2020 gardens

[Sonny580]

trays of spuds going in the freeze-dryer. These are early norlands and they are not a long storage type so we are going to try this on them.--first time for spuds--didnt get a chance to try them 2 years ago and last year due to health problems,we didnt get anything freeze-dried so now we see.



One of the spuds like the ones cut/cubed in the trays. cubes are approx. 5/8", so we are starting with that size and go from there.

 

[DJ54]

I got of the 3 rows of potatoes I planted dug yesterday, will do the other 2 today. I had 2 rows of Yukon Gold, and 3 rows of Chieftain Reds. The Reds produced better than the yellows, but can't complain for the weather we had this summer. Quite a dry spell, and temps in the 90's for a lot of July had to stress all plants. Rows were approx. 80' long. Yellows averaged 60 lbs. perrow, Reds 80 lbs per row. I was amazed there were no problems with potato bugs this year.

Next year, I need to see if the place I buy my seed potatoes has the Katahdins we planted years ago. A good all purpose white potato, and good keeper. These will be mostly donated to food banks, where they are distributed out in small amounts, so long term storage, I doubt will happen.

 

[oldballs]

Those are good looking potatoes. Never saw a Yukon that round ....but there is a lot that I have not seen. Love that diggin machine. Thanks for the pics.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Jstpssng]

Yes, that digger is a classic... I would love to have something that size Around here I usually see them as lawn ornaments; let's put a piece of rusty iron in the front yard and call it art!

I was talking to a woman about canning yesterday and she said that her mother told her she couldn't can baked beans but she did it anyways. I asked what she had for a pressure canner... she doesn't have one.
Fortunately the Botulism bacteria isn't common here.

 

[DJ54]

Not from the garden, but I canned up some chicken, and beef yesterday. Been wanting to try it for years, just now getting around to it. I love my vegetable soup, and make it quite often in cooler weather. Should cut down on time needed to make soup, or other dishes.

There are still a few of those useable diggers around for sale. I've watched for sale ads for a couple of years, before finding this one. Got a deal on a planter,digger, and a 3 pt. hiller off a local guy who had a small operation selling at farmer's markets. Switching his interests to popcorn. He said he spends a lot less time growing the popcorn, and apparently got a good deal on some processing equipment. He raises 35 acres of it, and said he has a good market for it.

There are more than several approved recipe's out there for things like baked beans. Here's one from the National Center for Home Food Preservation. National Center for Home Food Preservation | How Do I? Can Vegetables For the price of even premium brands in the store, sounds like a lot of time involved, unless a person wants to be a true homesteader. I've canned navy beansand ham, using a recipe from the Ball Blue Book. There's just some daysa person gets hungry for them, but don't want to have to wait, or have time that particular day to make them from scratch. These, you heat in a pan, pop some corn bread in the oven, and when the cornbread is done, the beans are heated through, and ready to eat. Some good fried fresh sausage, and fried potatoes for on the side are optional.

It will be interesting this year, with the glut of newbie gardeners, and the one's who saw their gardens through, and preserve it. Canning isn't exactly rocket science, but there are rules that need to be followed for safe canning. From the shortage of nearly every involved with canning, from lids/flats as we call them, to pressure canners, & jars, I'm guessing we'll see a lot of unused items for sale later this year, or next. Or some barely used products after many see how much work is involved, mainly raising it, let alone the preservation part. There are still many of us, that, that is the way we were raised, and still enjoy doing it. I guess having parents that lived through the Depression, and raising and preserving food was their way of life.

 

[Sonny580]

My parents made it thru the depression and taught me that you need to take charge and grow as much of your own food as you can then preserve it for later use. That is one thing the freeze-dryer does for us. if we cant grow anything next year we still will have food. We have canned goods from a few years ago and it is still good too,---IF you do it right and use common sence, this stuff is a lot safer than store stuff! ---We also are canning more this year---got supplies in Feb. so good in that department. We also have 5 freezers about full of goodies so winter wont be much of a problem as far as food for us.

 

[herm0016]

we can every year, and are garden gets better and better, and we give stuff away. so we always need more jars / lids and such. we just went on a jar mission and did well at a walmart one town over, several cases of quarts, some half gal and a few others, plus lids and bands. the tractor supply, Murdoch's, local Walmart and grocery stores near us are all out. We have about 2 or 3 gal of pickles, a few gal of tomatoes, peach pie filling and peach salsa, cocktail cherries, peaches in juice, 8 eating pumpkins, and a few other things already in the cellar this year. I had to spend 2 days redoing all the shelving to fit everything we plan on storing.

 

[Sonny580]

Shelves do become a problem in time, but well worth expanding when needed. We were lucky to have 1 whole wall in the basement with 3 rows high of big shelves for jars and have them about full.

 

[herm0016]

ours is an 8 ft long 4 ft wide closet that is concrete on 2.5 sides. i insulated the 1/2 stud wall and the short side with a door, and covered the studs with OSB. its a great, cool and dry place to store garden production, but small.

 

[Sonny580]

First batch of the season from the freeze-dryer ----switched from potatoes to sweetcorn for a couple batches then back to potatoes.
trays of fresh corn dry and ready to bag/box up.