Mid-Summer Garden Update

Fruits of our labor...ok, veggies...but you
get the point. Watermelon, squash & cucumbers.

I can empathize with the heat wave moving across the country this summer. We have a "heat wave" every year here in the Arizona desert. Temperatures of 109 degrees settle in for many weeks and it is just considered the norm around here.

I didn't expect much of the garden to last through the heat and since we're still relatively new to gardening, I was curious to see how the different crops fared. The corn has been picked over and is already dried up, withered and brown. I'll be pulling it out of the ground in the next few weeks.

I'm leaving the potatoes in for a little while longer. I'm not sure when they come are ready to harvest but I've read that I should leave them until the part above ground withers and looks to be near dead.  I pulled some a week or so ago and they were little golf ball size potatoes. About eight of them were dangling from one root.  I microwaved them for about five minutes and served 'em up with butter, cheese and salt. They were tasty and I was now sure that in times of need I could grow potatoes for food.  I'm hoping that they grow much larger as I leave them in the ground to grow.

The butternut squash and cucumbers are producing nicely.  Wifey has learned how to bake the squash into what I'll call long squash fries.  They are quite delicious with a little butter and salt, similar to a mashed potato consistency or maybe a baked yam. We've had one sitting on the kitchen counter for a few weeks now and it doesn't show any signs of going bad yet. We're still learning the shelf life of different organic items. Wifey's homemade bread starts to mold in under two weeks. She made a batch of eight loaves a few weeks ago so some actually sat around for a bit as opposed to her usual four loaf batch that gets eaten in four days.

The cucumbers are growing great but I don't really have a taste for them. Never have. That is, not until we recently started to juice produce.  Now, for breakfast, Wifey goes out to the garden and picks a fresh cucumber and tosses it into the juicer with apples, plums, kale and broccoli or celery and I'm able to enjoy a smorgasbord or fruits and veggies in a refreshing morning beverage. I'm thankful for finding the joy of juicing as it allows me to consume the things I normally found unpalatable but yet wanted to grow in my garden.

Growing fewer than I thought based on
all the vines & smaller than I expected too.

The watermelon and pumpkin are growing but don't produce as much as I thought they would. I mean, these things vine out all over the place. You'd think I'd be able to feed half of our block with the amount of leaves and running vines that are busting out of our gardening area and running onto sidewalks and non-garden areas.  But it seems they are producing few and far between.  We got ahead of ourselves and picked a watermelon that we THOUGHT was ripe.  Turns out...not so ripe. A little bite indicated it was certainly sweet enough but the pinkish color just hadn't quite settled in yet.

We only have a few pumpkins that are in the grapefruit size range.  The rest a just little golf ball sized fellas.  I was hoping that my Halloween we'd be up to our knees in pumpkins and each child would be able to carve their own as well as having plenty for pie making.  Not so sure it's going to work out that way. We'll have to wait and see I guess. At least they're growing. I'm happy about that.

Strawberries have made it this far so they should continue to grow. They sprout out a little red gem every now and then.  I pick them whenever I see one in hope that the plant can focus it's energy on growing stronger for next season, as some have suggested.  Out of five strawberry plants purchased from home depot, three remain and one had a runner creating a daughter plant. So I still have four plants growing. I'm happy with that ratio too.

This watermelon wasn't quite ready yet :-(

Grandpa Neff's Beans are flourishing wildly but no bean pods yet.  The French horticulture beans looks like the took a beating from something. Either they went without water unknowingly or the sudden heat blast that is our desert summer was too much for them.  I've lost an estimated 70% of that raised garden bed.  Some are still struggling though. So we'll be waiting a little longer on any bean harvesting.  I should note that my Neff beans are right next to a sheet metal storage shed. At the beginning of our hot summer I noticed they were taking a turn for the worse.  Gardening neighbors advised us to put up a trellis with a vine type plant to help absorb heat radiated from the shed.  I draped a blue tarp down the side of the shed and the Neff beans made a terrific comeback.

All in all, our gardening experiment is proving to be a success.  We've learned the beginning stages of what it takes to grow our own food (tilling, planting, watering, hand pollinating, pruning, predator proofing, heat shielding) and found it to be both entertaining and enjoyable.  The children ask to be involved and have picked their own corn and planted seeds. We set out to add self sustaining skills to our knowledge base this year and gardening certainly leads the pack in usefulness. Now if I could just find some affordable farm land.

How much land do you think is enough to support your family's gardening needs?

~OJD

Work in Progress...

Our first Butternut Squash ever harvested.

What a busy weekend. I am currently working on several posts-in-progress but this crazy schedule has me bouncing back and forth so here's a preview of this week's coming posts:

Seed For Security Butternut Squash update. Wifey couldn't resist picking one today. We looked up some recipes and ended up baking it in the oven. I can't overstate how ridiculously delicious this turned out. I can't wait to cook more.

My Remington 870 Knoxx Tactical. "Go ahead Punk..."

Review: Remington 870 Knoxx Tactical. I'm currently writing a review of the weapon I chose for home security. This is our only gun for now but will be adding a handgun (or two) in the future.  So far, I am VERY pleased with the 12 gauge Remington with the shock absorbing Knoxx stock.

Rainwater collected during our brief storm.

Crown Berkey Rainwater Challenge. We had a short but productive thunderstorm here in the desert. Every time we get one, I am quick to put out my home depot buckets and start catching rain. I think rainwater ran through a Berkey is the best tasting water on the planet. I just poured one bucket of rainwater in the Berkey and was surprised at how brownish-green the water was that ran off my roof. I don't know why it surprised me (given our smog problem and rare rainfall to clean the roof)  but it instantly triggered an idea of water taste comparisons. I will be conducting a taste test between Berkey filtered tap water and Berkey filtered rainwater. Knowing how well my Berkey works, I'm betting on the rainwater.

First attempt at homemade bread...yum!

Homemade Wheat Bread Recipe. I took a handful of pics while Wifey was making her first ever batch of wonderful homemade bread. You'll see the WhisperMill at work, the terrific results and the recipe that made it possible.  I already blogged about the fantastic sandwich that I conjoured up with the help of this airy yet firm bread. I almost had Wifey talked in to making more tonight but she got busy sewing one of our daughter's a new skirt for the Fourth of July.

Review: Sentry Safe Gun Safe. I finally bought a safe for my shotgun. It arrived from Amazon and I'm carefully planning a place to bolt it down. I'm having a hard time deciding on a location. I'm not just happy about the price but it also came with free shipping! No driving, no loading it up...just ding dong, here it is. Thank you!

Seed For Security: Corn and Squash Update

Indian Corn from SeedForSecurity.com

I'm happy to report that our seeds purchased from SeedForSecurity.com are growing very well. This is our second time to plant the Indian Corn and it has done superb. Last season we planted it a little late and didn't get the joy of seeing it reach full size before the winter frost set in. We also discovered little grubs had eaten into the cobs once the ears were peeled back. The grubs didn't matter much since our corn hadn't been planted early enough to mature before the frost (there just wasn't much corn ON the cob yet.)

Needless to say, Wifey and I have pulled a few ears here and there and they look terrific. The SFS website says to harvest when the ears turn brown and/or start to flip upside down. I pulled one yesterday and tasted it raw. It was sweet and yummy. I can't wait until they are fully grown. I'm guessing about one more month. We've planted several rows, around seven or so. Each row has around 10 stalks. Each stalk looks to be growing anywhere from 2-5 ears of corn. We should have a terrific feast ahead of us!

Butternut Squash from SeedForSecurity.com

Second on the list is our Butternut Squash. Not to be confused with Buttercup Squash. Very distinguishable once you see the difference. We planted one little row of squash as a test crop.  We have one seed that has gone berserk and it is growing all over the place. The rest are growing too but this one appears to be on steroids. I don't think it is coincidence that it is positioned closest to the water source. I've counted three squash coming off the monster stalk so far. I'm not sure I've ever tried squash before but if I'm going to take the time to grow it, you can be darn sure I'm going to try to eat it.