First Official Day of Summer...90 Degrees Is Clearly Proof!

"SOL’S HEATING RAYS EACH MIST RETRACTS, THAT HOVERS OVER THE PLAIN; THE CLOUDS OVERHEARD GROW THICK AND BLACK, IN TORRENTS POURS THE RAIN."

THAT'S what the Farmer's Almanac had to say for the month of June. Here in TN we have had many days of 90 degree temperatures and many days of torrential rains. It seems the weather is confused as to what we need and when. If only it could be a nice mix of the two all our gardens would be happy and thriving. As it is, while they aren't in decline, they certainly are more maintenance as the hot days give us cause to get the hoses out and water, water, water.

The tomatoes seem to be hardy enough to go a couple days without being watered. To check them, I dug a hole about 6 inches deep to see what kind of moisture was being retained. Thankfully, that deep in the ground the dirt is quite moist, all things considered. Indeed I was able to squeeze it in my hand and make it clump but it doesn't hold for long and if the roots aren't that deep, it does no good at all. So we water. For me this has to be done in the afternoons just before the sun begins to drop.

The plant roots soak up the water and so do the weeds so whatever hoeing can be done after the watering, I try to do it quickly and efficiently because trust me, by the time I get home, get dinner, clean up and head to the garden, I'm pretty well bushed! But it pays off in the end :) as I'm rewarded with the fruits of my labor.

Two of the volunteers have tomatoes on them!!! I can't quite tell what kind they will be but in the next day or so it should be pretty obvious. I have a feeling at least one of them will be the little, yellow, pear shaped tomatoes Teri gave me last year. They are sweet and practically all juice inside! They have a few seeds but these little gems are just bursting with juice and it's hard not to eat them all before I get them in the house! If I have half the crop I had last year all will be good!

The "Red Raspberry" tomato that Teri brought up this year is thriving in this heat. It must have come from Arizona! LOL it is dark green, tall and slender. It doesn't have many branches but the ones it does have are healthy and strong. The stem/stalk is very sturdy and it shows no sign of heat distress whatsoever. I can't wait to see the tomatoes coming off of that one!

The German Queen plant is surviving but doesn't seem to like where it is very well.  It's only half the size of the "Red Raspberry" but it's trying...The bottom leaves turned yellow about the same time as new green growth started to appear on the very top of the plant. I'm not giving up - I'm just going to give it more water than the others and see if that helps. It does get some afternoon shade that might be halting the growing process somewhat????????

So I have 4 tomatoes as of Sunday!! lol with 18 plants that number should be increasing daily! I'll keep you posted.

The basket was full to overflowing this week and I can't wait to dig in and eat all that healthy food!! I got 2 heads of lettuce, one is called Adriana Buttercrunch and I don't know the name of the other one. Either way, they are both very bright green and so crispy-crunchy you don't want to stop eating them. I tore the leaves from the stalks, rinsed all the dirt from them, spun them dry in my salad spinner and bagged them to keep fresh throughout the week of lunch salads!

I got a nice crookneck squash, two patty pan squashes (very mild but distinctly squashy flavored) a cucumber, a bunch of scallions, three more kohlrabi, another bunch of carrots and a big bunch of beets; both red and gold mixed!! Now that's some healthy stuff! I'm sure you're all aware that the more red, blue and purple food you eat, the more healthy antioxidents you're getting...and this doesn't include red hots, licorice, lolly pops or any other kind of junk food!! ha! I knew what you were thinking.

I cut the tops off the carrots and kohlrabi and bagged the green tops for the horses. I washed and trimmed the beets and bagged both the tops and the bulbs for eating later this week. Whatever keeps longest gets eaten last, if I can help it! lol You should see my refrigerator!

Wally cooked ribs and chicken on the grill while I fried the squash and braised the mustard greens from last week's basket. We had way more food than we could eat but all of it makes for some yummy leftovers :) Well, the fried squash was gone but we had ribs, chicken and greens left for tonight!! LOL

On a sad note, Ruger has run off and we haven't seen him since Friday :( I keep hoping I'll see him come running down the driveway every day when I get home. It keeps not happening. We've been all over the farm, up and down all the little side streets and we tell everyone we see to be on the lookout for him. So far, nothing. We won't ever give up though - we'll always be on the alert for a big white dog who answers to his name :(

While we were out looking for Ruger, we drove past the house of a friend of Wally's. Her and her husband were outside tending to their garden so we asked if they had seen Ruger and told them our number was on his collar if they happened to spot him. We stopped at a couple other places and then turned around to head for home. She came out into the road and flagged us down and asked if we would like some of the vegetables from her garden. Being polite, we declined but then she insisted we take some squash with us at least. Not to be rude, we graciously accepted her offer. I'll tell you what those were the biggest squash plants I'd ever seen in my life!! The plants stood fully 2 - 2 1/2 feet tall and the leaves were bigger than my head!

She loaded us up with yellow squash, green bell peppers, sweet banana peppers and lots of cucumbers! For free! She wouldn't take no for an answer so what were we to do? It looks like I'll be canning squash this weekend! We already had some fried and, of course, I'll make squash casserole with some of them but after that - into the jars they go! We only have 2 jars left from last year and we had 14 to start with :) I pack the squash in with slices of white onion, lots of fresh dill and just a little bit of canning salt to preserve the color and texture. Oh So Good!! Ask Marcia - I sent some to her for Christmas :)

She told me to come back in a week or so and help myself to some tomatoes. I think they must have had 30 or 40 plants...and I thought 18 plants were a lot!! There are gardens everywhere around here. I've never seen so many as I have this year. I know people are getting back into farming and it seems to have caught on in a very big way here in Hickman County.

Claudia tells me she has 8 or 9 cucumbers for me and that's with her keeping some for her family and other friends she's sharing with. I promised her some beans but we all know what happened there...I do believe I've seen some new growth on them but I can't be for sure just yet. If that's the case - we'll be putting up fencing this weekend! I'm not up for another big disappointment like those of the beans and peas. 

If you recall last year, when the summer ended, the swimmin hole was just about ready for us. We didn't quite get it finished in time to swim so the guys have been working on it the past couple of days and we're hoping to be swimming in it soon!! While the temperatures are in the 90s, this would be a very good thing :) I can tend to my garden and take care of all manner of outdoor chores and then head on down for a cool, refreshing dip in the water.... ahhhhhh!

We're already planning to take a grill and some lawn chairs down there so when it comes time for a cook-out, we'll be all set! I dug out my beach towels and sunscreen just the other day :) hahaha! Come take a dip with us! I'll make sure you have plenty to eat when you're tired of all that swimming :)

The blackberry bushes are loaded with red berries - another week or so and they'll all turn black. The trick here is to get them before the birds do! It's not as easy as it seems my friends :) Last year I picked blackberries for about an hour and you would think I'd have gallons. Not so, not so. The birds get them pretty quick so I'm left picking further back on the plant which means lots of scratches from the thorns and not much to show for it.

They are truly amazing for being so wild - they are super sweet and literally pop when you bite into them. I make blackberry sorbet for us to have for dessert or just to cool down on a hot summer day on the farm...it's simple really, just put the blackberries in the blender with or without a few drops of honey and blend away. Put it in a bowl in the freezer and let it set. Once it's frozen, you just scrape out a few scoops and plop on some whipped topping (sugar free for us) and sit back to enjoy :) Talk about refreshing!!  hmmm if you come see me, I'll try to save some for you :) better hurry though!

As days go by and all things summer are upon us, my list of things to do keeps changing every day. There's so much I want to go and do and see here in TN but more and more I find I'd rather just stay right here on the farm. We can cook out, swim, go horseback riding, take off on the 4 wheelers or jump in big red for a day of riding the back roads and creeks. It seems the weekends are just too short no matter where you are or what you're doing!

The baby deer are starting to show up with their mommas and just the other day, they came up on the driveway between the cabin and the outhouse - literally within about 20 yards of where I was standing. They saw me inside the house but they weren't concerned at all. The little one was still a bit wobbly on its legs and the momma deer clearly knew it - instead of taking off at a full run, she kind of built up to it so the baby could keep up. When it first started out, I thought it would fall but I was very impressed to see that little baby deer got it together, found its legs and took off after her like it had been running behind her for years :)

Don't go getting your hopes up - I still have plans for hunting season just like I did last year...only I'm hoping for more success this year...lol!! Maybe with my new contacts I'll be able to see further down the driveway!

I hope everyone had a nice Father's Day! It's time to gear up for 4th of July now... I'm so glad to see it's on a Monday this year. It's always so nice to have a Monday off without having to use vacation time. I don't know what we're planning to do this year but I'm sure fireworks will be involved somewhere along the way :) What are your plans for celebrating the birth of our nation?

"There are many in this old world of ours who hold that things break about even for all of us. I have observed for example that we all get the same amount of ice. The rich get it in the summertime and the poor get it in the winter." ~Bat Masterson

This was in the Farmer's Almanac too - just in case you need to impress someone with some useless information..hahahaha

“GONE WITH THE WIND” WAS PUBLISHED IN JUNE OF 1936…"