Let The Harvest Games Begin

Let The Harvest Games Begin

We'll rush to get it all harvested, it's always a mad rush, getting everything chopped, blanched, dehydrated, canned, dried, and otherwise put up.  Generally all while working in a 87+ degree kitchen.  We purchased a propane turkey fryer burner a couple years back, it's a lifesaver to be able to get large quantities of hot water going in the back yard for blanching veggies as well as for canning, (canners dump constant steam into the kitchen for an hour and a half at a time.)

Rose already has some herbs drying in the kitchen, the herbs are all doing well.

Raspberries around the farm are starting to come in, it's always the hottest part of the summer...  Blackberries aren't too far behind. Our blueberries all seem to be coming in one berry at a time...  not ideal.  Berries all get washed, and frozen in small batches then added to a larger bag once they are all in.

This week we picked and put up some Kale, it hasn't been through the frost yet, (a frost makes the kale sweeter). Swiss chard and soon, turnips (maybe this weekend)

Kale before blanching.

Squash are setting buds and small squash, our tomatoes have lots of buds... we were late putting them in so we're a couple weeks behind.

Storms came through last night Wed evening, not much in the way of rain I saw Mass. got hit good.

And the sky grew dark...

Potatoes are growing like weeds with all this rain, once we get the heat back they'll be no stopping them.

Did I tell you the Turkeys came back? We had a tom and hen with some poults stop by the deer yard, I never saw the Tom, Rose did, they've been here twice that we know of, they aren't being a pain, dogs don't seem interested, they'll polish off any grain the deer don't finish. As long as they don't make a mess of the yard, or the deer yard we're OK with them. 

The yard is blooming like crazy

The Herb buckets are doing well

Basil

 Rosemary and Turnips below that Rose planted for me

 

 Turnip

I was adding mulch to the potato bed late this afternoon, I mowed the lawn, damn it was hot, I was surprised at the levels of compost, leaves to. still in the garden beds.  We cooked up a batch of Swiss chard for dinner, twas good, I need to cook it for a little longer than I did.

Turkey's and four or five poults came back Thursday afternoon..

 

Rose is working in the dining room this week, she's pulling all the teapots down, cleaning, and re-arranging. 

 

We're replacing the clothes dryer, we have a bad case of might as wells, so we're replacing the bathroom floor as long as the washer and dryer are already out of the room.  This'll be my first foray into installing some of that snap together waterproof vinyl plank flooring, ought to be fun.

Stay safe out there