It is harvest time for the garden~

Of course the corn waited until the temperatures were 3 digits before it needed picking!  I started picking Friday morning at 6am and finished 6 long rows by 8am.  Even in those early hours before the sun was too bright, the humidity was almost unbearable.

I captured this shot of the corn as the sun began to rise.

Here is my bounty from six rows of corn and two hours of time (it doesn’t look like much, but looks are deceiving):

Thankfully my Mother-in-law offered to help me shuck this mound of corn!   I excitedly took her up on her offer and sat up a working station under one of our shelters with two heavy-duty fans blowing on us.  Did I mention it was 104 degrees?   I don’t know how many hours we tackled that corn, but after lunch my friend Tammy joined us and we finally had it all shucked and ready for the next step.  You may ask what in the world I did with all of the shucked corn overnight … You just never know what we might have here on the farm!  In my favor – we have a friend’s refrigerated truck — and it housed all of that corn nicely!

The next morning I completed processing some green beans, and decided to start on the huge task of silking the corn and cutting it off of the cob around noon.

I worked for an hour or so by myself until my friend Tammy came to the rescue.  Unfortunately, we didn’t think about bringing a table into the kitchen so that we could actually SIT DOWN until many hours into the process.  NEXT TIME WE WILL KNOW BETTER!   I stood on my feet most of the day though …

Here is the exciting part!  I ordered a new pressure cooker and I LOVE IT!  Before, I used my friend Tammy’s that belonged to her grandmother!  It was such a blessing to have and I appreciate Tammy for trusting me with it.   But this one is so quiet and it doesn’t release steam into the room.  Gotta love technology!   You can find these Presto Pressure Cookers in a lot of places … even online at WalMart, Target, etc …  Mine is a 16 quart cooker.  (Even though it only holds 7 quarts of vegetables at a time.)

My friend left my house around 11pm (GOD BLESS HER, PLEASE!).  I would have NEVER asked or expected anyone to do the hard work that she put in all day.  I tried to get her to take a case of corn in the jars, but she wouldn’t.   So for her “pay” (which is NOTHING compared to what she did for me), she took a case of pint sized jars of corn, and 4 quarts.  That’s it.  Sigh.

I had a few more quarts to cook on Sunday (and I still have about 6 more to cook today, but I’m out of jars).

But not counting the corn I will “can” today — and not counting the purple hulled peas that I will be processing  — I have a total of 50 jars of food on my table.  This does not include the 12 pints and the 4 quarts of corn that Tammy took.   I’d say it has been a busy weekend!

I have been posting (whining) about my canning adventures on Facebook.   A friend of mine  approached me at church and said she was proud of me for embracing my Southern heritage.  I loved what she said and thought that would make a great title for my post!

I am proud to be doing this because we trust the food from our stores too much.  The chemicals, hormones, and other nasty stuff that we are ingesting is scary.  I think we need to learn how to be more self-reliant on feeding our families.  And before you say, “But you live on a farm” … I have seen many photos on the Internet where women use their back yards to supply food for their families.  It is doable.

I hope this stirs your desire to pick up some of the heritage that has been dormant in your family too.

God bless you today!

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