Behold the Bounty...

Deep summer has arrived.  The Wooly Caterpillar was marching across the lawn today.  I admire his spiky hair style. 

The bees are loving my borage.  If you have never planted borage, it is well worth it.  The flowers taste like cucumbers.  My nieces loved putting them in our chicken, bacon, ranch, borage wraps.

I have a few chamomile flowers still blooming.  They are such happy little flowers.  

My black-eyed Susans and sedum are still holding strong.  I am astounded that the deer haven't eaten them yet.  Mybe my smelly spray is working.

As always, the picture doesn't do the garden justice.  It is nice to have something that has survived the hail, deer, and whatever else Mother Nature throws at it.

I am completely in love with this hollyhock.  She is about 9 feet tall.  She looks so regal.  The deer ate the bottom, but they couldn't get the top.

The acorns are crazy this year.  They are huge and plentiful.

The turkeys and the deer are loving the acorn extravaganza.  These polts are getting pretty good sized.  I'm surprised at how many turkey polts and fawns we have as the mountain lions and coyotes are pretty regular visitors on our game camera.

Here is the latest garden harvest.  My colorful carrots are amazing.  We fried up the eggplant and it was delicious.  I am so excited that I was actually able to grow and harvest and eggplant.  I have tried this endeavor since I had a greenhouse.  It was worth the effort.

My sweetcorn is never huge, but it is mighty tasty.  I also had a lemon cucumber.  These are by far my favorite cucumber.  I also have a few beans still straggling in.

I had enough veggies from my garden and a zucchini someone gave me, so I canned them.  Seven pints of vegetables for soups, stews, and pot pies this winter.  

Not only was this day productive in the garden, but I also managed to finish a task I had been dreading all summer.  I stained the upper deck.  My mind had it as a much bigger project than it turned out to actually be.  It took about 45 minutes from start to finish.  It sure needed a new coat of stain.  The wood was so dry.  I enjoy doing my yoga workouts on this deck.  In the morning, I do a 7-minute sun-salutation and in the evening, I do a 20–30-minute practice facing the setting sun.  

Do you can your veggies or freeze them?  I do a little of both.  It sure saves time when you come home from work hungry and don't want to wait for the veggies to soften in the soup.  I'm not a patient woman.  Do you have any last-minute projects that you have avoided doing all summer?  Hope your weekend is as productive as mine was.

Someone asked if we grew the peaches.  The answer is no.  The peaches were purchased.  We get them from the same person every year.  He brings them up from Idaho and Arizona.  Our climate is too cold for such things.

Production...

 It was a very productive weekend.  I got my yearly peck of peaches.  They were juicy and flavorful, as usual.  I spent the whole day canning.  In the end: 6 jelly jars of peach salsa, 6 pint jars of honey spiced peaches, 10 jelly jars of vanilla peach jam, 8 little jelly jars of maple whisky peach jam, 3 pint jars of peach syrup, 4 bottles of pineapple wine. Can't forget I also made a peach cobbler that is unbeatable. 

I was exhausted by the end of it.  I started at 9:00am and finished at about 8:00pm.  It was fulfilling to use tomatoes and peppers from the garden for the salsa.  Speaking of the garden, I had another wonderful Minnesota Midget cantaloupe.  I absolutely love these little buggers.

The banana peppers are producing like crazy.  My bumble bee tomatoes aren't ripening as fast as I would like.  Luckily, I had enough for salsa.  The okra is also doing good.  Okra is quickly becoming one of my favorite vegetables.

If that wasn't enough, today I harvested my sweetgrass from my little patch.  I got 14 bundles.  I think that is the most I have ever had.  I cannot describe the smell.  It is heavenly.  

That is all I have for this weekend.  It truly was Labor Day for me.  I cannot wait to go back to work and relax.  Ha.  What did you do for your Labor Day weekend?

 Not a lot of chit chat this post as we have company.   Yes, the photo below is of hail.  The hail netting held.

My great pumpkin.  A little battle scarred.

 

We took the 1880 train today.  It is always a nice trip.  

Hope you had a good week.   Ours was filled with family, food, and adventures. 

Midnight Tryst...

 With my new job title comes some of the same job duties as my previous job.  As I did in December, I got the opportunity to take one of my students to a leadership conference in Washington DC.  He had never really been out of South Dakota and not had the joy of flying.  It was wonderful to be able to see the wonder and excitement he got from this experience.

It was in DC that I met my new love... The Midnight Tryst Hibiscus.  What a beauty.  Although the museums are pretty much closed when the conference ended, the gardens are always open.  While my student was on a bus tour with other students.  I was drawn back to the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden that I had enjoyed when I went in December.  The garden didn't disappoint.  There is nothing more energizing to me than to sit quietly in the middle of our nation's capital and enjoy the plethora of beauty the Smithsonian's gardeners create.

Not only was there the Midnight Tryst, but also the Hidden Valley Hibiscus (below) tucked away in the middle of a scented garden.  Jasmine, magnolias, moonflowers, trumpet vines, and flowers I didn't even know existed created a perfect haven.  I will never be able to grow any of those, but I do know I can grow a hibiscus.  I drag them in when temperatures drop and try to be kind when I put them out again in the spring.  I don't know where I will tuck this beauty in amongst my 30+ houseplants, but I am determined to find one.

Do you see the delicate moonflowers?  They were everywhere.  I may have to give them a try next year.  This birdhouse is still my favorite.  

All journeys must end and ours did with a very turbulent airplane ride from Denver to Rapid City.  The joy of flying was pretty tongue-in-cheek, because my student was less than impressed.  Luckily it was on the last flight.  I don't know if I could talked him into boarding another plane if we had had such a flight at the beginning of our adventure.  

As if it knew it had competition, my hibiscus had several vibrant blooms when I came home.  Maybe it is afraid I won't still have room for it.  My vegetable garden is doing great.  I have high hopes of winning the giant pumpkin competition this year.  Here is the leading candidate.  A little scarred up, but still going strong. Also please notice, my corn is tasseling hardly a foot from the ground.  Anxious to see how that turns out.

My husband did a great job of keeping my gardens watered and the deer away.  Of course, he knows that anything that dies in his care will be replaced.  He did such a good job this eggplant came out of nowhere.  It wasn't forming when I left and then 5 days later here it is in all of its glory.  A friend gave me the most amazing eggplant parmesan recipe and I'm dying to use it with one from my garden.  

The fruit and berry portion of my garden is extremely lacking this year, but we do have a beautiful crop of apples.  This is my first harvest from my 6-year-old Zestar tree.  Yes, 6 years I've waited for an apple from it.  It was worth the wait.  They are very sweet and juicy.  We peeled them and froze 4 bags for pies, 3 bags for crisp, and made one crisp.  I used the peels and a few leftover apples to make caramel apple jam.

Speaking of food I have to share this awesome Pinterest recipe.

Chopped Italian Sandwich | In Good Flavor

Take lettuce, tomatoes, banana peppers, green peppers, lettuce, red onion, mozzarella cheese, peperoni, cooked sausage, ring sausage, and black olives.  Chop it up like nobody's business.  Then add a glob of mayonnaise, Dejon mustard, and Italian dressing.  Sprinkel with salt and pepper. Chop up and mix together and then put on a toasted or untoasted sub.  It is delicious and a extremely flavorful. 

It may not look pretty, but I promise it is tasty.  Just don't forget to add the Dejon mustard.  It gives it that extra zing.  

I am forever thankful for my life.  To be able to help a young man see what is beyond his boundaries was wonderful.  To find peace in the middle of a huge city, to have a husband who supports my travels and keeps my garden going while I'm gone, and then to come home and realize what a beautiful haven we have created brings me great joy. 

What are you thankful for?  Is there a destination that you look forward to visiting?  What is something about today that brought you joy?

Despite everything...

 I really have no idea how homesteaders did it back in the day.  Here it seems like it is always something.  The does are munching their way through my flower beds, garden, and now they are jumping into the orchard and chowing down.  There is no fear.  Do these two look scared? They are just upset I'm interrupting their breakfast. 

This little fguy is following right into his mom's footsteps.  He is just looking for something to nibble on and if you look below, you can see he found it.  Argh.

My husband and I put our heads together and came up with a solution for the hail hammock.  We put sticks with tennis balls in the middle and voilà, no longer a problem.  How do I know?  Because again with the hail.  As I said in the title of this post, despite everything I garden.

These two little fuzz balls were enjoying the pollen.

Yesterday, my husband and I went to a farm supply store.  When we came out of the store this fella below was on his back.  Of course, I didn't tell him that he was giving a ride to a praying mantis, until after I had relocated it.  How it found him in the store is beyond me.  I would have taken a picture of it on his back, but I feared my husband wouldn't find that amusing.  Funny part was we went to another store and when we came out, he had a ladybug on him.  I guess he was the bug whisperer.  We figure his green shirt gave them hope for something outdoorsy and they were right, as it got them out of the stores.  

That is all I know this week.  I am going to a conference in Washington DC this week.  Between the deer and hail, I don't know what will be left of my garden.  When I go on trips, I make my husband sign a contract that he will replace any plants that die under his care.  I always hope I will end up with a trip to the garden center when I return, but the truth is he is better about watering things than I am.  

What are your garden woes? What battles do you wage during the summer months?