• Subject: Green bean explosion and other tales
• From: &* C* D* C* U* A* 9* C* <c*@edwards.af.mil>
• Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2010 14:19:50 -0700

I knew when I planted the veggie garden this spring that I would have
time conflicts, since we spend so much time with the horses now. So I
wasn't surprised that my green beans hit their peak over the 4th of July
weekend when we were away. I took Tuesday off work knowing I'd be
spending all day canning. 
They sure did good this year, the relatively mild weather contributed to
a green bean explosion. I put up 38 pints of beans - I ran out of jar
lids so the last canner load was short by two jars. Then I started
blanching and freezing, got another 10 pints in the freezer, by then it
was 9 pm and I was tired. I still have at least 5 pounds in the fridge,
a gallon bag of nice straight ones for dilly beans, and maybe another 2
or 3 pounds to pick. Woohoo! I don't see many flowers but now that I've
picked everything, if the weather stays nice I might get another round. 
The corn was ready on the 1st so I took a giant bag with me and
contributed corn on the cob plus grilled zucchini for our potluck.
There's still maybe 30 ears on the stalks, it's a bit past its prime but
still quite edible. I'll pick everything left and freeze it either
tonight or tomorrow. 
The tiny zucchinis I left on Friday were foot long monsters on Monday
night, but the chickens like them. Picked a few tomatoes but the
majority are still green. Rabbits are still eating my cucumber vines
although one of them is hanging on as it is twining itself around a dill
plant, I guess rabbits don't like dill.  The onion foliage is starting
to fall over and the pepper plants are loaded with green peppers. 
In the front, the Shasta daisies are in their glory and the daylilies
are out in force. Roses will be putting out new buds soon. The weeds are
also very happy (sigh...)
In the San Bernardino national forest, where we take our horses, there
are wildflowers galore. Not the mass show like our desert in the spring
but you see something blooming almost everywhere. We spotted an
interesting flower I hadn't seen before, I think (but I'm not sure) it
is Corallorhiza maculata, or spotted coralroot. I took some pictures of
it and I'll try to put them on my Facebook page when I get out of the
kitchen.
Hope you Easterners get out of your heat wave soon. It barely got up to
90F today here, which is practically unheard of for July. 

Cyndi  

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