Pumpkins for a Little Pumpkin!

Growing pumpkins at my place has always been a challenge. Some years I can set out a bunch of plants in the spring and most will survive to produce a excellent crop and I would have a bunch of pumpkins to pass around. This year was not one of those years. Most of the plants that I put out died during the summer, with only one plant surviving to produce fruit. I was able to give a nice pumpkin to my little neighbor girl, and her smile was worth all the effort and frustration.

I hope that I will be able to either find a variety that won't get the blight and die on me, or be able to protect my plants better. This year the variety that I grew this year was "Howden".

Diggin' Some Spuds

Our potatoes are also doing real well this year.  We have already dug up a bunch, and the remainder are still in the ground waiting their turn. Potatoes seem to grow well in my soil, but they can be a bugger to dig out due to my heavy clay soil.

Aw Shucks!

 We have a excellent crop of sweet corn this year, with plenty of great ears. Here my son Adam reluctantly show off his haul of bi-color "Sugar and Cream" from Mountain States Seeds. This has proved to be a very reliable type, though I think that I like "Ambrosia" better! This year I had four different plantings, and I have had fresh corn for over a month. My kids really like sweet corn, but they hate shucking it for some reason!

When we have a surplus, my wife likes to freeze what we don't eat fresh. She just cuts them off the ear, blanches them in boiling water for about a minute, and them puts them in freezer bags and places them in the freezer. So far we have had pretty good results doing this.