Sharing the garden booty with the neighbors

sassafraspete · Jul 30, 2005

Have you shared your garden booty with the neighbors? I had a real hoot today, watching the neighbor kids (5 and 3 ), visit my garden . I've been growing some big pumpkins for them and they got their first look at them today. The facial expressions and eyes were fun to watch. These are pumpkins that are already too big to lift. Definately FEL material. They are still growing, too. They helped me pick corn, peppers, cucumbers, egg plant. After that , I turned them loose with their mom on my tomato patch. Their mom picked pole beans while the kids went after the small tomatoes. You would have thought they had struck gold or something. I think they were planning an all vegatable dinner tonight. In the age of fast food, I think I did something right today.

Meanwhile , my corn was ready to freeze. Unfortunately my boss was gone this weekend, so me, the underling....was left in charge of putting up the corn crop in the freezer. One FEL bucket load later, and a few hrs of shucking, getting the corn cleaned and then blanched and bagged, and in the freezer. I managed to end up with 22 quart bags....my first picking. Once again , the FEL comes in handy as I had dumped all my shucks, and corn cobs in, and off I went to the back field. I jumped up a doe bedded down right by my garden. She was probably thinking about having her own snack. Fortunately, my 14 lb test fishing line fence is doing a darn good job of keeping the deer out. Seems kind of wierd, but it is working.

I don't know how many ears of corn I ate today.... a hazzard when I am putting up corn. On top of the ones I ate while cooking the corn... I ended up with 3 ears and some tomatoes on my plate for supper. I think I could give the racoons a run for their money.

Just another day in the country... a fun day at that.

sassafraspete

Cityboyfarmer · Jul 31, 2005

Yes, and its great fun! I haven't gardened in the last few years, mainly because of the extended drought in my area, but I had two small garden plots back in the late 90's that did extremely well. Corn, okra, water melons, tomatos, cucumbers, yellow & zuchinni squash, purple hull peas and zipper hull peas. At the time we lived in a community of mostly older folks and they all gardened a little too. Sometimes things grew so fast I'd call the neighbors to bring their 5 gallon buckets to help pick and carry home what they wanted. Had so much zuchinni squash one year, my wife baked zuchinni bread for all the neighbor folks. I would have spring and fall gardens each year.

Reading your posts has gotten me thinking about getting started vegitable gardening again. Brings back fun memories. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Birdman · Jul 31, 2005

My neighbor came over yesterday with his 5 year old son, they wanted to go down to the river and wade and ride their ATV. When they got back I handed my neighbor a sack to get some cukes from the garden, the little one grabbed the sack and started filling it up. He saw the peppers and said "hey can I have some of these." They left with a whole bag full of food.

TOMLESCOEQUIP · Jul 31, 2005

We get the neighbors together for a cookout & use my LP turkey frier for cooking up dozens of ears of corn for a big corn roast.............its always a big hit with the local neighbors & the area kids have a great time !!

ByronBob · Aug 1, 2005

It's just nice to read things like this to remember that neighbors can be friends also. With the local paper having death, mayhem and negativitity in it, I'll come here for some inspiring thoughts. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

_RaT_ · Aug 1, 2005

I forget the comedians name but he said, "people in our little town lock their car doors not to keep people from breaking in and stealing them, but to keep the neighbors from leaving bags of zucchini in them." This rings somewhat true. We have neighbors bringing over much more then we could ever use. It's nice though. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

rswyan · Aug 1, 2005

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Have you shared your garden booty with the neighbors? )</font>

Yes - though we've mostly been limited to sharing cucumbers, zuchinni, and yellow crookneck thus far - but the peppers, eggplant, and beans are finally starting to come on. We've given it away to the neighbor who let me have all his sheep manure, the neighbors whose grandson is always coming down and helping out with chores around here, and to some friends of ours who have fallen on hard times (husband is out of a job) .... also my daughter-in-law has been taking produce into the office where she works and handing it out. From what I understand it is well received /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

And I've been sharing quite a bit of the corn, which is not ready yet, with the local deer population. So much so that last evening I started to put up an electric fence.

Last night I grilled some ribeye's and the wife cooked up a pan of yellow squash and onions .... was very tasty ....... but I'm really looking forward to some beans.

This is the first year we've planted a garden in awhile ...... the local paper used to hold a contest for the largest zuchinni grown .... these things have a way of getting away from you if you don't keep a real close eye on them ..... anyways, one year we came in like second or third place with a monster zuchinni. This year I had one that was starting to get pretty big and I was going to let it go ... but the daughter-in-law picked it before I could gen her in on the plan .... so I've let a couple more go and they are now getting huge ..... probably better than 20" long and 6" in diameter.