Who needs gold when you have a fat hog, wheat, fingerling potatoes and…
this for breakfast. Ceptin I ate about thirty while picking and can’t do anymore.
Damn those are lookin good!
Fine lookin’ basil too. Whip up some goat mozzarella & you’ve got yourself a fine salad.
I am growing my first crop of potatoes ever this spring. How do you know when to harvest them?
Isn’t it early for strawberries? Season here isn’t for another 4 weeks or more.
Those look really good!!
"lil Audrey is learning how to do cheeses. We’ve done the soft stuff and are now heading toward the hard, aged cheeses. I have been ventilating our root cellar and it will be perfect for curing.
Next time we butcher, I am also going to dabble in hard cured country ham - never done it. (and Tibbsey will finally get the bacon I promised)
WHAT!? You got berries already?
~Matt
Depending on how “new” you want them…but you just have to have real new potatoes anyway.
For new taters, after the blossoms open, carefully dig beneath a few plants and gently lift enough for dinner. Do not wash too hard as the skin will be very tender. You’ll become addicted, especially if you have beans at the same time in the garden.
For main harvest, you’ll wait until the tops die back. Do not wash, allow to cure in a 70 degree ventillated place and then cellar (but you won’t have much unless you planted over 100 feet - cause you would have eaten all up by the time the tops die out.
New taters are wonderful, but if you’ve never had a fresh, fully mature potato one day out of the soil - oh my!
Be sure to hill up a few times…maybe starting very soon. I’ve hilled twice now. (ouch)
Beautiful!
Well, you know what they say: you can’t eat gold.
However, if you have enough firepower, you can just take what you need from someone else.
Isn’t it early for strawberries? Season here isn’t for another 4 weeks or more.
Those look really good!!
Our local market here in NJ just started selling NJ strawberries last week. At $5.99/lb vs. $3.99/lb for the California ones, they’re worth it in taste and that “eat locally” good feeling.
mrmm…pork belly…
I’m disappointed. I figured this thread would have to do with the Austrian Regression Theorem, since that explains why we no longer need gold to barter. 
We planted strawberries last year–100 Chandler and 150 Camarosa. This spring they came back with a vengance. We are making a batch of strawberry jam (6x pints) each evening; we are dehydrating five trays each evening; and freezing flats of them and then bagging em for smoothies and daquaries later in the summer–and we’re falling behind.
Just went out and picked a few for an after swim smoothie
Steve, this is (believe it or not) only our second serious year with S-berries. We put out 50 last year and thinned runners out in the very early spring this year for a total of (guess) 150 plants now.
How will we thin now? We’d like to end up with maybe around 250 or so producing on a regualr yearly basis.
That was my problem–I didn’t thin them out last year and now many are wasting. We had neighbors over picking em too–more than enough to share. But it’s a good ‘problem’ to have. Meanwhile my blueberry bushes are just about ready to start picking. Also, I am putting in drip irrigation in my raised beds for tomatoes, squash, cukes, peppers, onions and jalapeno’s. Mrs H just planted a bed of sweet potatoes too. I was going to plant a half acre of feed corn to try and keep the feed costs for this years pigs down but my contracting work with the govt got in the way so I’ll be feeding bought hog feed for this years pigs.
/r
There is indeed a learning curve with these little buggers! We are now, as you, out of control. Thank goodness for the interweb.
'lil Audrey supprised me with Blueberries for her brand new raised beds. I really haven’t had the year it takes to make good soil for it anyway, but then to drive the pH down in the Bberry bed proved impossible. They are potted up in peat now and I’ll have this year to peat up the spot and get the pH down.
I’ve only had my blueberries for two years now–we only moved here two years ago–and I am also having trouble bringing the Ph down in the soil around them. This winter I mulched them in with pine needles hoping that would help some and it seems to have.
/r
In these soils, we are forced to use almost pure peat for at least the first five years. Sulphur helps but takes forever (our soils are pretty buffered) and I’ve learned to fertilize the Bberries with MirAcid.
Its an artificial environment for sure, but Blueberries don’t grow in OK for a reason.
Dammed strawberries sure do!!!
How many strawberry plants do you have?? I get about 3 ripe strawberries at a time right now. Still waiting on the tomatoes and peppers to start growing.