No canning going on here Annie.

I did finish getting around 7 dozen ears of corn processed and in the freezer. Enough to last the year I think. My yellow filet bush beans are growing well and should start blooming in a couple weeks. I'll blanch and freeze about 10 pounds of those(hopefully!).

My new pullets started laying in July. The first one started laying at 15 weeks and I think all 6 are laying now. I have 2 copper maran pullets that are supposed to lay the dark brown eggs. For about the first month they were laying cream colored eggs but a week or so ago they finally started to color them dark brown. Weird!

It’s been a bad gardening year here. Still waiting for rain. I agree that chipotle cucumbers doesn’t sound right. I love chipotle mayo though! Slap some roasted red peppers and chipotle mayo on nearly any sandwich or burger and it should be good. :)

Jack, freezing counts, so you're still doing OK. :-) I have a Maran and I found that they have to "grow into" the substance they produce to make the eggs dark brown. They'll lay dark eggs for a couple of years and then they will start getting lighter and lighter, like they've run out of the pigment that makes the eggs dark, if that makes sense. The older the Maran the lighter the egg becomes. The eggs are still delicious, though, so I'm good with that.

PM, it's been in the 90s here and we have had about half an inch of rain total in the past 6 weeks. The garden is only doing well because of the sprinklers. Between the groundhogs, the raccoons in the sweetcorn and the potato bugs it seems like I'm fighting pests as well as weather. I won't be doing anything else with corn this year unless I buy some, unfortunately. On the flip side, corn is not my favorite thing from the garden, so I'm OK with a shortage of that. Frost got the apples, the peaches and the sweet cherries, so none of those this year and not many strawberries. Blackberries are yet to be determined, I suppose I should water those tomorrow too!

I think tomorrow I'll be canning some hot pepper mustard, if no one finds something else for me to do. Probably green beans again, and then eventually there will be grapes if they keep looking as good as they do now.

Annie

Jeanne,

I forgot to mention....your Amazon something should be delivered on Monday!! I trust the envie I sent today shall not be delivered to you until later in the week. Hold off and open both together!!

Happy weekend to all!

Our Garden Club meeting this morning was very interesting.

The presentation was on pairing Rosemary, Sage, Basil, Mint, and Bay Leaf into delicious ice cream recipes.

We got to sample six different homemade ice creams.

They were all delicious.

Basil and fig jam goat cheese ice cream

Watermelon mint sorbet

Brown butter sage ice cream

Dark chocolate bay leaf ice cream (vegan)

Burnt honey lemon rosemary ice cream

Burnt honey lemon rosemary ice cream (vegan)

Sharon, I dropped your envelope at the post office this morning.

No rain and triple digit temps here. Looks like it will continue thru August and maybe into September. We're trying to water enough to keep important stuff alive. I gave up on the beans.

Pepper plants still look good but still no peppers. This is the time of year that Central Market is roasting fresh Hatch peppers. They make and sell Hatch pepper everything and I love them, so I'm okay with peppers.

I'm still trying to keep three tomato plants alive hoping they will produce in the fall, but right now they look pitiful.

Oh my Ruth, those ice cream flavors sound interesting to say the least.

I agree Sharon, Ruth's garden club sounds like so much fun!!

Happy Sunday FOTESSERS!! Enjoy!!

Vine is producing impressive numbers of stunning blooms, about fifty more to pop in the coming weeks!

You CAN freeze sweet white corn ON THE COB, but it requires A VERY SPECIFIC PROCESS. Most important, the corn must be at perfect maturity and it MUST BE PROCESSED AND FROZEN WITHIN TWO HOURS AFTER IT IS PICKED.

We have obtained excellent results using a specific process and enjoy sweet white corn on the cob year around.

We prefer Silver Queen super sweet hybrid.

As a test, my wife gave me two ears of sweet white corn, one fresh from the garden and one harvested and frozen the year before. There was a very slight difference in texture and otherwise they were identical.

Here's a brief summary of the process:

Pick the corn early in the morning. Pick ears before they become overly mature. This is important!

Have everything ready before you pick the corn. This is very important!

Cut off the stem and tip ends and remove the husk and silk. Reject any blemished ears

Drop the ears into boiling water, all at the same time and leave them for three minutes. The time is important, use a clock or accurate timer. You will need a very large metal pot and a robust source of heat for this step.

Pour off the boiling water and immediately put all the ears into a bucket of ice water until they're cold to the touch. You will need at least one large bag of ice and a clean food grade plastic bucket for this step. We use two buckets of ice water it assure rapid cooling.

Quickly vacuum seal the ears, no more than four to a package and put them in the freezer as quickly as possible.

Do not put salt or anything else on the corn.

Don't forget to label the packages with the date.

Very nice and lovely for the community. Wish our drive thur did such a nice flower garden! 👍

How pretty. I wish our various businesses did the same.

Some pictures from this morning.
Pretty good for triple digits end of July weather.

Sharon, I received my lovely Bingo prize envelope. Thank you so much. I sure have tomatoes this year! Love the lemon note cards and packet of seeds as well.

nk you so much!

Sharon, thank you for hosting July.

First picture is Texas Rock Rose.

Crape myrtles are popular here also. I have eight total. Five different varieties. All in the pink family with the exception of one lavender color.

The bottom pictures are datura. I thought I planted Black Current Swirl. It's a double/triple purple. These look like the ones called Box of Chocolates, which I don't remember having seeds for. I haven't grown datura in a few years.

So happy you had this visitor. I hope you see it again.

Such a nice visit surprise! Thanks for sharing with us. Enjoyed the pic!