Today's Pickings

[Meadowlark]

First tomatoes of a bumper crop picked today but the stars of the picking were the Kentucky pole beans which promise several more similar pickings to come.... some great canning beans.

 

[headfullofbees]

I love those pole beans.

 

[Meadowlark]

Pea picking time in East Texas. Pick about half of the peas and leave the rest for N fixing. Several bushels yet to go while the green beans are fading out now with the 95 deg. temps. High temps don't phase the peas at all.

 

[Meadowlark]

With a sheller, it takes little time to shell out these peas...about 30 minutes and in another 30 minutes or so its fresh peas for lunch and several gallons for canning later

 

[Tess]

With a sheller, it takes little time to shell out these peas...about 30 minutes and in another 30 minutes or so its fresh peas for lunch and several gallons for canning later

View attachment 90446

Wow that's a lot of peas!! Can you grow snow peas or sugar snap peas in East Texas?

 

[Meadowlark]

Yes, in cool weather, I grow them in the fall and also as a companion planting with my new potatoes.

 

[Meadowlark]

The first planting of sweet corn in my garden this year is now maturing. Three plantings total spread out over two months should provide about 20 dozen ears of sweet corn for the table...highly delicious fresh eating.

 

[YumYum]

@Meadowlark every time you post here it makes me hungry!

 

[Meadowlark]

Processing about 1/3 of the corn.

Clean, par boil 4 minutes, cut off cob, package and freeze. It freezes really well with that fresh corn flavor many months later.

 

[cntrlwagdnr]

You can't spit without hitting a winery where we live, so not much point doing homemade wine. But that looks like a nice batch of rhubarb and ginger jam and some rhubarb and strawberry pies to me!! You don't see marrows here in the US. We pick them smaller - zucchini. Did grow one accidentally once that got missed. Then I remembered how you have to stuff them with something tasty to make them worth eating. I do remember they were fun to grow though.

 

[Meadowlark]

If you have never seen/used a bean/pea sheller, it is a wonder to behold. Two 5-gallon buckets of peas shelled in 10 minutes.

So much easier than by hand.

 

[Meadowlark]

Corn for the day, bell peppers, and eggplant on the menu. I still haven't found a really good way to use eggplant but lasagna isn't bad

 

[Meadowlark]

Processed the second planting of corn today...pick, shuck, par boil, remove from cob and freeze. Takes us about two hours to work through about 100 ears of corn. One more planting to go:

 

[Tess]

Processed the second planting of corn today...pick, shuck, par boil, remove from cob and freeze. Takes us about two hours to work through about 100 ears of corn. One more planting to go:

View attachment 90818

Wow! Awesome job!

 

[Meadowlark]

Plums make an absolutely wonderful jelly. I don't know how she makes it, but a local lady anxiously awaits my ripe plums (and even the green ones) every year and in return she gives me several jars of wonderful jelly.

Plums are easy to grow but do need a pollinator...and it helps to know someone who is expert at making jelly.