GardenDesk

No More Melon Worries and Lots of Salsa!

I no longer have to worry about my cantaloupe being eaten by the animals, but not because I've put up a fence or done anything to stop them. I don't have to worry about them because there are NONE LEFT! Last night the raccoons ate ALL OF THEM!

I know it was raccoons this time by they way the melons were eaten. The flesh of the melons were scooped out. I could see their claw prints on the insides. One of them just had a small hole in the outside, but the entire inside was scooped out.

I bet that took some time to eat. It was left about 20 yards away from where it was grown. I can just imagine that there were several raccoons that did this and one raccoon managed to "pick" this one off the vine and drug it to the middle of the yard so he could have it all to himself while the others devoured them right on the vine. They didn't seem to care if the melons weren't even close to being ripe. They ruined EVERY one, even the smaller ones.

Why did the raccoons do this? Last year we got to enjoy our sweet Ambrosia melons. I think the raccoons left the cantaloupe alone last year because they were too busy eating my corn. I had planned to put up a fence around the corn this year but since I didn't find the time to do so, I didn't plant any corn.

Now it is obvious that a tall fence or an electric fence is in order to be built around the entire garden! More on that later.

As for now, we are focusing on what we do have from the garden. Last night we made 17 and a half pints of garden fresh salsa!

We had enough tomatoes for that many jars because we replaced the tomatoes that were lost from the forest animal party by buying some extra tomatoes at the farmer's market. I guess now we will have to buy cantaloupe there too!

Pickle Making Time!

Evidently my family are creatures of habit. Just as festivals and holidays are celebrated at the same time each year, I now declare the first weekend of August as Pickle Days!

Without realizing it we made our garden fresh pickles on the same weekend this year as we did last year. Last year we were beginners and broke a couple of jars adding them to the hot water. This year we felt like pros since we didn't break any jars and unlike last year, we actually had the tools you are supposed to have for canning.

We made Bread and Butter Pickles and processed 9 jars.

I planted the cucumbers a bit late this year, so we don't yet have enough to make a huge amount of pickles. The plants are all doing well and we have brine left over, so I hope to make more bread and butters later this week. The dill pickles will have to wait another week or two.

I guess I'll have to extend the official Pickle Days Holiday to include all of August!