What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Picked up another .71 inches of rain this morning, that's 3 inches for the week.
We need it, but it is getting a tad soupy out.

I filled the ditch this morning after getting the tractor to start. It does need a new battery, which I'll do tomorrow.
I compacted the fill with the tractor, loaded stone on top, compacted it again, smoothed it, and then compacted with the lighter, non ag tires, gator. One end is so soupy it will have to wait for a final grading.
Then when we DO finally dry out, I'll order a load of fines to fill in any smaller gaps and spread that.

Nothing in the garden today. I'm sure with all the water it needs fed, but I'm not adding more water to the mix to feed them.

Pureed the bowl of blackberries with 12 ounces of yogurt and poured it into the creami container. DH will have blackberry froyo for dessert tomorrow.

 

[Sueby]

Raining again today. I've never seen such a rainy start to summer & that is NOT a complaint! We got over 2 inches again today & it's still raining.

I picked a cuke & a bunch of green beans. I blanched them & will freeze them.

Does anyone have any good ideas about putting up green beans for the winter? Normally I blanch & freeze in ziplock baggies. Just wondering if maybe vacuum sealing would be better. Or cutting them up, then vacuuming? What do y'all do? Canning is out for me at this point, hopefully later in the summer.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good soggy afternoon all. We got over 3 inches of rain and flash flooding today. My dear sump pump has been working hard to keep the basement dry. However, the utility part of the basement flooded. First time in nearly 5 years. The worst I’ve ever had in that part has been an inch at the most. Today there was 3 inches. That part is separate from the other 2 sections that the sump pump takes care of. It took nearly 2 hours with my shop vac to get the water up but it’s still seeping in. I put some old towels on the floor to sop it up so I could take a break. I’m hanging out with the chickens now. They have a pond for now. I’ll likely be cleaning water in the basement for another day or two. A lot of the roads were damaged also. Oh well. At least we only had one tornado warning but nothing materialized.
Chicken yard pond

The street in I live on

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Raining again today. I've never seen such a rainy start to summer & that is NOT a complaint! We got over 2 inches again today & it's still raining.

I picked a cuke & a bunch of green beans. I blanched them & will freeze them.

Does anyone have any good ideas about putting up green beans for the winter? Normally I blanch & freeze in ziplock baggies. Just wondering if maybe vacuum sealing would be better. Or cutting them up, then vacuuming? What do y'all do? Canning is out for me at this point, hopefully later in the summer.

I usually use zip loc bag, however I found some resealable / reclosable vacuum bags for my food saver. I’ll be using that this year.

 

[Sueby]

I usually use zip loc bag, however I found some resealable / reclosable vacuum bags for my food saver. I’ll be using that this year.

Ohhh, I have some of those that I've never used! I may try that. Thanks.

 

[Smokerbill]

I'm a little jealous reading about all the rain you are getting. It's dry as a bone here. Just for grins I checked the weather history from last summer.

2022-
July, 0.15"
Aug, 0.0"
Sep, 0.24"
Oct, 2.17" (during the last 10 days of the month)

This summer is starting out the same. Not a drop of rain here so far in July. Looks like I'll be watering the garden a lot. Glad I have a well for water.

The bean and squash seed I planted in the garden are starting to pop up through the ground. And the kale and Brussels sprouts in the seed cells are sprouting too.

 

[fuzzi]

Raining again today. I've never seen such a rainy start to summer & that is NOT a complaint! We got over 2 inches again today & it's still raining.

I picked a cuke & a bunch of green beans. I blanched them & will freeze them.

Does anyone have any good ideas about putting up green beans for the winter? Normally I blanch & freeze in ziplock baggies. Just wondering if maybe vacuum sealing would be better. Or cutting them up, then vacuuming? What do y'all do? Canning is out for me at this point, hopefully later in the summer.

I tip the ends, blanch, bag, freeze. Why make more work than is necessary?

 

[Sueby]

I tip the ends, blanch, bag, freeze. Why make more work than is necessary?

Because they get a little freezer burnt by the end of winter just in ziplocks.

 

[Smokerbill]

I have no experience with them, but home freeze drying units are becoming more popular for preserving foods.

 

[karenerwin]

Picked a handful of cherry tomatoes and a couple of small leaves of spinach ( to go on hubby’s pizza). Now it is pouring rain. Oh and I cut some 6 inch tall plastic tubes to go around the bottoms of the blackberry plants so I quit chopping the plants off when I’m weed eating around them.