3rd week of August 2009

Red Noodle Yard Long Beans August has announced its arrival with humid 90 degree days. The heat is fine for sitting in front of fans but not ideal for pulling weeds during the day and some sections of the garden seem to be overtaken with very tall weeds. Today I marked off an area in the potato patch and the older bean rows and had Olin mow them with the tractor and sickle bar mower. That really makes things look better quickly and hopefully will stop the weeds from going to seed all over the garden. We are also pulling onions from among the weeds and it's nice to look back and see a clean bed ready for a fall crop of radishes or turnips. I also need to get busy and weed in my greenhouse and cold frame areas so they are ready for planting and for the folks coming to the cold frame seminars on our farm soon. Visitors are a good motivation to whip the garden into shape.

Dried Zuchini Chips More fun veggies are coming ripe this season. Here our toddler is having fun with the Red Noodle yard long beans that are almost as tall as he is! Folks are really amazed that beans come in that length. I'm also learning to eat "Greezy Corn Beans" which is a southern specialty pole bean which I grew for the first time this year. Another veggie that evokes great curiosity are the Mexican Sour Gherkins or Mouse Melons. They look so much like minature watermelons that you almost expect them to be red inside rather than look like a pickle. When I add some of these unique veggies to my displays one of my goals is to amaze them about the wonderful and diverse things in God's Creation.

With more food coming out of the garden than we can eat fresh it's time to be putting things up for the winter. I've been lacto fermenting more cucumbers and sauerkraut plus canning tomato sauce. I've also been making good use of my dehydrator for teas and stevia. Some new things I'm trying to dry this year are leeks and zucchini chips. After slicing them with the Bluffton slicer, I sprinkled garlic and cheese popcorn seasoning on the zucchini and yellow squash. They were dry in about 12 hours and crisp like potato chips. I learned this trick from a Lehmans employee and am excited about a tasty way to make use of all the zucchini.

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