Harvested a goodly amount of Swiss chard this afternoon. Huge leaves and
still tender. Blanched the harvest for three minutes in boiling water,
drained, put on a bun pan and into the freezer for overnight. Tomorrow
it will be vacuum packed for later use. Looks like at least eight bags
to put up tomorrow.

Still have a good sized stand of chard that we will try to eat up before
it starts to wilt in the heat. Pulled up most of the winter lettuce that
wasn't eaten already and put it into bags and into the freezer for food
for the red worms after it thaws. Might have to buy more worms to eat up
all the nice vegetable scraps we're getting. <G>

Planted the two tomato and two sweet chilies we're planting for spring.
Finally convinced SWMBO that we didn't need six of everything growing
and over shading each other. Tomorrow I will plant twelve feet of row
for black crowder peas. Once the green peas have stopped producing I
will add another four feet of row.

We have one Gypsy sweet chile still alive and we are thinking of pruning
it back and letting it grow to see if we can make it a perennial. Worth
a try as that plant was extremely prolific over the spring, summer, and
our mild winter for 2015.

Amended the raised beds with composted cow manure and worked it into the
whole thing. Will also put a bit more with each plant that goes in and,
possibly, for the peas to eat too.

We are very close to shorts and tee shirt weather, some days already we
have dressed that way but sometimes the next day is in the forties and
fifties. The nice sunshine today certainly felt good out in the backyard.

Emptied the composter today also, about half a bushel of very nice
compost, even smelled good. Some went into the vegetable gardens, the
rest around fruit trees and into flower beds.

George

George Shirley wrote:

> Harvested a goodly amount of Swiss chard this afternoon. Huge leaves and
> still tender. Blanched the harvest for three minutes in boiling water,
> drained, put on a bun pan and into the freezer for overnight. Tomorrow
> it will be vacuum packed for later use. Looks like at least eight bags
> to put up tomorrow.




songbird