Busy With Harvesting and Other Things

July and August have certainly been a busy time for us here in North Central Alabama. The gardens have been producing. Revivals are in churches everywhere with us seeing more saved for the Kingdom of God this year than I’ve seen since my growing up years. We’ve also had more sick amongst my cousins so this has meant visiting the hospital at least twice a week as well. I think everyone is on the road to recovery now though. So I thought I’d take a breath and write a little on the blog.

We have had squash, squash, and, yes, more squash during July and now in August. We’ve had enough rain that they just continue producing when I thought they would just go ahead and die. We’ve had fried squash, boiled squash, broiled squash, squash dressing, vegetable casserole with squash, green beans, and corn, and my teenagers’ favorite, squash fritters. We’ve shared with my parents, sister, and grandma. I was hoping to see my sister can some squash relish, but I haven’t talked her into that yet. Maybe she’ll give me the recipe, and I’ll have to do that myself.
We’ve also had an abundance of cucumbers. I love cucumbers, and I think I eat at least one a day. We are getting so many that even with sharing amongst family that my mother is talking about us making some pickles. She had told me that they never made them that much when she was growing up, but I think we might give it a try soon.
The pink eyed purple hull peas, bell peppers, Alabama black butter beans, Dixie butter peas, and Kentucky wonder pole beans have all started producing as well. I thought that the rabbits or deer had eaten almost all of our Kentucky wonder pole beans, but we are still getting a little bit of green beans a couple of times a week. We’ve had all kinds of critters eating our plants at both gardens. My parents have had a skunk that visits for the last couple of years. It likes to eat the pears that hit the ground below the pear tree which is located close to our squash in the garden. One evening we were out picking late, and my husband noticed the skunk behind my son. We just continued picking, and it finally moved on without spraying us.
We would like to be canning and freezing, but with sharing with family and planting a late garden, we haven’t yet harvested enough to put up for the winter. My mom mentioned that next year we might need to think about planting four rolls of pink eyed purple hull peas and maybe more than two rolls of green beans so we’d have plenty to put up. Our rattlesnake beans and Kentucky wonder bush beans haven’t yet started producing although the rattlesnake beans are blooming like crazy. Maybe in the next couple of weeks we’ll be able to freeze some peas, put up some vegetable soup, and can some green beans. That would certainly help us save money on vegetables this winter.