90%ers personal update

[BobbyB]

Seems like this has died down quite a bit for whatever reasons, but I thought I'd just give an update.

Goats are giving more that enough milk for us and we have traded some off at a barter day along with some extra eggs for various things brought in by others.

We have dug over 400 lbs of red potatoes and have canned some and still have in that neighborhood of white potatoes to dig.

Corn will be ready in a week or so, along with tomatoes and green beans. Cabbage is making heads and will be ready soon and then I'll start a bunch of sauerkraut. ( we've made 2 batches, but bought the cabbage for it. )Karla has frozen a bunch of carrots, squash and greens and is just waiting for more stuff to come in to can or freeze. .

Also traded a bunch of chicks and ducks for 2 Boer goat does so we will have meat goat kids in the future. Pigs are growing and we have a line on some more that will sure be woth the money when they are weaned, so there should be a steady supply of pork in the pipeline.

We are putting right along with this. The way we figure it, we need to put up stuff for about 6 months to carry us over from one garden to the next. That figure may be off a bit, but we can adjust next year if need be.

How are the rest of y'all doing with this?

[am1too]

Your garden season is well ahead of most of us. I just got my first blooms on some beans. No blooms on maters yet. Taters and onions doing well. My salad patch is well ahead of my needs.

Did well at the auction the other day. Got 64 jelly jars, 60 wide mouth qts, 58 reg qts, 57 wide mouth pints, 49 reg pnts and 15 1/2 gal for a mere $3.

[anniew]

we had a frost last night.

[BobbyB]

Originally Posted by am1too

Your garden season is well ahead of most of us. I just got my first blooms on some beans. No blooms on maters yet. Taters and onions doing well. My salad patch is well ahead of my needs.

Did well at the auction the other day. Got 64 jelly jars, 60 wide mouth qts, 58 reg qts, 57 wide mouth pints, 49 reg pnts and 15 1/2 gal for a mere $3.

I'll give you a chance to double your money and keep half of the jars too !

[mercedes]

Beans are finally blooming.Done ate four Tomatoes and a couple of purple Onions.YUM.

[Bentley]

I dug a 2 gallon bucket of taters yesterday, onions are the size of tennis balls, corn is starting to tassel, cukes, watermelons, and cantaloupes are blooming. Squash has small fruit growing, and we are already eating fresh banana peppers along with large bell peppers, and jalapeños galore. Tons of green maters, and I'm watching them closely.

Peach trees are loaded, and I'm spraying them every week. Although we have a fair amount of blueberries, it's nothing like last year. Right when the blooms were setting, we had frost 2 nights in a row with temps in the 20. I believe that frost really hurt the BB's.

Purple hull peas are looking great. I have 11 rows averaging a hundred feet per row. Sure glad I have a Taylor pea sheller.

Good luck all

B

[HilltopDaisy]

Nothing much happening here in the garden. Next weekend I'll plant the tomatoes, etc. I'm leaning more towards "eating locally" now, more than trying to grow everything myself.

BobbyB, your garden sounds wonderful!

[ldc]

BobbyB, how's the rain situation this spring? Your garden sounds amazing & productive!

[sdnapier]

Originally Posted by Bentley

I dug a 2 gallon bucket of taters yesterday, onions are the size of tennis balls, corn is starting to tassel, cukes, watermelons, and cantaloupes are blooming. Squash has small fruit growing, and we are already eating fresh banana peppers along with large bell peppers, and jalapeños galore. Tons of green maters, and I'm watching them closely.

Peach trees are loaded, and I'm spraying them every week. Although we have a fair amount of blueberries, it's nothing like last year. Right when the blooms were setting, we had frost 2 nights in a row with temps in the 20. I believe that frost really hurt the BB's.

Purple hull peas are looking great. I have 11 rows averaging a hundred feet per row. Sure glad I have a Taylor pea sheller.

Good luck all

B

Hi Bentley, I am new to peaches. What are you spraying and why? Also what zone are you in? I am in a warm 7 - southeast virginia. Does this make difference in spraying. Thanks, Sheryl

[BobbyB]

Originally Posted by ldc

BobbyB, how's the rain situation this spring? Your garden sounds amazing & productive!

The entire crop was made with a water hose. I finally got 1 1/4 inches Friday and Sunday together. heck of it is, just a couple miles North of me where my son lives its rained 12inches in 3 weeks.

But that 1 1/4" we did get put a blush on like you wouldnt believe on whats still growing, including weeds and grass.

[BobbyB]

I forgot to mention I installed a package of bees on May 4th and they seem to be doing good as well.

I took this today when I was filling the feeder. 5 combs and when I blow it up I can see larvae in a lot of cells. I didnt pull bars to check up close because the wind was gusting pretty good when I was out there.

[am1too]

Originally Posted by BobbyB

I'll give you a chance to double your money and keep half of the jars too !

Really?

[am1too]

Originally Posted by BobbyB

The entire crop was made with a water hose. I finally got 1 1/4 inches Friday and Sunday together. heck of it is, just a couple miles North of me where my son lives its rained 12inches in 3 weeks.

But that 1 1/4" we did get put a blush on like you wouldnt believe on whats still growing, including weeds and grass.

Ah my best crop so far. Been harvesting daily for the compost pile. Now it is 4 ft high and more than 15 ft sq. It'll burn your hand.

I have had 2.5 inches of rain this month.

Some of my wheat is 5 ft high.

[PrairieBelle22]

Things are moving right along toward our goal. I don't know that we will get any where near 90% this year or even next year, but we are progressing well. Our downfall is we all like certain things that you can only get from the store.

I have my hives boxes finished and will be picking up my nucs next week. Sooo excited! DH has gotten very involved with this project as well!

Garden coming along pretty well although some of my broccoli bolted (the store bought plants. The ones I started in the green house, are doing great. Looks like a good harvest soon. About half my potatoes rotted in the ground, but the other half look great. Onions, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes and corn all doing great!

We have been blessed with a lot of rain in the past six weeks and I have not been able to plant green beans. I hope to do that tomorrow night (if it dont rain again)

Growing herbs - both culinary and medicinal.

% progress
Meats: 90% and when I finish processing this latest hog, we will probably be right at 99%.
Vegetables: 50% will go up with garden harvests
Fruit: 20% have fruit trees, bushes, etc planted. Will have some small harvests this year
Dairy: 30% we have our own eggs, and are buying milk from locals, but we are cheese fanatics and I haven't learned how to make cheeses yet.
Breads: 10% I can but I haven't been consistent about my baking.
other stuff: 5% need a lot of work here

Thanks for starting this thread, Bobby. One of us needs to start one each month or so to put our updates on.
Belle

[BobbyB]

Originally Posted by am1too

Really?

Sounds like a deal to me.

[Tabitha]

This is a very interesting thread and I would love to learn a few things. am1too, where did you get the wheat seed and what kind is it?
My beans have come up very spoardic, even after planting a second time. I can kiss the corn good bye. can not get anymore seed. I think birds destroyed it. Lettuce and green onions are abundant, just picked ten pounds of strawberries, got some rhubarb and the peas are blooming. We ate greens all spring, mostly in salads, from plants I sowed last fall. I have to chop them down now. they are blooming, but I noticed the patch was humming with bees, so I left it a while. Cauliflower has headed and made the tiniest heads, as big as a tennis ball. Melons, squash and cucumbers are up. I planted more carrots today. 90% is something to dream about. we have been 100% in berries in the past, not quite with milk. Have not bought an egg for us in years. Would like to grow chickenfeed. It looks like we might bet peaches, but they will need spraying and I would appreciate advice. they get brown rot every year. A pear tree succumbed to fire blight.
Apricots do not set fruit. It is such a disappointment, as they are my favorite. Cherries seem to grow here, pie cherries that is, but the birds are a problem. we bought some netting, now we need a helicopter to drop it on the tree.

[Tabitha]

This is a very interesting thread and I would love to learn a few things. am1too, where did you get the wheat seed and what kind is it?
My beans have come up very spoardic, even after planting a second time. I can kiss the corn good bye. can not get anymore seed. I think birds destroyed it. Lettuce and green onions are abundant, just picked ten pounds of strawberries, got some rhubarb and the peas are blooming. We ate greens all spring, mostly in salads, from plants I sowed last fall. I have to chop them down now. They are blooming, but I noticed the patch was humming with bees, so I left it a while. Cauliflower has headed and made the tiniest heads, as big as a tennis ball. Melons, squash and cucumbers are up. I planted more carrots today. 90% is something to dream about. we have been 100% in berries in the past, not quite with milk. Have not bought an egg for us in years. Would like to grow chickenfeed. It looks like we might get peaches, but they will need spraying and I would appreciate advice. They get brown rot every year. A pear tree succumbed to fire blight.
Apricots do not set fruit. It is such a disappointment, as they are my favorite. Cherries seem to grow here, pie cherries that is, but the birds are a problem. we bought some netting, now we need a helicopter to drop it on the tree.

[BobbyB]

A couple of pics. The last evening's digging in the red potatoes. Thats 180 pounds on the scale

And my tatume squash. That is 4 hills planted on six foot centers trying to take over. I read that you can cook them like any squash, but I missed the part about being running vines. Cook like any squash when small or let them mature and treat like a long keeping winter squash. We will find out about that part, but the young ones are great.

[BobbyB]

the tatume vines. They are taking over worse than a yellow pear tomato vine