Today I am in a great deal of pain because the doctors have taken me off of all my herbal medicines and home remedies, including CBD oil. They are afraid of interactions with anesthesia on Thursday for surgery.
nevertheless, today is one of my very favorite days of the year. The first day of FIG harvest!!! The big variety is exceptionally big this year.
That is a lid from a canning jar… And the trees are loaded. Figs grow very well here, but there tend to be cycles every 2 or 3 years. They freeze back to the ground every so often and have to start over. But the pH is perfect. I love figs. They are one of the only fruits that diabetics can eat without trouble as I understand it, but don’t quote me on that.
We have three varieties. This One I bought from somewhere in the middle east…Turkey I think, or maybe it was Greece, back in 2001 when we first moved to our property after 9/11. The original tree is barely alive, but we have made hundreds of new starts from it. It makes the big ones…and early.
then there are two smaller varieties, one smaller than the other. Their seasons overlap more, but still some staggered ripening times, so we should have figs from now until frost, +/- mid-November maybe…
It is unusual for all 3 varieties to do very well in the same year, but this year they are all loaded. If we get just a little more rain we will be over loaded with figs. And they bring good money too. Come visit next month for a taste.
I am so jealous BillyA.
One survivor-associate buddy-gal three miles away, 900 feet higher up on the valley hill-wall has just the air-flow and sun siting to be able to grow a regional tempered pair of fig trees. They produce 3 years out of 5.
Wifie has insisted this year I stop hand-can “under watering” her vegetable garden. That I must go back to pressure overhead sprinkling.
Means more weeds between the rows for stay-at-home, weeder-slave; me.
I had been using one of the elders left-behind 14" wide push-pull plane (scuffle) hoe.
Last year someone here on the DOW suggested I try a diamond headed hoe instead. I know that ChrisKY’s employer Earth Works sells these.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Thank You. Whoever suggested this.
Much quicker. With much less effort sweating. And with much better in-close control.
Works good even with our remaining small gravel stones.
BillyA., with a body torso adjusted length handle on one of these and 90% of weeding can be done with no back stress hurting. At least saving my back from cramping up.
Regards
Steve unruh
I have been laid up not really paying attention to the goings on around here. It seems that tomato season has started . I was wondering where those things on my plate kept coming from. I imagine there will be some canning soon.
I started some in my south windows early and have some fruit
and flowers now. Been a warm spring, no late frost, warmest in my
50 years here! I put them out and watched the weather. It was all
good, unbelievable! Hot now means soaker hose use in the rows.
Soaker hose under the mulch is a good way to water conservatively.
I pump my water from a dug well and have a shutoff level that I feel
comfortable with. OK, girls, plump up and ripen! Nothing better than
a tomato fresh off the plant. There is a small tomato on the upper
plant on the right
All that grass is actually my rye grain cover crop which I will let grow a
bit and pull it up by the handful for mulching the tomatoes. Tomatoes will
have a soaker hose under the mulch for watering. I’ll keep you posted
on the progress.
Has anyone in southern parts of the us grown sugarcane? I am wondering this because I remember a few years ago I got a couple samples of raw sugarcane, and it was just the sweetest and best tasting treat I have ever had. It is really hard to get sugarcane in Wisconsin because of the temperatures and weather, but I have seen it very rarely in vacuum sealed bags for 99 cents at some old grocery stores. What you get in those packages are not very big pieces, only a tiny part of the stalk. Is there is a better way to get the sugarcane in bigger quantities? Thanks, Tyler
We (Alabama) usually grow sorghum cane for syrup which is very similar and can be eaten that way too. You can get actual sugar cane in south Florida and parts of Louisiana. It is one of my favorite treats on a bus in Africa or South America. Easy to transport, keeps for a long time, has water in it, can’t be bruised or damaged by getting banged around…
How to get it? We used to cut it out of the fields when I was growing up in Florida. I have no idea how you would get it up there. You’d need to find someone to ship it to you I guess. I’ll try to remember you if we grow some sorghum sometime. Wayne may know somebody with sorghum about this time of year. It will ripen from now till frost, but not many people grow it any more. And in TN and KY they now have a new aphid pest that makes it not worth growing in the last several years…At least that’s my understanding.
Thanks billy, I heard about that pest, and it seems like it would be too much of a hassle to ship it up here. But if I do find some of the packages sugarcane in any grocery store around here, I will definitely stock up on some. Tyler.
I allmost need to crawl in there its geting crouded. Only regret l have from building this greenhouse is l wish l built it bigger.
Beans doing great this year
Not sure why but turkey is one of my favourite poultry. There is something about them… Unfortunaly, we lost 20 young to the fox… Pens are the only way.
I like to incubate quail eggs, every other bird is best left to nature. This is one of our incubators. Dwarf hen. Thats for smaller eggs, bigger ones go under turkey hen.
I learned about deep mulch at North’s this year, thats a game changer. Tryed it with grass in thee greenhouse, WOW. 6" of grass on the soil take away 3/4 of work. Next year most growbeds will look like this.
Great job Kristijan on growing all of that, I guess today is my lucky day, I went shopping at the grocery store with my dad, and in one of the exotic fruit sections I see sugarcane for sale by the bundle. I have never seen that before anywhere around here, and I just had to share that.
The thing to watch out for with deep mulch it that it becomes a habitat for insects. I had to move my squash plants this year after mulching them for a few years because the squash and cucumber bugs where wintering over in the partly decomposed mulch. Also potatoes and other root crops will grow around straw. It isn’t much fun to have to cut the straw out of your potatoes.
Here are a couple of articles on sauerkraut people might find interesting. I had no idea how it was made or what you could preserve that way before I decided to try it the other day.
Hi guys, beautiful sunny day today. Here are 2 pictures of my green house. A tobacco plant I left (I always have it to protect other lants) and a CURLEDED CABBAGE. Nice to see, use and eat.
The big variety is exceptionally big this year.
I imagine there will be some canning soon.
its geting crouded. Only regret l have from building this greenhouse is l wish l built it bigger.
