My father in law is a produce farmer and once grew over 500 acres -now about 70, a year of sweet corn, several types of tomatoes, potatoes, onions, squash, and pumpkins. I generally do not like corn, but very VERY few people have ever tasted fresh sweet corn just 24-48 hours picked. You don't even need butter on it when you roast it!
That's right. We call them "roasting ears." That stuff you buy in the stores cannot compare to a freshly harvested ear of sweet corn.
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Staying Busy REPENTING and DOING THE FIRST WORKS
Oh no. However, I do can a lot of it. This year I am going to try my hand at dehydrating. Not sure how that is going to work out. I also give a lot away to some of my neighbors. I suspect this year, I will probably use a turning plough to turn some of it under to add nitrogen to the soil.
Something I haven't tried yet is sun dried tomatoes (or dehydrator dried tomatoes). That seems like it would be neat to can. Put them in a nice olive oil.
Something I haven't tried yet is sun dried tomatoes (or dehydrator dried tomatoes). That seems like it would be neat to can. Put them in a nice olive oil.
Sun dried tomatoes are really great if you do not slice them too thin. If you slice them too large, they don't dry properly before mold sets in. Trial and error is the best way to learn but once you learn how, there's nothing like it and it is the best way to preserve since canning destroys so much of the nutrients from heat. I will be trying my hand at it later on.
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Staying Busy REPENTING and DOING THE FIRST WORKS
Sun dried tomatoes are really great if you do not slice them too thin. If you slice them too large, they don't dry properly before mold sets in. Trial and error is the best way to learn but once you learn how, there's nothing like it and it is the best way to preserve since canning destroys so much of the nutrients from heat. I will be trying my hand at it later on.
Here is the question than. Can a dehydrator make the process a little more idiot proof?
Here is the question than. Can a dehydrator make the process a little more idiot proof?
Well, as I said above, this will be my first year to try it. I guess I will discover for myself. If anyone ever needed anything "idiot proof"..... Anyway, the old technique of pressure cooker canning is so second nature it's hard to see how anyone can go wrong with that ol' timey method. Since I will have more produce this year than I've had in a long, long time, I am thinking I might build an outdoor chimney styled solar dryer. But, if I do that this year, I'm going to have to time my planting so that everything does not make at one time and overwhelm (me) the system. I'm the system....
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Staying Busy REPENTING and DOING THE FIRST WORKS
Something I haven't tried yet is sun dried tomatoes (or dehydrator dried tomatoes). That seems like it would be neat to can. Put them in a nice olive oil.
Home grown heirloom tomatoes, dried in a dehydrator. They are AMAZING. I used to dry them and store them in gallon size glass jars. I would do 5 to 6 jars every summer and it was never enough!
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"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we’ve got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition — and then admit that we just don’t want to do it."
-Steven Colbert
I'm not the best gardener. I have perennials including strawberries, mulberries, oregano, thyme, chives, lambs ear, mint, and gooseberries. I'll also get a handful of asparagus, grapes and cherries (the plants aren't mature yet). I also plan to plant broccoli and some sorts of leaf vegetables--spinach, lettuce, or kale probably.
You have cherry PLANTS??? We have a cherry TREE, but I've never seen a cherry plant
My two favorite seasons of the year are STRAWBERRY season (last week of May thru about the 3rd week of June) and CORN season (about the 4th of July thru the end of August). There is nothing in the world like fresh, homegrown, picked-an-hour-ago Ohio corn!! Sweet, sweet, sweet!!!
When we were kids, we grew huge gardens and canned everything alllllllllllll summer long!! We started canning when strawberries came in; always seemed to be the very next day after school got out for the summer. We'd have to go to the fields by 6:00 a.m. so we could get the best berries, then go home, wash jars, clean berries, help make strawberry jam and freeze the rest.
My dad farmed my grandma's acreage. So we spent a whole lot of time following behind the tractor doing things like planting field corn or potatoes or tomatoes. I don't ever remember ever having to fill in the soy beans tho Then we'd have to weed our gardens. Then help harvest and can all that stuff. Plus, we always raised our own cows, pigs, chickens, rabbits, sheep (just 3 or 4 times for those). So of course, we had to help on butchering day.
And now you want to know why I buy most of my stuff at the grocery store or the meatmarket or the farmers market??
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Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of a battle ! ! ! !
You have cherry PLANTS??? We have a cherry TREE, but I've never seen a cherry plant
My two favorite seasons of the year are STRAWBERRY season (last week of May thru about the 3rd week of June) and CORN season (about the 4th of July thru the end of August). There is nothing in the world like fresh, homegrown, picked-an-hour-ago Ohio corn!! Sweet, sweet, sweet!!!
When we were kids, we grew huge gardens and canned everything alllllllllllll summer long!! We started canning when strawberries came in; always seemed to be the very next day after school got out for the summer. We'd have to go to the fields by 6:00 a.m. so we could get the best berries, then go home, wash jars, clean berries, help make strawberry jam and freeze the rest.
My dad farmed my grandma's acreage. So we spent a whole lot of time following behind the tractor doing things like planting field corn or potatoes or tomatoes. I don't ever remember ever having to fill in the soy beans tho Then we'd have to weed our gardens. Then help harvest and can all that stuff. Plus, we always raised our own cows, pigs, chickens, rabbits, sheep (just 3 or 4 times for those). So of course, we had to help on butchering day.
And now you want to know why I buy most of my stuff at the grocery store or the meatmarket or the farmers market??
i was reading this post remembering with fondness my childhood... then you got to that part about weeding and I had a flashback!
one friday evening my dad told me the next morning we had to go to the field and pull some weeds.
Now my dad was a soybean farmer and we had about 3000 acres. "the field" was Wolf Ridge. it was 110 acres.
dad got me up way before daylight and we ate breakfast and that was kind of cool even though it was dark outside.
we got to the field just as the sun was cracking the tops of the trees on the far end of this 110 acre field. this field was full of Cuckle Burrs. I asked dad how many we were going to pull and he said all of them.
I knew right then I was not going to be a farmer!
__________________ If I do something stupid blame the Lortab!
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