My in-laws snagged me some sweet corn.  Thanks gma and gpa:)

What I found out...it takes about 4 ears of corn to fill a quart jar if loosely packed.

As I am blogging my corn is in the pressure canner doing its thing.

I never plant corn in my garden because it takes too much space for the yield. So it's a special treat to get some to put away.

I went out on my regular Friday evening egg run and these beautiful birds were wandering around.  Much to my surprise I found out they are my organic turkeys.  I have never seen all white turkeys but they are really beautiful birds! 

Currently they are about 20 lbs and should be around 40lbs when they are  full grown.

I better check my roaster size and make sure I have a way to cook a bird that large.

I grow my herbs on the deck in pots. Cut, rinse and lay them in the dehydrator.  I have a 5 tier dehydrator that works great and gets a lot done at one time.

Parsley almost done. Another day maybe. Timing depends on the humidity sometimes.

After they are completely dehydrated, I store my herbs in glass jars in my hoosier cabinet where the sun isn't on them. 

Here are green onion and red peppers.

Tomatoes are doing fine. I did find a few Japanese beetles on the tomatoes today.  Have never had that happen before...supposedly they don't like tomatoes.

I only plant cabbage every other or every third year to make sauerkraut. Looks like a good year for kraut:)  Not too many bugs and that's with no powders or sprays.

Had my first picking of beets this week. Good sized for canning and for making pickled beets.

Lots of cucumbers! Cucumbers are another crop that I rotate. I make my grandmother's bread and butter pickles and dill pickles. This year I am going to make sweet pickles as well.

Pickles are good for you in that they aid digestion.

Picked my first handful of pole beans today.  By next week I'll have too many to use.  And then the canning will really start!

Peppers are ready before the tomatoes this year...odd for my garden.

Japanese beetles arrived in my garden a few weeks ago. Each year I really only notice them on my green beans. This year there are only a few.  Probably because of my neighbors fruit trees...they seem to love those.

I plant pole beans and it's easy to walk the row and shake the beetles into a bucket of soapy water. It only takes a drop of dish detergent and about 2 inches of water in the bottom of an ice cream pail.  When the bucket gets about so full...not too mention they smell as well...I dump the bucket onto the street and let the rain and street cleaner take care of it from there. If you ignore these beetles they can strip your plants of leaves and you may lose your produce.

We have a beautiful spring border of Lilac bushes which runs the length of our yard. Awesome to sit on our back deck and smell the perfume and see the beautiful blooms.

At least the heat is gone for the next few days.

Just an update. I can say this is the least work I have ever put into a garden. I have not had to do any weeding.

Broccoli is doing well despite the heat.

Black raspberries are ready to harvest.  Thanks to a generous friend of my mother-in-law I'll be making jam and pancake syrup. Thank you Yoder family for sharing:)

It took 4 of us about 1 1/2 hours fill a gallon bucket.  Lots of mosquitoes and spiders.  But yum yum yum!

Finally black raspberry jam and syrup.  I filled 14 half pint jars out of the berries we picked. 

We are lucky to have a vendor who drives peaches up from Missouri and sits in the hot sun all day. Great peaches at a great price. The year before last I didn't have my money with me and he told me to stop the next week and pay him and let me take the peaches home.  A great example of how people should treat each other. Simple and honest.....and yes, I did pay him the next week and actually bought more from him. 

Peaches chopped, peeled and ready to be made into baby food and peach jam.

And here it is all done.  8 pints and 7 half pint jars ready to store in the basement grocery store.

Here is the finished product.  Three coats of poly yesterday, ending at 11:30pm.  I was probably high from the fumes...slept great.

Now on to baseboards and crown moulding.

In the 6 years we have lived in this house we have made the following improvements: electrical updates, plumbing updated except what is visible in the basement, 3 new ceilings, bathroom redo and painting in 6 rooms. And now, hardwood floors on the main level.

Projects left to complete: baseboards and crown moulding, construct pantry and main level bathroom redo. Then we will head upstairs to the bedrooms and see what there is to do.

#hardwoodfloors  #installinghardwoodfloors