Celebrating 100 Posts!

This is our 100th post on this blog! And we are still going at Wilsons Farms... We are striving to keep things moving along at a pretty speedy pace. All the while the summer's items are slowing and dwindling down, we are gearing up for fall and all it has to offer. And also at the same time we are watching our pumpkin patch grow!

Pumpkin Watch - First Week in September:

We are really enjoying watching these white pumpkins grow day-by-day... we have 8-10 in fairly large sizes now. I wonder every single day if a) how much bigger will they get by first of October? and b) will the insects destroy them first? We also have many baby pumpkins from 1 inch diameter to small pumpkins in 4 inch diameter. But the large mama-jama ones are the most fascinating! They are HUGE and must weigh in the 20-30 lb range already.... now we have to figure out WHEN to harvest them!

This is one of our largest ones so far. I am amazed each day at how big it is... just keep putting the insect dust on it in hopes she makes it to October!

This is what you are greeted with when you drive up our driveway these days... you can see the vines have run all the way into the driveway!

This is a great view into the middle of the patch... can you see all the white pumpkins in between the large leaves?

We did harvest one medium sized pumpkin this past weekend since I noticed that it's stem was yellowing and not the bright green it should be. Plus something had drilled into its sides in 7-8 spots.

So I cut the pumpkin off the vine and we did a research and destroy experiment. First off, it had to weigh almost 20 lbs and is no where near the size of our large ones! And it was very easy to slice open... we cut it to see WHAT was drilling into it... and only found small 1 inch long paths into the thick rhine that did not have an actual worm or insect in them... Not sure why... But, the one that bored in through the vine did it's destruction enough to cut off the supply to the fruit.

I do feel a tad better hoping that the strong thick rhine deterred them from getting all the way inside to the soft middle... where the real destruction can take place. Fingers crossed they all make it to October!

3rd Planting is In!

Guess what's coming in at the pumpkin patch? The third planting of corn! And Hubby says it is the sweetest most delicious corn we've grown yet!

Nothing better than picking a half bushel of corn at at time!

Another Day on the Farm

Earlier this week we were able to go over and pick some more veggies from the garden... At this point, the cucumbers are pretty much gone, the squash and zucchini have been gone and the tomatoes are about gone. The peas seem to be re-blooming and the green beans are growing more beans! And then as stated in my previous post, the okra is coming in... There are still a few peppers coming in too.

Tomatoes are still ripening, but the vines are browning.

The okra is coming in! Just wish the tall plants were not so close together since they are sticky and itchy!

Been waiting a LONG time for the "red" bell peppers to actually turn red... and look who is on the plant ready to sink its teeth into my peppers!

And then there is the story of our pumpkins... This is the only one so far to make it to this large size in our original garden... Judging from the condition of its vines, it's probably not going to make it.

And this is what's left of my other large pumpkin... looks like nature took a turn for the worse while I was gone. Boo!

And then there are these two odd looking ones on the same nearby vines in the original garden... Just hope they make it.

And then there is our pumpkin patch in the front 40... one side is eat up with the fungus among-us... Leaves are yellowing with dark brown trunks... In serious need of some TLC...

And then the other half of the patch is running like crazy and has these all over the place!

Here's to hoping we can weed out and cut back/pull up all the bad plants in the pumpkin patch this weekend.

Freezing Peas!

It's funny how the entire harvest seems to come in at one time... ours and the other gardens around town. After all the canning of the green beans last weekend, it seemed we spent a lot of time in the evenings after work this past week shelling peas. We bunch we picked in the garden last week just seemed to take forever to shell... but, we finally finished late Friday night.

Lots of shelling in front of the television. I guess you could say it's a lot like the old days when I use to spend hours shelling peas with my Grandparents... same shelling metal pan, same house... except for us having the AC, cable TV, internet, and cell phones it is pretty much the same task!

My plan was to shell the peas during the week days and then prepare them for the freezer on Saturday. And then I got the call that the farm in town had me a bushel of zipper peas. That's a bunch more work... so I brought in the recruit to help shell on Saturday once I picked up the zipper peas.

Meet my Mom. She is a shelling machine. On Saturday, she shelled and I rinsed the bushel and a half of purple hulled/pink eyed peas from our garden multiple times, looked them over handful by handful for the wormy ones, blanched them and bagged them for the freezer... and I shelled zipper peas in between all the boilings. Hubby even helped get the zippers shelled. We had a nice time grilling steaks and shelling for a Saturday night!

By Saturday evening, the purple hulls/pink eyes were in the freezer and all of the new bushel of zippers were shelled and in the fridge for rinsing/blanching/bagging for the freezer at a later date.

And then Hubby showed up with this harvest from the garden... Ouch.

Quick Thursday PIcking!

We are still getting a lot of the afternoon and evening thunderstorms this week so our visits to the farm are limited and usually very short before the rain drives us away. But, we did make it to pick on Thursday night before the large drops came and sent us running!

Just a couple of highlights...

The big pumpkin patch is coming in pretty quick.

The older planting of pumpkins is stretching way outside of the garden... just trying to keep them from taking over the blueberry bushes!

The ears of corn are getting larger too!

Thursday's harvest... Nice!

Dodging Storms!

We were able to go by and spend a little time in the garden on Tuesday night after work. With the ongoing "on again, off again" threats of thunderstorms these days, we are never sure if we will be able to pick the veggies or not day to day. But, we were able to pick on Tuesday.

Tuesday progression on the corn front:

Seeing the corn growing on these stalks after everything we have been through trying to keep them alive, upright, etc. makes me happy, happy, happy!

The peas are getting bigger and bigger!

Really glad the beans are coming in now... before we have to start picking all these peas!

Another pick of Hubby the professional bean picker!

Tuesday's harvest haul.... Nice!

Gearing Up for the Next Project

So if you're wondering why we are borrowing a friends planter attachment, we have a new project brewing on the horizon! We are only a couple of days from cutting in another garden spot... As you can see we spent a little time earlier this week staking it out.

Carefully making sure all the sides line up parallel to the driveway... More later on this project!

Onto the garden update: The pole beans now have beautiful little flower blooms.

The peas now have pretty little white flower blooms.

Another one of those nasty big ol' beetles was found. Yuck!

And we give many thanks for today's bountiful harvest. Amen.