Gearing Up for the Next Project!

Tilling For End of Season.

Sunday was an all around great day on the farm... the weather was perfect...not too hot, gorgeous sunshine and a slight hint of crispy autumn-like breezes in the shade. We accomplished a lot with a full work-day on the farm. We spent a huge portion of the day cutting grass all around the garden, the pumpkin patch and bush-hogging both clover plots. Once this was finished, we tilled up the "other" side of the pumpkin patch that did not recover from the thinning of the vines we did a few weekends ago. Hubby quickly tilled up that side of the patch and then we fertilized the soil and planted new orange pumpkin seeds.

An extra row between the corn stalks where the planter missed some seeds in the original patch planting...

The couple of sunflowers that made it from the deer feast earlier in July.

Next, we started the dreadful end-of-season task of removing the old plants from the garden in preparation of tilling the soil for fall plantings. Pulling up the stakes, removing the ties and cages, etc...

Removed the tomato and cucumber plants...

Pulling up the fence posts we used to support the twine for the cucumber vines to run up...

And then we tilled up that side of the garden.

This area where we tilled up the tomatoes and cucumber was also where we had our zucchini, squash, eggplants, cabbages and first planting of corn. We left the three rows in the middle intact since the green beans, okra and peppers are still producing. Oh, and Hubby loves his tiller.

Next up, we tilled where the second planting of corn, our first attempt at pumpkins and watermelons and the three rows of long peas...

Hate to see the beautiful purple-hull pea plants go, but they were all but finished producing and it is time to prep for autumn plantings!

Looks like two hot dogs really like freshly turned over soil for napping and cooling off!

And finally here Hubby is re-installing the perimeter fencing at the end of the day.

Pickled Okra.

One of my most favorite foods in the world is pickled okra. I am partial to Wickles pickled okra to say the least - every fine grocery store sells it. And I absolutely love it! And one of my goals as we continue to learn to farm and preserve our homegrown fruits and veggies is to perfect our own version of pickled okra. With that being said, I realized that even though we have two very long rows of okra in our current garden, it really is not going to produce enough okra to merit the process of pickling what we harvest. However, in conversation with a dear old friend of mine (who is the pickling/preserving/canning guru) told me that if found her the fresh cut okra she would pickle it for me! Holy cow - it was an offer I could not go by. So I got on the horn quick...

I was very fortunate to get permission last week to pick okra in the farmer's large garden up in town. Hubby was out of town for work most of the week so I made my way to their garden on my own to pick from their three super uber long rows of okra... My view started out like this in the first two side-by-side rows:

I opted to walk up the middle of the rows to try and catch both rows from one vantage point.... This was a great idea other than the fact that the plants are so darn tall and some of the okra was so big on the tall shoots that it had pulled the trunks down. And why is this so bad? Well let me tell you how bad the okra makes your skin ITCH! And those plants also include every insect known to man on them... so a whole lot of swatting and thumping bugs was going on while the other hands were holding and cutting the okra in between all the scratching of my arms hands and face.

So many HUGE okra pieces! Way too big for pickling (or eating for that matter)... Someone should have spent some more time picking earlier in the season.

Such a beautiful backdrop though!

And the garden overall view in the sunset was gorgeous too!

I was successful in picking about 6 gallons before dark and hand delivered it to my friend.

And here is the finished product! Great birthday gift!!

We wound up picking again this past Saturday morning... Hubby and I both made our way up and picked about four more gallons.

Beautiful morning view.

Great view of my own okra-picker!

A Week on the Farm.

Sorry for the lack of posts in the past 7 days... just so super busy! Hubby's been traveling and I just cannot seem to keep caught up w/ everything going on in our world. Plus, I had a huge birthday this past Wednesday and it has been one celebration after another...

Here are some random photos over the past week:

The "good" side of the pumpkin patch (the white pumpkins) is still kicking!

Tuesday's harvest!

Lots of baby pumpkins all down the long runners.

First sunflower has bloomed... of the few that actually did not get mowed down by the deer early on.

Unfortunately, some of the baby pumpkins are hit by insects, etc. early on... seems to be happening a lot so far. Bummer.

Some other insect is drilling small holes into the pumpkins too. Not sure what at this time... or what to do.

Big Boy.

Today's Haul.

Farm Logo.

Check out our new logo for the farm...Just the first step in gearing up for selling our fruits and vegetables in 2014!

First Pumpkin!

Finally made it back over to the farm yesterday evening in between rain storms to pick in the garden... So much okra! It's worth the effort to clip it even though it's super itchy and sticky... We are going to fry us up some with green tomato chunks this weekend!! But, in other news...

The good side of the pumpkin patch is still thriving and all those little bitty pumpkins are now 2-3 inch diameter and check out our first go-getter of the patch!!!

So darn exciting! I would say 8 inch diameter and probably weighing 8-10 pounds so far... so praying the bugs and fungus stay away!

And the corn is now showing silk after tasseling earlier in the week...

We are still analyzing the other half of the pumpkin patch to see if the few vines we left behind will show evidence of growth... so far not so good. Hmmmm we shall see!

Today's Harvest!

Pumpkin Watch.

Unfortunately, we have not made it over the farm since Monday night due to all this crazy on-again-off-again stormy weather... but, I wanted to share a few photos I took of the "good" side of the pumpkin patch:

Lots of little baby pumpkins everywhere... especially along their long runners.

Still lush and green next to the corn in the sunset.

And they just keep on running and running and running.... right outside the fence!

They are almost to the driveway! Have to cut grass around them... Let's see what the rain from the last 2 days brings us.

Cleaning Up the Pumpkin Patch.

Saturday was spent doing some serious crop control work in the pumpkin patch... cutting/pulling weeds, thinning out the yellowed/brown pumpkin vines on the upper side of the patch, spraying fungicide, etc. It was blazing hot in the summer heat and humidity... but, it needed to be done. And at this point if we have even one single orange pumpkin out of this patch it will be a miracle. The other side right now is an entirely different story! Of course, between the weather and the bug population anything can happen! Besides it's only August and the pumpkins have another 2 months to grow.... that's a really long time for the bugs to make their way in and do their damage. If you compare last Sunday's posted photo of the "yellowed" pumpkin vines to today's you will see a major renovation!

I know... it's sad, isn't it? But, we definitely thinned them out... and can only hope the few we left in the patch will produce something...

The other side of the patch is looking great!

We even found a couple of nice sized pumpkins starting up!!

Few other things found around the farm on Saturday: Second planting of corn is just now starting to come in!

The peas are starting to bloom again! Unbelievable!!

Nice sized Fuji apple on the apple tree!

Some poor soul braved the sticky, itchy and scratchy conditions of the tall okra plants and did some okra picking!

Some poor baby dog rolled in the big mud puddle in the front 40 and had to get bathed.

The cool water does feel good though!

The end of the day harvest made a great ending to the day... Seems the green beans are reproducing again!