local fresh food (and my helpers)

Corn from our neighbor Todd.  YUM!

 This year's garden has been phenomenal and a failure, all in one.  What has grown has grown great, and what hasn't done well, hasn't produced beans.  Literally.  Two failure - corn and beans.  I've never had space or desire to do sweet corn before.  This year I attempted two varieties in two different plots. Birds/gophers/rabbits prevented any of it from even getting to a stage that raccoons would have been an issue.  One plot has nothing now, the other became a potato plot for my extended family (which are doing fairly well, despite the long periods of no rain).

One morning the kids and I decided to drive the 1/2 mile to our neighbors and pick some of his yummy sweet corn (there's a standing offer of course, we weren't stealing ;-)  We picked it and ate it within the same hour.  For the past several years I've picked bags and bags to cut and freeze.  Haven't done it this year, yet.  Maybe next week?

 Beans, the other great failure of the season.  Same problem (birds/gophers/rabbits).  I planted bush beans and pole beans, rows and rows.  Surely there would be plenty for us and them.  Not so.  Not a single bean.  Not one.  Most of the plants didn't even get to the producing stage. 

Lucky for us, a farmer not far from our place has a whole field of green beans.  My Uncle Gabby hooked us up.  We went out one morning and picked enough to do a few canner loads.  (which then my canner wasn't holding pressure when I went to do it, so my Aunt Ann saved the day with her canner)

 Norrie was a curious helper.  Conrad, not so much.  He's grown out of the 'interested in the garden and anything to do with it' phase.  He still loves the cherry tomatoes, and raspberries, but otherwise steers clear of gardens or any work associated with it.

Instead, he jumped at the chance to ride in the tractor at the bean field.  While we were picking in one corner, the big mechanical pickers were working on the other end of the same field. And other equipment on the farm/in the fields were planting cover crops.  When the owner of the farm drove by to say hello, he offered the kids a ride in the tractor.  I was expecting a short trip up and down the road, but instead 30+ minutes passed before I saw Conrad again.  When he returned, he was in a much smaller rig (below)

papa and norrie at the bean fields

And back home, another day, here's Norrie sucking the cherry tomato juice off her shirt while holding our green pepper fresh picked for a batch of delicious chili. (70* is definitely cool enough for chili, right?  At least after THIS summer)

 And  checking out the flowers.  I've always intended to plant cutting flowers and this year I finally did.  This is the only row that survived.  The other varieties I tucked in the corner of garden field and they were completely overtaken by weeds and prairie grass.