Hanna barely brushed us – what about you?
Actually pretty gray right now, so that title may be premature, but assuming no more major rains fall (and that you don’t count the new leak in the roof), we got off lightly.
We had buckets out, not rain gauges, so the closest I can put rainfall is 6 to 8 inches; and although the winds were theatrical at 5AM, I doubt they were much over 30mph.
The good part is that it puts the top beans within reach.
You may be looking at this and thinking “What’s the big deal? jar o’ water under a tree.” The big deal is that there’s a huge hole near the bottom of the jar, on the side that’s jammed up against the trunk.
My punishment for not staking up the big begonia. ( The small flowered one hangs anyway)
Share this
Though it rained gently throughout the day on Saturday, from Hanna we got nada in northeastern Otsego county. Drat. We really need and want rain. Most plants/tress/shrubs seem desiccated although now that it has cooled a bit, it feels fresher. Leaves are practically jumping off the trees this year. Our fields are cheery with goldenrod and the asters look nice. The tomatoes plants are a disaster though we do have fruit and I am making batches of sauce a la Andrea Chesman’s recipe from The Garden Fresh Vegetable Cookbook. Potatoes did well this year and I have far too many and will share them with the neighbors. Many of the apple growers in our area lost a lot of their crop to late frost/hail but the old, neglected apple trees that came with our place are screaming with apples. Large apples, which the locals say means a snowy winter<– I love these local folktales!
Cheers.
Hi RW, my sympathies on rainlessness; it was way dry here in Maine before the storm.
Interesting to hear about the apples – I haven’t checked with the pros, but all the old time and wild apples at our place ( most of them alternate year bearers) are loaded with large fruit. And although as usual they’ve had absolutely NO care, they’re much less buggy than usual.
Mixed emotions about this, since it means I really ought to do something with them. Are you putting some of yours by, and if so how? Applesauce is my standby, quick to make and successful to freeze, but you can only eat so much applesauce…
Hi-
The apples kind of weigh on me as well especailly when I see them on the ground. I made an apple-beet puree this year which is fantastic and is sitting in my freezer. It is from the ‘ The Big Book of Preseving the Harvest’ by Carol Costenbader. I also make pseudo french apple tarts and freeze those but the large amount of butter in the pate brisee keeps me from making more. I made one with local orchard apples and one with our wild apples and I liked the wild one more<–it was much more work to core and peel lots of little apples than the bigger ones but then again I look at all our wild apples as gifts. The blackberries were plentiful and large this year as well and several bags of those are also in the freezer. In fact we are going freezer shopping this weekend because I need more room. Apple cake and muffins-two more things I do with apples when I have time and fruit. There is an old Marion Cunningham raw apple muffin recipe that I’ve made numerous times and they always win praise.
We may get our first frost tonight or tomorrow night so I am going to go out and row-cover my seedlings of spinach, mustards and lettuce.
RW
my goodness, RW, what industry! Very humbling….