Now THAT'S a sweet potato!

We didn't get many but considering that many of them are almost this size, I'll take it!  

Add these to the 100+ pounds of winter squash and we'll be all set for our beta carotene requirements for a while!

Fall foraging

While on walkabouts this afternoon I made a discovery... the fox grapes are ripe!

 Of course, the best ones were high up a tree.  So, I returned with pails, shears and taller companions.

 For being wild grapes and a dry year, they are pretty decent.  And we got them before the birds.

I foresee wild grape jelly in the near future....

So... I lied

I have obviously NOT been posting more regularly like I promised last post.  Yeah... I lied.

But, in my defense, things have been really hopping around here.  In the past week I have processed 17.5 dozen ears of sweet corn, weeded the garden, done bulk shopping at Stringtown (an Amish store near here), traveled to my parents to help around the house with things they can't manage anymore (K13 and I washed all the windows), attended a 50th anniversary party, helped hang ceilings in the basement, worked my paying job (while short staffed and supervising a student as well) and have done all the usual household 'stuff'.

The tomatoes are just starting to ripen and I made my first batch of salsa yesterday.  Mmm!  The peppers and tomatillos have been ready for a while but we finally had tomatoes. And I'm a bit frightened of one of my peppers.  Our friend Roger gifted us with a Ghost Chili (Naga) plant this spring.  It has been growing in the garden and now one of the peppers is beginning to ripen.  Considering that these are reported to be the heat of police grade pepper spray, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it.  I have heard that you need more protective gear than just rubber gloves to process them.  Hmmm....

And one of the new ladies has started to lay!  This afternoon there was a lovely, little, brown, pullet-sized egg in with the others.  My bet is on Bettie Page but Ishtar would be the second guess.  Beatrice and Tabitha still look not ready yet.  Bettie was always much bigger than the other chicks so I'm thinking she was a few days older and as a black sex link, she is likely to mature faster than the others.  And they are just over 4 months old now.

That's about it.  Justine has only a few weeks left at home before she heads back to school. This week she is off in the evenings as she is helping as a stage hand in a community production of Rent that one of her friends is acting in.

So, things are still moving here.  I'll try to keep up.  You know, sometimes I really, really just want a day to do nothing.

It may be...

It may be January.  This may be Iowa.  But look at what I harvested today!

Tonight's dinner salad courtesy of the greenhouse.

Thanks ever so much to my wonderful, talented, hard working hubby for his handiwork!  I'm lovin' it!

A full day Sunday

What a day we had yesterday.  Whew!  Packed full of wonderfulness.
First, V took I15 to church so I could work on weeding some more in the garden.  Yeah, I skipped out of church to take advantage of the beautiful weather we were having, and because I knew that we had plans for the afternoon.
So, church over, we headed down to Mt Pleasant (about 60 miles away) to attend the Midwest Old Settlers and Threshers Reunion.  They've stopped numbering them so I'm not sure what year this event is up to but I've been going since I was a child.  It is a festival of all things old having to do with farming and life in the midwest.  They have antique steam and gasoline tractors, farm machinery of all sorts: horse, steam and gasoline powered, a printing press, and vendors galore.  V got a couple of boxcars from his favorite train guy and I picked up two small pieces of pottery from a potter who was there doing demonstrations as well as selling her wares.  I got a small bowl and a garlic plate- more about those another time.  And I did stop at- get this "Judy's Quilt Shop" where there were ladies using treadle machines to piece wonderful quilts.  But, alas, they weren't able to help either in my quest for needles for my machine.
After wandering the reunion grounds and filling ourselves with delightful food, we traveled the 27 miles further south to my parents so spend a little time with them.  Dad had to show us the mutant corn stalk he found in the field.

 It's kind of hard to see but there are 11 ears on this stalk.  As Dad said:  I guess that's what you get when you start splicing genes.

 It's kind of a jumbled mess.

The one ear that had any corn on it is mostly empty due to the drought.
Mom and Dad also gifted us with some winter squash.  They harvested 25 butternut, 20 buttercup and who knows how many acorn squash and don't seem to think that they can eat all of those.

And the buttercup squash aren't keeping so we took several of those.  In fact, half of one of these will likely become chicken food soon as it is already getting soft.  We do have some winter squash of our own so we should be pretty well set. I've spotted several large Long Island Cheese out in the garden and the vines are still going strong.  So, if we have a long fall, we'll hopefully get a few.

I'll be posting again later about a new to me melon review.  Ooo, two posts in one day. I'm not sure I can stand the strain.  Ok, mostly I'm avoiding all the work I have to do.

Big Baskets of Broccoli, Batman!

Yes, it was definitely a harvest of epic proportions here this afternoon.  But is now all chopped, blanched and cooling off some more before I package it up for the freezer.   Not a bad harvest from second and even some third heads!  I really had given up hope for much from the broccoli because it was so hot.  In fact, I nearly ripped it out before we went on vacation.  Fortunately I ran out of time, LOL!    With the rain and slightly cooler temperatures it is growing and producing like mad.  I'm not hoping for this much again but there may still be enough for a few meals out there.  Good thing we all like broccoli!  I think I may do some little "quiche packs" since I don't use as much in a quiche as we eat as a side dish for a meal.... and of course there is soup....  Mmmmmm.......

First greens of the season

And other Tuesday stream of consciousness ramblings.
Today I harvested spinach for salads.  Woo Hoo!!  Ok, I'll admit, there wasn't much of it and I combined it with some lettuce that I had purchased to have enough for our salads- but we had the first greens of the season from the garden.  I also used a walking onion so we had two things from the garden.  For us, having anything harvested in mid April is amazing.  Normally, this would be the time of year when I would be just starting to plant my early stuff.  But I've got spinach to harvest, the peas are up and I've got lettuce and little kohlrabi up out in the garden as well.  What a bizarre year.
I'm hoping that the soil dries up enough that I can work up the rest of the garden soon.  I've got lots and lots of little lambs quarters plants out there and, while I want to harvest some, I also want to till them back into the soil.  I also want to get my little broccoli plants and cabbage planted out soon but the soil is still a bit too wet after the nearly three inches of rain that we got over the weekend.  I did manage to get the onions weeded.  My goal for this gardening season is to work out in the garden for at least an hour a day after work unless it is raining.  Hopefully that way I can keep a better handle on the weeds this year. If it isn't raining tomorrow I'm going to try to dig the new beds by barn and chicken coop... or start laying out my herb spiral.

In sewing news.  J17 has asked for a quilt to take with her to college.  She wants a 'not quite twin sized' quilt for her bed.  She wants a steampunk theme with an airship.  So... I was working on the design for a central applique. If it's raining tomorrow after dinner maybe I'll try to 'sandwich' the celtic knot quilt so I can start the quilting process and get that out of the way before I start on something new.

Otherwise, I was back at work today after a 5 day break.  It was a busy day trying to get to know all the new patients who have come in while I've been off.  Work is always much more mentally draining than the physically draining work at home and it's a different kind of tired.  So it was nice to get out in the garden and weed.  I'm still working on this 'balance' thing. Maybe someday I'll figure it out.

A Sunny November Sunday

It was a quiet but productive day today.  Everyone slept in a bit. V and I stayed up later than usual last night watching a movie, so this morning I actually slept until 8:30!!  That late is usually unheard of for me.
Sadly, I feel like I'm coming down with something, I've got a cough and was running a low fever this morning.  That being the case, I begged off going to J17's orchestra concert this afternoon since I didn't want to inflict my cough or my germs on an audience.
I didn't feel too bad though, so I spent some time outside continuing to put the garden to bed for the winter.  I tackled the tedious but necessary job of pulling all the dead runner bean vines off my trellis netting.  I planted some scarlet runner beans this year.  Actually, they were the last of old seeds I had. The first time I tried them, bunnies ate off every one.  I didn't have too much seed and the weather wasn't too cooperative for them this year, but I let some dry on the vines for seed for next year.  I shelled those out this afternoon as well.

 They don't produce a lot of beans per pod but they are beautiful!

 I really like this photo- I may have to crop it for use as a header sometime.
While I was out in the garden I also pulled and stored all the tomato cages and noticed that, amazingly enough, the marjoram I had planted out there was still alive.  Good thing, because the one I had in a pot on the porch all summer died as soon as I brought it inside.  So, I did a bit of a swapsie-  I ditched the one in the pot and potted the one from the garden.  Hopefully it makes it.  I do love marjoram (or any fresh herb).  I've put it in a sunnier location than I had the other one.  I think it didn't get enough light.  Our good windows for plants are fairly limited.  But I've now got it on the kitchen counter to the side of the sink.  I've got a pot of lemon thyme on the other side of the sink that is doing well so I'll cross my fingers.  The window faces south so if I can keep the cats from knocking them over, I think they'll be fine.
While I was in the garden and J17 was off to a last rehearsal and then concert, V and the boys were working out back.  Before we backfill behind the new retaining wall, V wanted to lay some drain pipe and also some ethernet cable.  Yes, we will soon have internet access in the shop!

 Above, V and K11 backfill the cable trench, below, I14 starts filling in behind the wall

V wants to eventually set up an office out in the shop- there was an office there before but it was in bad shape.  He's thinking about getting a wood stove for out there sometime to heat not only the office space but also make the rest of the shop more useable in the winter months.
He also spent some time mowing the sledding trails down the hill- priorities, you know...
Afterward the poor thing was so tired, he had to hake a nap with Spaz:

Aren't they cute.  Spaz definitely has a rough life.
One thing we didn't get done was the remaining wire on the chicken run top.  It was warm today (around 60F) but incredibly windy and neither one of us felt like manhandling rolls of chicken wire overhead or being up on ladders in the wind.
And I haven't taken time to work on my apron either.  Maybe tonight after dinner.  I've got a deadline coming up.

A little frosty around the edges

We had a little patchy frost this morning.  Nothing major but it still seems far too early for even this.  The squash vines took a bit of a hit but not enough to kill them, they're just singed around the edges.
I ended up staying home from work today.  V has shared his malady with me and I've got a sore throat and have been coughing all day.  I've generally been feeling like I got hit by a truck.  It was a beautiful day- too bad I was in no shape to really enjoy it.  But I did manage some laundry- hanging some sheets and towels out on the line and did some harvesting in the garden.  I gave the chickens several treats today- they always like it when I'm home- It seems that I bring them treats several times a day and they really like that.  It is so funny to see them run to the fence when I approach.  Only three eggs today, all brown, but several of the little girls are checking out the nest boxes so soon.....
I harvested our winter squash this afternoon.  Only 4 of them- at least that I found- I'm hoping that there may be a few more hiding in there that I missed- but sadly, they seemed to flower most when it was SO hot this summer and no fruit set on.  sigh... next year... next year.....  I didn't take any photos of them yet but I'll try to remember to post some.  This year we grew one called Speckled Hound.  A much more manageable size than the Galeux d'Eysines that we grew last year.  And even if we only got 4 squash this year- I've still got some frozen puree from last year that I need to use, so there will still be pumpkin bread this winter.  Those hundreds of pounds of pumpkin last year are still with us, it seems.
I'm off to bed early tonight.  I don't think staying up late last night processing hot peppers for the freezer helped with my illness.

They're starting

I love the late summer.  That is when the garden really starts producing.
We've now had two 'real' tomatoes- distinguished from the few cherry tomatoes we've had.  Last night we had the first Black Krim with our cheeseburgers and tonight, the first Amish Paste.

A little pasta with creamy pesto and a fresh sliced tomato on top. Mmmm....  Summer heaven.
The heat really did a number on the tomatoes.  Some that had been doing really well and getting really large got sunburned in the heat so we will lose a few.  Also there were LOTS of blossoms that will never have a tomato on them...  sigh... we'll see what the harvest brings.  At least the plants look OK.  My attempt at spraying with copper sulfate seems to have slowed down the bacterial spot but not stopped it.  I'm really unwilling to keep spraying because of all the negative effects of copper.  We'll see how things turn out.
The combination of heat keeping me out of the garden and now the 2.9 inches of rain have helped the weeds run rampant again.  But, it's a never ending job.

Friday harvest

Today at work was LONG!!   I was so busy. I ended up staying almost an hour late to get stuff done and even then didn't get everything done that should have been done.  My student and I were supposed to go over her mid-term evaluation but it just didn't happen.  Fortunately, I've got it done and we will go over it first thing Monday morning so I can fax it back to her clinical coordinator.
After work. I fed the chickens and did a bit of harvesting in the garden.

Not the biggest but the first:

 Mmm, we had it steamed for dinner- just enough for each of us to have a spear.  There are several out there much bigger that are still growing and lots of little ones coming.   How exciting... we've been out of broccoli in the freezer for a while and it's one of our favorite veggies.
And now the kale we had for a salad

With the cool, wet weather we've been having, the kale is going strong.  Still yummy and tasty and not even looking like it's ready to bolt.
The weather forecast for tomorrow isn't looking quite as good as I had hoped.  But I still plan to get up early and get as much weeding done as I can.  My garden is an embarrassment of weeds and that has got to change.
V is writing late tonight, hoping to finish his book soon.  So, tomorrow, I can get up early and get down to business.

Sooo close

I am so, so, so close to being finished with the coop.  I finally got my camera charged so I thought I'd share a few photos. 

Here is the North side of the coop with the clean out door:

 The South/West sides- chicken door to the far right under the window.

I still need to finish the exterior door trim and the corners.
And now for some inside shots.
The roost is over partially over the clean out door

 Don't you just love the vinyl remnant on the floor- it's almost too bad we'll be covering it up with bedding. You can just see in the above pic where the feeder and waterer are positioned.  The chicken door is directly in front of the roost.
And finally, the nest boxes:

 There is a half wall behind the nest boxes with hardware screening above.  To the left is the door to the storage portion of the coop.  The only thing left to do is the screen door between the two sections.  Then it's time to put in the bedding and the chickens.
But now, something different!  A harvest!!!

 The first pepper!  It actually came from a plant labeled "yellow bell" but doesn't look like a bell. It did taste like one, though, so I'm thinking it's just a mutant shape.  The other little pepper set on looks more normal.
And strawberries!!

Mmmm... I made a strawberry rhubarb sauce this evening.  We don't have rhubarb of our own but yesterday Jim gave me some.  He gets produce from a CSA and they gave him rhubarb- which he doesn't like- but we do!!

I hope to have more progress to report tomorrow.  Maybe even about chickens!!

January Harvest?

Yup, we had a harvest.  Ok, Ok, it was only 4 beans but still, we harvested 4 beans.  And with 3 steps from the window to the stove, they were the freshest cooked beans in history.  I added them in with the rest of the veggies in last night's soup.  Hmmm... tasty.  And another harvest (of a sort) tonight.  I was making Enchanted Broccoli Forest this evening for dinner and it called for dried mint.  Well, I don't have any dried mint in my kitchen (unless I wanted to open a tea bag).  But, thinking about what was growing just over the porch rail last summer, I grabbed a flashlight and headed outside.  Freeze-dried mint still on the stalks in the kitchen garden.  Probably not ideal but, you know what, it smelled heavenly and worked well.
This evening was the first installment of Meatless Mondays.  We have always eaten vegetarian meals sporadically but I'm trying to be much more intentional to start out this year, with the hope to work up to at least 2 veg meals a week.  But, it will be a challenge to sell to my solidly omnivore sons.  I13 liked tonight's meal well enough, K10 wasn't too thrilled.  But, I think that next time I'll not use the juice of an entire lemon to drizzle with butter over the top- it was a bit tart in spots.
So, I'm going to be scouring my vegetarian cookbooks for meals I can sell to the entire family.  J16 will be easy and V is usually game for anything I put on the table.  But the boys....
I struggle sometimes with their food preferences.  While K10 isn't necessarily a picky eater, there are certain things that he has NEVER liked,  For example- potatoes of any sort.  He will barely even eat french fries!   I mean, really, what 10 year old doesn't like french fries!?   And he doesn't really like tomatoes/sauce either.  I13 has his own food "issues".  He is getting better as he gets older but he has always had issues with certain textures of food- he really dislikes bread with "stuff" in it which the rest of us adore.  He is also generally reluctant to try something new- but again, he's getting better.  Neither boy is too thrilled with dried beans- except as refried beans.  But, we're going to be working on that this winter....
Time to dig into my vast cookbook collection.

More construction and harvests

I took off work a bit early, hoping to come home to get some work done. V had already been at work- I just can't stop that man- broken hand and all.

The northwest corner of the rumpus room.

I had to get the full effect.

A few bamboo sections.

Isn't it beautiful?!!

Of course, we can't start laying the floor yet. The subfloor still needs to be Tapcon screwed into the floor to provide a solid base. V is hoping to do that tomorrow but I'm not sure his hand will tolerate using the big drill that much so maybe I'll be busy after work. We also can't lay the floor yet because the wood needs to acclimate to the house. The problem is that the temperature and humidity in the shop where it has been stacked is vastly different than in the basement so we need to give it time to get used to it's new home before we put it down.

All the boxes of flooring, opened up and "breathing".

I think that once we start laying the floor that it will go pretty fast. We aren't doing any sort of complicated pattern and the room is a nice rectangle so I'm not too worried.

But, enough about construction, I've got more to report. I'm still harvesting from the garden!! In LATE October! Unbelievable.

Somebody stop me before I harvest again!

We're finally forecast for a killer freeze (into the 20's) later this week so I thought I'd see what I could find out there.

It's Monday and time that I usually do my Independence Days update. So, here goes:

1. Plant something- my male Kiwi finally arrived and I got it planted. J16 has named them Romeo and Juliette.

2. Harvest something- tomatoes, peppers, an eggplant, one amazing last cucumber and... wait for it... cauliflower and lettuce. If you're now scratching your head in amazement saying "but I thought she didn't do any fall garden planting" you're right. The cauliflower was a total fluke. It is from a shoot that came up from the roots of the one I planted this spring and formed a beautiful, fist-sized head. The lettuce is an even more amazing gift of nature. Very early this spring, I made a mini bed on the South side of the house, hoping that the sun exposure there would let me get an earlier start on a few leafy greens. I used some old seed and it really didn't do well. But, apparently, one went to seed and I was out and about the other weekend and discovered the section of the yard between the house and my flower bed is a mass of little oak-leaved lettuce. Look:

A 5 quart pail of lettuce and a few leaves of sorrel that is still going.

We're having home grown spaghetti sauce and salads from the garden tonight. Yum.

3. Preserve something- um. I think only my sanity. Oh, and my marriage- I'm not in jail for murdering my stubborn husband.

4. Waste not- I can't think of much to exciting here.

5. Want not- I stocked up at the store. They were having sales and coupons for things we actually use! Coffee, flour, sugar, butter, chocolate chips, canned tuna, frozen peas (mine didn't do much this year) and frozen french fries. I know, frozen fries aren't local or sustainable but they are a fairly quick addition to meals that I know the children will eat- well, except for K10 who doesn't like potatoes in any form.

6. Build community food systems. Nothing I can think of.

7. Eat the food- spaghetti and salads for dinner tonight. We will have one last fresh pepper feast for the week until the hot peppers are gone.

Well, gotta go make salads. J16 should be home from orchestra soon. Tonight is out late dinner night.

It ain't over yet

Today's harvest

Still going... and finally two little bell peppers!

I see some sauce in the future- tomato, eggplant, pepper and basil. Mmm

Spaz, the mighty hunter.

He caught another mouse in the house this week. That brings our total to three in the past few weeks. Hmm, I wonder how they're getting in....

Brodé Galeux d'Eysines

I did a little more research about my warty friends. It seems the name I had was incomplete. The correct name is: Brodé Galeux d'Eysines. Translated from French it means "Embroidered with warts from Eysines". A very apt name.

This beauty weighed in at 17.6 pounds!

I saw on some site that the estimated yield is 1 or 2 pumpkins per vine. I must definitely have overachievers then! I also learned that the warts are somehow due to the sugar in the pumpkin as it ripens. More warts= more sugar. Evidently they will continue to grow even after harvest so the warts are a good indication of which need used first. Since this little guy is almost completely covered, we decided to have a taste test. There must be quality control, you know.

Firm and meaty, small seed cavity.

I roasted 3/4 of the pumpkin in the oven and made puree. I'm saving the other 1/4 for roasting (diced) with olive oil, onions, garlic and rosemary. That mixed with parmesan and served over pasta is heavenly!

I'm pleased to confirm the reports that this pumpkin isn't stringy. It worked up like a dream.

12 cups of puree

Packaged and ready for the freezer.

Mmm, pumpkin bread......

I only froze 10 cups, J16 and I ate the other two with a little salt and pepper. Yum, I'm glad we have lots of these!!

We did send one pumpkin and a bag of hot peppers home with I13's friend who came over this afternoon. Nikki is a delightful girl and it was quickly evident that she is just a friend who is a girl- NOT a girlfriend. The children all had a wonderful time and Nikki spent as much time with J16 as she did with I13. They took a tour around outside, climbed on the big dirt pile, all helped frame a wall in the basement and played games. Nikki would like to come back again and we would be delighted to have her.

The lovely cool weather is supposed to last a few more days. Ahhh... After the summer we've had, temps in the 70's are heavenly!

Edamame!!

When it rains, it pours!

In doing the record keeping for the garden trial, I was to count the number of pods per plant. The winner- 126! Of course, I was outdone by my parents who had one plant with 165. sigh. But I haven't picked all of them yet. Maybe I can still beat them with varieties 32 or 42- they aren't quite ready yet....

Independence Days- Solstice edition

Ok, so I'm a day behind on wishing everyone a happy Summer Solstice. But I can wish you all a happy Summer! I just hope the weather stops being weird for everyone- myself included! We only got a half an inch of rain today! But it made up for the "lack" of rain with the heat. It was near 90 with high humidity. Yuck! This heat isn't doing anything for my peas- I think I'm going to have to pull them. They didn't do very well this year anyway- it just got too hot too soon. sigh. But, here is my IDC update for the past week.

1. Plant something- planted a new rosebush in the flower bed, that's about it. It's been too wet to do much else! I did manage to pull a few weeds without sinking but over half the garden is too wet to even step into. I hope it stops raining soon for long enough that I can find my tiny beans that are up. And my little basil plants.

Tonight's harvest.

2. Harvest something- Hmm, LOTS of broccoli- probably close to 20 lbs of it! Including 10 lbs this evening, that's another thing that the hot weather hasn't been kind to. Also some cauliflower, peas (shell and sugar snap), carrots, onions, a beet, chinese cabbage, strawberries, raspberries and red currants. Oh, and a few fresh herbs.

3. Preserve something- froze 14 quart bags of broccoli and have some sugar snap peas that I need to blanch and freeze as well. Made some red currant syrup (Ok, it was supposed to be jelly but didn't set right- but it's GOOD!) Drying some catnip for the kitties for this coming winter. I want to dry some oregano and summer savory since they are doing really well in the garden.

4. Waste not- Um, not much that unusual. In fact, I probably used more water this weekend than typical. I ended up doing LOTS of laundry- more than usual- since we got water in the basement Saturday morning and lots of J16's piles of dirty laundry that she hadn't washed yet got wet. Ugh. I'm not sure how long she had let her laundry go but I'm STILL working on it. At least I got the wet stuff washed. I've done the typical using cloth bags at the store, recycling and composting

5. Want not- Not much prep work or stocking up going on- it's been too wet. I didn't even have time to do my usual shopping this weekend. We had hoped to get to drywalling J16's ceiling but we ended up mopping water instead. It appears that 6 inches of rain in less than a week is our "pain threshold" for having water in the basement. I'm just glad it trickles in rather than pooling. In other "big project" house prep stuff. We're supposedly the next job on our contractor's list for the septic installation- IF it ever stops raining. The ground is too wet for them to bring in heavy earthmoving equipment. They would sink up to their axles!

6. Build community- I was really disappointed that we didn't make it to the Cultivating Community potluck on Saturday evening. We had been so busy cleaning up water and the wet mess in the basement that I lost track of time and at 4:55, finally looked at the time it was to start to find that it was from 5 to 7 and I hadn't made what I was going to take. sigh... there is next month- they want to have one every month.

7. Eat the food- I think our ultimate for the week was our fresh harvest stir fry! Broccoli, sugar snap peas, carrots and onion fresh from the garden. Mmmmmm. I made blueberry pancakes on Saturday morning and they were really good with red currant syrup. I've got some shelled peas in the fridge that we'll have tomorrow night. Things are picking up. Soon I'm going to be up to my ears in red cabbage!

Have a great week everyone!

Home grown dinner

Good things from the garden!

Made a tasty stir fry for dinner. Mmmmm. Ok, I didn't harvest the rice, ginger or the chicken or make the soy sauce. But it was good!

Local produce

This afternoon, the children and I shelled our Bloody Butcher heirloom corn. I hope to grind some tomorrow and maybe we'll have some pink cornbread for dinner.

Isn't it pretty?

We didn't have a huge harvest but still ended up with about 6 pounds of corn. We would have had more but it was so wet here this year that the ears started to mold on the stalks before we even harvested it. So we were VERY careful about shelling it, trying to not get any bad bits into the mix. So, there was quite a bit wasted on several ears. But still, it is not bad for a first harvest.

Here's another local product that V was quite pleased to find at the store on Wednesday night on the way home:

Locally produced whiskey

We're not huge whiskey drinkers but this stuff is really good. It was even mentioned in Wine Enthusiast magazine last year. In fact, it has been such a hit that the small company producing it has been unable to keep up with demand and there has been none on the store shelves for at least 6 months. So, when V saw a single bottle gracing the shelf he snapped it up. We stopped to pick up milk and tortillas and see what else we find.

But here is what is really special about it, besides the taste:

Every bottle is hand numbered: Batch, barrel and bottle.

Even the date bottled.

Pretty cool!