty of seed to save for next year. I should try some of the dried ones in soup this winter. Maybe make a pea powder?
- Lettuce all bolted by the end of the month, but little Swiss chard leaves are nice in salad.
- Cherry tomatoes came on toward the end of the month, so our salads are now mostly cucumber and tomato.
Planted
- sweet potato squash
- buckwheat
- sweet potato slips
Harvested
- peaches
- lettuce, cultivated
- lettuce, wild
- snow peas
- lambs quarter
- Swiss chard
- oregano
- mulberries
- cucumbers
- daikon radish
- broccoli bites
- beets
- carrot
- blueberries
- cherry tomatoes
- slicing tomatoes
- Egyptian walking onions
Preserved
So much abundance in your garden, Leigh! That colorful bowl of blueberries mixed in with all the other goodies is mouth-watering.
ReplyDeleteJust wondering how the texture holds up on the canned kale. Are you blanching it, cooking it or leaving it raw before canning? Glad you escaped the most severe heat. So many were affected.
Enjoy your day!
Daisy, that photo with the blueberries and cherry tomatoes is my current photo favorite. :)
DeleteI think maybe blanching the greens is the correct term(?) Raw pack is not recommended. The instructions say to simmer for about 5 minutes until wilted before filling the jars. For pints, pressure processing is for 70 minutes.
To me, the texture is just like cooked greens. I usually sautee them when I cook them fresh, but we loved home canned greens as a quick winter vegetable or for creamed greens soup.
Oops. Too many Es for "saute."
DeleteThe peaches look amazing! Can you reach them from the ground or do you need a ladder? I remember picking strawberries as a kid and the freshly-picked berries were absolutely delicious 😋
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, yes, we can pick them from the ground. It's a semi-dwarf tree. Freshly picked anything is the best!
DeleteI did see Sugar Snap Peas on your list - or did I just miss it. It is my favorite veggie. My sister grows them and one spring visit she gave me a lunch size brown bag of them to take home. I live about an hour away. They were all gone when we got home..:-)
ReplyDeleteRT, yes! Although I think I called them "snow peas." Sometimes I call them "edible pod peas," to avoid confusion, and because they are a variety of varieties. These are our favorite peas. :) I'm always sorry to see them finish their season.
DeleteLeigh, I pulled the last of my grains and my garlic (pictures tomorrow). I have replaced them with herbs and Jerusalem Spinach.
ReplyDeleteTB, I'm looking forward to that!
DeleteI just picked and shelled the last of my peas yesterday. It was a decent crop considering they were ate down to the roots three times by rabbits earlier this spring. We are currently harvesting carrots, potatoes, onions and garlic as needed. The garlic hopefully has a week to go before I harvest it and start drying it out. Overall, we've been getting good soaking rains often enough that everything is looking pretty good for yields. Hopefully that will continue on into fall.
ReplyDeleteEd, that's a good report on the survival of your peas. Sounds like the rest of your spring harvest is very nice. Good rainfall makes a world of difference.
DeleteYour garden harvest looks amazing. I'm awed by such early harvests, even though I totally understand the difference in climate and growing zones. I've only harvested some lettuce so far, although the herbs are almost ready to start using. I've got 3 cucumbers and 2 zucchini plants which are finally starting to look like they're growing, and will hopefully start producing in 3 - 4 weeks. The birds have been snipping off the tender shoots of my second planting of beans, which is irritating to say the least. We've lost almost 1/4 of the second crop plants. Kudos though to harvesting such lovely look peaches, cucumbers and even berries! They all look delicious.
ReplyDeleteNina, thanks! I'm guessing that by the time your harvest is in full swing, mine will be sluggish because of the heat.
DeleteWhat bounty! Hopped over from Quinn's blog, and as a longtime gardener and food preserver, I am put to shame by your efforts. I moved here to WV in 1974 to homestead, but today we just garden, raise some fruits and have chickens. Still putting up plenty of food, though!
ReplyDeleteGranny Sue, welcome! Actually, we're just plugging along, preserving whatever is in abundance. Isn't it nice to have a pantry with jars of your own homegrown, home preserved food? Nice that you're keeping at it. :)
DeleteLooks Great! The rains were slow to get going here and things I generally got in May didn't come ready till June. I did get 5qts leeks for the freezer, and 43# of peaches! That doesn't count what I ate fresh, gave to friends and fed to goats and chix. I only got a pint of blueberries, down to one bush and don't have a pollinator... Planted sweet potato slips, cow peas, miscellaneous popcorn just broadcast on a fallow goat paddock, The wild turkeys have worked that over...
ReplyDeleteRain is coming down now!
Annie, sounds like you've been busy! Everything depends on the weather, doesn't it? In summer when it's hot, it seems like we just can't get enough rain. I hope yours is abundant!
Delete