Updated Updated List

6/25 Lazy Housewife beans / canned 7qts
7/4 Kraut / canned 21 pts
7/5 Basil (whole leaves) / froze 2 qt-bags
7/5 Contender bush beans / canned 3 qts
7/5 Cherokee Trail of Tears beans / canned 4 qts
7/10 Maude Wall beans / canned 23 pts
7/10 Maude Wall beans / canned 28 qts
7/16 Beans (mostly Maude Wall) / canned 19 qts
7/17 Okra (breaded) / froze 3 qts
7/18 Tomatoes / canned 14 pts
7/18 Tomato sauce / canned 8 half-pints
7/18 Pickled peppers / canned 7 half-pints
7/21 Cucumber relish / canned 11 pts
7/21 Squash / froze 4 qts
7/22 Carrot relish / canned 15 pts
7/24 Cowpeas / froze 4 pints
7/24 Corn / froze 5 pints, 5 1.5-pints
7/25 Tomatoes / canned 28 pts
7/25 Tomato sauce / canned 19 1/2 pts
7/26 Blueberries (from B. Case's) / froze 7 pts, 2 1.5-pts
7/28 Corn (from Short Mtn) / froze 5 qts, 3 1.5-pts, 10 pts
7/29 Squash / froze 1 qt, 1 pt
7/30 Cowpeas / froze 8 pts
7/30 Carrots (shredded) / froze 6 pts
7/31 Salsa ("Judy's Salsa") / canned 10 pts, 2 1/2-pts
8/1 Speckled butter beans / froze 15 pts

Mary Susan

Interesting Quote

From A Reverence for Wood, by Eric Sloane (1965):

...It was at this meeting in 1765 that the word "independence" took on a special and widespread meaning.

"With our land's wealth," said one Boston merchant, "we can all afford to be independent. There is probably nothing a man needs that we cannot make or grow in America. Look about you! Except for a piece of silk here and there, the clothes on our backs and every stick in our houses is American. We can be, indeed we are, the most independent people on earth!"

Mr. Sloane goes on to say:

Those days, when the nation was struggling to be born, were perhaps our most poignant times, for it was an era when each man was forced to live with piercing intensity and perception. Two centuries later, when an American turns on the water and the lights in his apartment, he has little awareness of where those things come from; the greatest pity, however, is that he says, "Who cares where it comes from, as long as it keeps on coming?"

In 1765 everything a man owned was made more valuable by the fact that he had made it himself or knew exactly from where it had come. This is not so remarkable as it sounds; it is less strange that the eighteenth-century man should have a richer and keener enjoyment of life through knowledge than that the twentieth-century man should lead an arid and empty existence in the midst of wealth and extraordinary material benefits.

Mary Susan

RAIN!!!!

[Warning: This post contains many exclamation points--justifiably!!]

Yes, RAIN!!! And not just one day, but two days...IN A ROW!!!


We got around .5" of steady rain yesterday, so that the ground was able to really soak it up. And today, I awoke to the sound of rain, and it's still going. Rather exciting.


And we've had beautiful, cool weather, too--in the 50's a couple of mornings ago--and it's July...in Tennessee! Our milkers even took out long-sleeve shirts yesterday, in case they got too cool while milking--and it's July...in Tennessee! 17yo daughter, who often works and reads on the screened-in back porch, went out one morning to do so, and soon came back in because she was too cool. And it's July--in Tennessee! If this is global warming, I'm fer it!

Mary Susan

Recent Happenings

Thankfully, so that I don't focus too sharply and constantly on squash pests, we have done a couple of fun, out-of-the-normal-daily-routine things lately.

First of all, the kids and I visited my sister for a few days. She lives about 2 hours and 15 minutes away, and we try to get to her place for a few days each summer. She lives in a condo, with the pool just 30 or so feet around the corner from her back door. (We didn't get there one summer--six years ago, I think--and I've been held accountable ever since!) So anyway, we had a great time, as we always do with her, swimming and, this time, watching a lot of "I Love Lucy." The girls and I also got a trip to the Goodwill store there; it's one of the better Goodwill stores I've been to, and I always like a bargain. (Some of their merchandise was $.50 each; at that price, even if you're not sure about something, you have to get it!) And we all went to Franklin one evening. BTW, sister's birthday was two days ago; hope you had a good one!!

This past Saturday, we attended the Daniel Brantley Foundation Benefit Concert and Auction. We went to the afternoon show (probably go to the evening one next time), in anticipation of Sunday morning. Anyway, the auction was the most entertaining one I've been to, and the concert was great!! Of course, Tom Brantley and his buddies were wonderful, as always. Big Country Bluegrass was also there--saw some great clawhammer banjo playing from one of them. And the headliners--Dailey and Vincent--were incredible!!! Tom told us he's already working on getting Dailey and Vincent back. (He and Jamie Dailey played together with Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver for awhile.) The banjo player/guitar player/bass singer (the guy on the right) turned 19yo on Friday!

Guess that's about it for now.

Mary Susan

Updated List

6/25 Lazy Housewife beans / canned 7qts
7/4 kraut / canned 21 pts
7/5 Contender bush beans / canned 3 qts
7/5 Cherokee Trail of Tears beans / canned 4 qts
7/10 Maude Wall beans / canned 23 pts
7/10 Maude Wall beans / canned 28 qts
7/16 Beans (mostly Maude Wall) / canned 19 qts
7/17 Okra (breaded) / froze 3 qts.
7/18 Tomatoes / canned 14 pts
7/18 Tomato sauce / canned 8 half-pints
7/18 Pickled peppers / canned 7 half-pints
7/21 Cucumber relish / canned 11 pts
7/21 Squash / froze 4 qts
7/22 Carrot relish / canned 15 pts
7/24 Cowpeas / froze 4 pints
7/24 Corn / froze 5 pints, 5 1.5-pints

Mary Susan

Weather

We had some much-needed rain about ten days ago--1.25" or so. What a blessing for the whole area! Of course, it's hard to tell now that we had any.

Yesterday afternoon, the sky darkened and some strong winds came through. The "mountains" in front of us looked hazy, so we figured they were getting rain (which occasionally happens). However, with a harder look, 15yo daughter realized it wasn't rain: it was dust! Yes, we had a mild dust storm, I guess. And no rain. Not a drop.

Better go; we're doing carrot relish this morning, something we've not done before. But then, I don't think we've ever grown carrots before, either, at least not very successfully. This year, we don't know what to do with them all!

Mary Susan

Freezing Okra and Canning Quantities Caveat

In the previous post, Julie commented:

Could you share how you freeze okra? Our family loves it breaded and fried,
but I have never had any success freezing it so we only eat it in the summer
time. Thanks! I like reading your list because I can compare mine with you and see if I am on track with certain amounts.

First of all, let me qualify my amounts by stating that, for some reason this year, we had an incredibly disorganized pantry and, for a time, "lost" quite a few jars of green beans and of tomatoes.

Also, last summer, Keith assigned lunch prep to our now-15yo daughter, and dinner prep to our now-17yo daughter. This has been wonderful for all of us (and for their future husbands!), but it took them awhile to get used to using the resources we had on hand.

Therefore, we had more canned goods left over this year than we normally would, so we're starting with more than normal.

Now for freezing okra. We're like you on that; we haven't frozen it because it just didn't seem to work well. Then we had some that friends of ours froze last year, and it was so good, that I got the instructions from them.

Clean the okra. Blanche it 3 minutes. Slice it to desired size (we found that close to an inch was better than smaller, which didn't seem to hold up as well when we were slicing and breading it.) Toss it in flour, then buttermilk, then seasoned-to-your-taste cornmeal. Set them on cookie sheets so that they're not touching; freeze. When frozen, put in bags and place bags in freezer until you're ready to devour them!

Mary Susan

BTW, we used parchment on the cookie sheets, just to make sure the okra was easy to remove. I don't know if this was necessary, but I didn't want to risk losing any!

Put Up Thus Far

[This is primarily for my information, so I'll have a back-up of the paper copy I have, which I have a difficult time finding, even though it's in my gardening notebook in the same location it's been in since we put up our first beans a few weeks ago!]

6/25 Lazy Housewife beans / canned 7qts
7/4 kraut / canned 21 pts
7/5 Contender bush beans / canned 3 qts
7/5 Cherokee Trail of Tears beans / canned 4 qts
7/10 Maude Wall beans / canned 23 pts
7/10 Maude Wall beans / canned 28 qts
7/16 Beans (mostly Maude Wall) / canned 19 qts
7/17 Okra (breaded) / froze 3 qts
7/18 Tomatoes / canned 14 pts
7/18 Tomato sauce / canned 8 half-pints
7/18 Pickled peppers / canned 7 half-pints
7/21 Cucumber relish / canned 11 pts
7/21 Squash / froze 4 qts

At some point--July 5?--froze 2 quart-sized bags of whole basil leaves. (Experimental; found on internet; will give it a try. Would be great to have fresh-tasting basil in the middle of winter!)

Currently drying basil and feverfew.

Mary Susan

Maude Wall Beans

In response to Marci's comment of the previous post:

As I was composing the previous post, I did think about sending some of the seed to a few blog readers who might request them. I've also considered sending some to Seed Savers. However, I'm not sure about Mrs. Wall's family--sort of consider it their property. (My parents moved from there 28 or so years ago, and I don't know if they've kept up with her and her family or not.)

After the Wall family, I consider my parents "keepers of the beans," and would have to check with them on sending some out. I don't think they'd have a problem with it, unless our yield is low for seed this year. I'll try to remember to do that when they come home in a couple of days.

As I indicated, this year's yield will have to be considered. We're going to need more seed next year than we normally keep (I'm working toward trying to put up two-years' worth of foods that we grow. The drought of the past couple of years has made us change our thinking a bit.)

This is my father's favorite bean. He likes to leave them on the vine until the beans are really big and filled out, so that they cook up "shelly," as my parents say. The pods do not get tough on these beans when you do that. I like them that way, but I also like them young and not shelly.

Mary Susan

Bean Testing/Tasting

This post is in response to Stephen's comment to the previous post.

We planted a number of types of beans, some of them having come in a package deal. We thought we'd try all these out, and hone in next year on the ones we like best .

We have rattlesnake, but planted them late and in some corn (shady; another experiment), so they're not yet producing.

We also planted Lazy Housewife, Cherokee Trail of Tears, Contender, KY Wonder pole (Old Homestead), Hidatsa Shield Figure, and Speckled Cranberry. And of course, the Maude Walls.

The Shield Figure and the Cranberry are dried beans; the Trail of Tears can be.

We have such small patches of each of these (except the Maude Walls) that we'll probably not be able to can many, although we have done a few jars of some of them. However, we're learning which ones we want to repeat, and hopefully we'll get some seed out of them.

I'm amazed at how much we've learned the past couple of years, when we've actually put some effort into gardening, and yet, how little we know!

MSB

Today's Harvest

Today, we harvested a few tomatoes, various types of peppers, a few pods of okra, a couple of carrots (What's the best thing to do with carrots? Do we go on and pick them all now, and hope they'll save for quite awhile, or do we leave them in the ground and harvest as we need them? I really need to look up this and a number of other things), A LOT of green beans (three types, but mainly one we call "Maude Wall" beans, after the woman who gave my parents the seed some thirty or so years ago; this bean is consistently the best, most reliable, and most prolific of any bean we've tried growing. Mrs. Wall didn't know the kind of bean at the time, but said she'd had it for many years.)

Oh, yes, we also brought in some basil to start drying some for our winter supply. Of course, it won't be as good as fresh, but at least we won't have to buy dried basil from the store. We have one plant of a purple variety and four or five plants of a green variety.

We have plenty of cilantro for now, but we have been led to understand that it will quickly go to seed as we have more hot days.

For medicinal purposes, we are growing feverfew, which can be helpful for migraines. I should probably start drying some of that, too, but haven't yet.

It is dry here, again, though not as bad as the last couple of years at this point. We do have a chance of rain in the next couple of days, but not a high chance. The previous two years have been very hard on the area, especially on the nursery businesses. Their crop is an investment in years, not months, like most garden/crop farms, so a big loss in one year can be quite devastating. If you think to, please say a prayer for the nurserymen in the area.

Neat thing about harvesting okra (didn't know there was anything neat about it?): 5yo considers it his special privilege to do it! How awesome is that!?!

Mary Susan

Family Retreat

This past weekend we went to Coker Creek Village Adventure and Retreat Center (I memorized that one). We had a wonderful time of fun and fellowship. It only rained on us once, but more on that later. Here's some pics.

On the way there we stopped at the Mayfield Dairy, took the tour, and had some ice cream.

Then we stopped at Hunters Cafe in Sweetwater for lunch. Yeah, I know, don't say anything.

Then we got there and took it easy.

Then we tried to dance some to Dean Martin.

(Do you know what she's doing here?)

We played forehead, Mexican train, and old maid a lot.

This is the house we stayed in. It was set up to be used as a bunkhouse that could fit 25 people, so 12 people got that all to themselves. The house was built in the 1800's, and a lot of it still looked like the 1800's.

This is the sort of bunk we slept in (very creaky).

Here are some pics of the first nights campfire. They are in no order at all, they're just there.

The second day we took a hike to Coker Creek Falls (more like cascades). It was a very beautiful area and trail. Here are some pics.

The beginning of the trail.

This is where at the end of the hike, that is, the beginning of the trail, Claire and Luke went in the creek a little bit.

There was a small gift shop that didn't have much in it, but it was fairly good any way.


This is half of us. The rest were staying at the house instead of going to the gift shop, or taking the picture.

Coker Creek was a large gold area. Some guys were there with this machine working on getting the ore and they let me take their picture....okay, not really.



This is the "real" thing.

Now, at the beginning of the post, I mentioned rain. Apparently when it rains there it rains. We had some rain on the second night, and a good thing it only rained once. It ended up the house had a few leaky spots. So before we went to bed we moved some bunks and strategically placed a few trash cans.

You just look at that and think "I don't believe that house is leaky", right?

Well, I'll stop there, I've kept you long enough.

Kyle B.