That's great Dani! I love it when things start getting harvested...
. But really we wouldn't have it any other way.
I have done some dehydrating, some freezing and am making some B&B pickles right now. I'm getting better at it and of course I've given some away to some very appreciative folks. Your right. I wouldn't have it any other way. Loving every minute of it!How you going with everything you are harvesting @Dutchs are you preserving fast enough for your harvests and learning lots of new preserving skills ?. The trouble with growing lots of vegetables is it creates more work to turn those into advanced supplies of food
Harvested 4 smaller cherry tomatoes from the gardens yesterday, we have bred a frost resistant variety and they are doing well by saving seeds from plants that survived the frost over 4 years they have become acclimatised.
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Right again, right again! It's great fun to me. Hard work but fun and very rewarding.Good on you @Dutchs for taking the leap into self sufficiency with great gusto and enthusiasm. It is all a steep learning curve but well worth it for the money it saves us in our budgets on food. Lets face it you cannot get any fresher than plucking it from the vegetable gardens, bringing it inside and cooking and or preserving it straight away. After you have grown your own you realise just how tasteless most of the store bought varieties are.
Love you red potato harvest that is awesome
. Also I can guarantee the moment my kitchen looks like a natural disaster has happened all my friends will pop in for a visit too, most are not gardeners and just look at me like I keep my house like a pigsty 
. I just say oh hang on I will just catch that spider and or lady beetle and put it outside and don't worry I will sweep and mop when we are finished.
That's so funny! I just don't let it bother me. I just hope a mouse doesn't decide to visit while someone's there!!! It's hard to control it all in a weekend camper.......I do use the bugbombs and mouse poison but they go away for awhile and just come back. I keep fighting them!@Dutchs yes that is what our house looks like regularly and not to mention the spiders and lady beetles that crawl across the counters when we are processing and preserving the vegetables too
Sorry to hear you had some rough times TG. Let's hope it's better now and your plants all grow up to be awesome! I left my damn turnip leaves out cause it rained so much and wasn't paying attention and let them all ruin
danggit......Sorry to hear you had some rough times TG. Let's hope it's better now and your plants all grow up to be awesome! I left my damn turnip leaves out cause it rained so much and wasn't paying attention and let them all ruin
. Thank you for the information on the varieties of sweet turnips I will have to try them.
That's very awesome that you have enough for you and can help others who need it. that's what it's all about @Sewingcreations15 .......I harvested some more Cukes, Squash and onions, Froze some Greens beans and Pickled some cukes..... New pepper plants are looking really nice and watermelons and Sugar cube melons are coming along very nicely! Corn has ears on it and The Watermelon seeds i planted 3 weeks ago are giant plants now. Okra looks fantastic and flowers are coming up!! Found out I have some MAYPOP growing wild too...Waiting for them to ripen and going to use the leaves for tea and smoking!
The watermelon seed bag says Hybrid Sangria, I don't know much about that stuff yet but that"s what it said Peanut. I do understand the need or lack thereof for water though so I made sure each stretch of irrigation row has an on or off valve on them so I can full on water- partial- or not at all by individual row. Unfortunately where I am in Florida we have had one of the wettest May and Junes on record. Just been pouring the rain nearly every day. looks like it'e dying down now but I have lost some watermelons to rot on the vine and all my Lima Beans I got 20 individual beans from them, All the roots rotted.....Live and learn....Nothing i can do about Mother Nature.....@Dutchs Looks like Crimson Sweet watermelons you have there... It's a bad year for watermelons, cantaloupes and peaches. Where you live you need a dry late May and early June, me, I need a dry June. The last month melons and peaches get ripe, they need dry weather. Dry weather concentrates the sugars. Lots of water (rain) dilutes the sugars in the fruit and melons, even squash, lots of squash but not a lot of flavor. We've had tons of rain in the last 30 days... Not a good fruit or melon year, that's the way the ball bounces...
But, rain like this produces tremendous sweet corn, okra and peas. It's always a trade off... some plants do great, some, not so good.
I saw all the photos you posted about the watering system you installed, a good thing. Watering all of your plants the same... not a good thing. All of them need plenty of water at certain times as they grow, there are times when they don't need water, water is the last thing they need.
Next year I kindly recommend you plant your veggies next to each other according to water needs. You will have a pleasant result.
My sweet potatoes aren't doing that great. My sweet peppers look great though and I lost all my Lima beans but a couple dozen beans to rot from the rain. Watermelon looks great and sugar cube melons look great too. Red potatoes seem to be liking it and okra is getting big. Got all my onions up and it was a fairly good crop great flavor although not huge size. Still very good though. Looks like the rain is taking it's toll on radishes too. Asparagus is getting nice and big for first year they look great.
