Update on gardens

[Hanta Yo]

Here's an update on our garden, peas are done and frozen, making pickles and relishes, eating corn, zucchini, potatoes, celery, carrots, beets (pickled, the BEST) broccoli and cauliflower are done and in the freezer, cabbage is also done, made lots of coleslaw and will be making kraut burgers and freezing them, cherry tomatoes are almost ready, cantelope, honeydews and Crenshaws are almost ready to eat, too. YUM! Snap beans are just coming on, only have about a quart frozen but we have a million of them maturing! Some of the Anaheim, Big Jim and Marconi chilis are ready to be harvested and roasted. Garlic, onions, and zucchini I've been using making dill pickles, sweet relish (with the zucchini, tastes the same as using cucumbers,) Busy, busy, busy...

Been a very busy summer, haven't had much time to post, maybe when calving starts. Hope you all had a great summer!!!

 

[ranchwife]

YAYYYYY!!!! HANTA'S BACK!!!!! Cancel the search and rescue unit!! Call back the helicopters!!! Love the pix, Hanta!! Gonna have to get some tips from ya cuz my garden is pretty darned sad looking!! The radishes have come up and the corn is "getting there", but the weeds (despite my best efforts) have taken over and I have absolutely NO EXPERIENCE canning and such!! Sorry excuse for a farmer, huh??? :wink: :wink:

 

[nr]

I BET you're busy with processing food. Such a huge garden!!
What's with the truck tires. Are they to keep the heat in around plants?
And tell me about kraut burgers.
Do you have trouble with squirrels on the sunflowers. Ours should be attracting them right about now.

 

[Hanta Yo]

YAYYYYY!!!! HANTA'S BACK!!!!! Cancel the search and rescue unit!! Call back the helicopters!!! Love the pix, Hanta!! Gonna have to get some tips from ya cuz my garden is pretty darned sad looking!! The radishes have come up and the corn is "getting there", but the weeds (despite my best efforts) have taken over and I have absolutely NO EXPERIENCE canning and such!! Sorry excuse for a farmer, huh??? :wink: :wink:

Rancher's Wife, thanks so much for the welcome!!! YOU are busy with a ranch, being a mom, being a nurse and everything else with day-to-day living. Your kids help you keep the weeds out? (Sometimes kids are good for a reason :wink: :wink: :? :shock: :wink: ) You want to learn how to can/freeze, I would LOVE to teach you!! You would just have to come over here for a week, you can learn all the basics. :wink: :wink: :wink: BTW, how are all your other garden items doing? Gardening is a LOT of work and if it wasn't for my wonderful, loving, gardening loving spouse I wouldn't have a garden either. 'Cept he loves getting into the good old canned goods during the winter and not have to buy them at the store and they taste sooo good.

Hope to spend more time on here, but things are quite busy esp since I am also involved with several organizations (one being 4-H - will have to clue all you in on how our daughter did last month). Our first calf should hit the ground any time now, just need to get the 1st calf heifers closer to home, and SOON!

Hanta Yo

 

[Northern Rancher]

Do you know how to make choclate zuchinni cake Hanta -it's mighty tasty. I had to use that chain halter at the Sheridan County fair a couple weeks back. A girl was having troubles with her steer.

 

[Faster horses]

Hanta Yo you and your husband are to be congratulated! That is one mighty fine garden!! Lotsa work, I know, but worth it, both to watch grow in the summer and to eat in the winter.

ranchwife, if you can't go over to Hanta's for canning lessons, get a Kerr canning book. They don't cost much and give lots of instructions. It is time consuming, but not hard to can and the results are so tasty!

 

[Hanta Yo]

I BET you're busy with processing food. Such a huge garden!!
What's with the truck tires. Are they to keep the heat in around plants?
And tell me about kraut burgers.
Do you have trouble with squirrels on the sunflowers. Ours should be attracting them right about now.

NR,

We don't have a prob with squirrels, had a problem once with chipmunks. They must've caught a disease because I rarely see them anymore. Our big problem is with Richardson's Ground squirrels and pocket gophers :evil:

The tires are to protect the newly transplanted plants from wind (which we seem to have constantly), and they seem to just help out, period. Early spring we place wall 'o waters inside the tires, that also helps prevent the wind from knocking down the wall 'o waters!
We plant the sunflowers not only for shade for other plants, but for their beauty and the cassins' finches and american goldfinches LOVE them! We love to watch the birds eat their seeds and sing their sweet songs. After a day of haying, chasing "nearlings" (read in April, I had so much trouble with the "PH's" and the trouble has NOT gone away), sitting in the garden is relaxation to us, then we get to sit in the hot tub after dark when everyone is quiet and look at the stars.

Kraut burgers I think you will find the recipe in Coffee Shop back in March sometime, when I started a "fightless Friday, how 'bout some good recipes" or something like that. I brown 2 # hamburger, chop 1 large onion, slice thinly 1/2 med cabbage, add to browned hamburger and cook till done. I add salt and pepper to taste. I place several tablespoons of the mixture on a 4X4 (or so) piece of bread dough, fold the dough in half and seal the edges. Raise till double, then bake till brown. These are great to freeze as they are equal or better than some of Schwan's "pocket' breads. You can put anything in the bread dough you want, I've tried Bar-B-Q beef and it is really good. These pocket breads are great when you know you have to be gone from the house for the day and know you will be too far away to come back for lunch.

Spouse and son are watching "Band of Brothers" by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg (sp?)- I would advise everyone to watch it.
Anyway, nice to be back.

Hanta Yo

 

[nr]

Hanta,
Thank you for the info and recipe. I'd wondered if those wall o waters actually were worth the money. Guess I should try some. We have no need of tires for winds as we can almost never even hear the wind chimes we've been given unless there's a storm.

I really do love seeing pictures of gardens like yours with new ideas and will try to save yours in a file to review in the winter planning time. It is very inspiring, more than just reading about someone's garden efforts. My husband is not a gardener and gets a tad edgy when he sees these pictures since he knows he'll be losing more of his lawn to plants! :lol: I don't get "the big lawn thing." To me tiny paths through a jungle of flowers/plants to eat by humans or wildlife is real beauty.

Thanks again. Will you be able to tear yourself away from pickling to come to the Get-together? Sure would like to meet you.

 

[Faster horses]

WHAT, NO WIND, YA SAY?

Just can't imagine it!!!

 

[alabama]

My gardens are over for this year except for Butter beans, Okra, Cantalopes and watermelons. I should have planted some late tomatos but I could find no late plants this year. Oh yeah the penuts look ready so I should start pulling some when it dries oiut a little.
We had 7.5 inches of rain yesterday. So no I have plenty of "clean" hay to roll.

 

[Mike]

My gardens are over for this year except for Butter beans, Okra, Cantalopes and watermelons. I should have planted some late tomatos but I could find no late plants this year. Oh yeah the penuts look ready so I should start pulling some when it dries oiut a little.
We had 7.5 inches of rain yesterday. So no I have plenty of "clean" hay to roll.

Do you mean 7.5 inches as in 7.5 inches?

 

[alabama]

Yes Mike as in almost a foot yesterday.
It filled some 5 galon buckets about 2/3. All the ponds ran over.
If anyone needs some rain I will be glad to cut your hay and make it rain for you.
You want to buy some clean hay? lol

 

[Hanta Yo]

Do you know how to make choclate zuchinni cake Hanta -it's mighty tasty. I had to use that chain halter at the Sheridan County fair a couple weeks back. A girl was having troubles with her steer.

Do you happen to have a recipe?? Please share! I don't, but I'll bet it tastes just as good as the chocolate cake my mom used to make that had Miracle Whip in it, very moist, rich cake!!

We can't thank you enough for sharing with us the chain halter. Works like a charm, without people like you in Ranchers.net, we would still be doing the same old things without the new ideas. Thanks again.

 

[Hanta Yo]

Hanta,
Thank you for the info and recipe. I'd wondered if those wall o waters actually were worth the money. Guess I should try some. We have no need of tires for winds as we can almost never even hear the wind chimes we've been given unless there's a storm.

I really do love seeing pictures of gardens like yours with new ideas and will try to save yours in a file to review in the winter planning time. It is very inspiring, more than just reading about someone's garden efforts. My husband is not a gardener and gets a tad edgy when he sees these pictures since he knows he'll be losing more of his lawn to plants! :lol: I don't get "the big lawn thing." To me tiny paths through a jungle of flowers/plants to eat by humans or wildlife is real beauty.

Thanks again. Will you be able to tear yourself away from pickling to come to the Get-together? Sure would like to meet you.

nr,

Looks like "we" may be able to make it, at least for the first day. "We" are whomever wants a ride from Musselshell, MT on. I think sw may be coming along, since he's in this area. Any other takers?? Will be taking Hwy 12 E to Forsyth and then hit the interstate.

 

[nr]

nr,

Looks like "we" may be able to make it, at least for the first day. "We" are whomever wants a ride from Musselshell, MT on. I think sw may be coming along, since he's in this area. Any other takers?? Will be taking Hwy 12 E to Forsyth and then hit the interstate.

Great!! I'll let the restaurant know. The numbers are swelling!

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Hanta the Mrs was just about to your place on July 30 as she drove to Winnett to pick up our son from his combining job. They came home thru Plentywood and Outlook and he ended up with another job to start monday morn so he was only out of work for 1day.. He is working with his uncle on a much better crew.

 

[nr]

Garden update: just planted on this stinky humid day fall snowpeas and beans while hoping they produce before snow flies. It will be interesting to see where they come up since the kitten attacked every hand movement. Hope he does as well with the moles. :twisted:

 

[Hanta Yo]

Hanta the Mrs was just about to your place on July 30 as she drove to Winnett to pick up our son from his combining job. They came home thru Plentywood and Outlook and he ended up with another job to start monday morn so he was only out of work for 1day.. He is working with his uncle on a much better crew.

Too bad I didn't know, coulda done lunch :wink: . Did your son do any work for Weavers?

 

[Hanta Yo]

Garden update: just planted on this stinky humid day fall snowpeas and beans while hoping they produce before snow flies. It will be interesting to see where they come up since the kitten attacked every hand movement. Hope he does as well with the moles. :twisted:

nr,

You are so lucky you can extend your "crop" into fall. We start plants as early as possible, use wall 'o waters when we put them out, pray for no hail (which we got and set everything back a bit this spring), and hope it doesn't freeze until October. After the kitten, how do the back of your hands look like? Raw hamburger? :shock: I, too, hope he helps with the moles. Our kitties are all grown up and every morning when I feed them I see several "gifts" (dead mice) placed strategically so I can't miss seeing them. Since I don't know which or how many cats do this, guess I have to keep 'em all! :wink: :wink:

 

[nr]

Garden update: just planted on this stinky humid day fall snowpeas and beans while hoping they produce before snow flies. It will be interesting to see where they come up since the kitten attacked every hand movement. Hope he does as well with the moles. :twisted:

nr,

You are so lucky you can extend your "crop" into fall. We start plants as early as possible, use wall 'o waters when we put them out, pray for no hail (which we got and set everything back a bit this spring), and hope it doesn't freeze until October. After the kitten, how do the back of your hands look like? Raw hamburger? :shock: I, too, hope he helps with the moles. Our kitties are all grown up and every morning when I feed them I see several "gifts" (dead mice) placed strategically so I can't miss seeing them. Since I don't know which or how many cats do this, guess I have to keep 'em all! :wink: :wink:

Hanta,
This Fall I hope to cover some of the crops with a plastic tunnel to see how long they'll keep producing. Haven't gone the cold-frame route.

The kitten scratches and bites viciously get hands, ankles and sometimes leaps on my back. I've never seen an animal able to jump so high from a standstill. He would have made an awesome cougar! Then other times he loves to purr and be babied and petted. :roll:
That's funny how cats leave "gifts". Guess they know which hand is feeding them! How many do you you have? (cats not mice )