Some of the trees are starting to lose their leaves; a few red leaves have been showing in the last few weeks. Summer has peaked and is tapering off. The beehives are getting ready for the winter.
It's time to plant the fall crops that will enjoy the cool fall weather: crucifers, peas, greens, beets, etc.
Corn came in a week ago and now the stalks are bare. We had a bumper crop of beautiful well-filled ears, and I foundered myself processing it all. I canned 7 quarts, but didn't like the caramelization that I saw, since it takes 85 minutes at 10# pressure to can corn. So I've frozen the rest.
We're going to be covered in late tomatoes, and still have oodles in cans in the basement. Luckily this is a poor year for tomatoes, and most have blight of one sort or another. I've eaten so many that my appetite for them has diminished.
Potatoes, both sweet and white, are yet to be dug.
Melons have had too much rain and most have started rotting before ripening, but we've eaten some. OK, but...
This has been a bean year. We can't use any treatments, but have wonderful soil, from the horse manure. The Green Beans have no bugs, and are producing heavily and continuously. There's no telling when they'll stop.
Lima Beans are just starting to get ripe, and might give us a meal soon. They are Thorogreen, bush type, but in this perfect bean year they are sending out runners up to eight feet! I've never seen the like. We'll have a huge crop from them. Luckily one of my bee friends has a lima bean shelling machine. I already have blisters from corn processing!
The peppers have not done as well as I'd like, but the eggplants are just starting to get to picking size. What do I do with eggplant? Any ideas!
