Checking out the harvest of Irish potatoes. With Dog Days now entering its second week, it’s the time to check out the Irish potato harvest. There should be plenty of spuds under the vines. If you have raised beds, the potatoes can easily be harvested by digging under the vines with your hands. The very small spuds can be washed and boiled with the peelings still on them. Place larger potatoes in a bucket and cover with sections of newspapers to dry a few days. Succeed the potato crop with a row of late green beans.
Using the water wand to cool down rows on Dog Day afternoons. The handy water wand is useful on dry afternoons of Dog Days when no rain is in the forecast. The wand places water at the base of the vegetables and not in middle of rows. Just adjust the want to “shower” or “mist” and apply water directly to the base of the vegetable plants. Always remove the wand from the hose when relocating to flower beds or other areas to prevent breaking the spring or lever on the wand.
The double bonus of summer thunderstorms. During Dog Day afternoons, we get a bit of heat relief from the arrival of a surprise thunderstorm. An afternoon thunderstorm has a couple of benefits and one of them is the fresh aroma that the storm produces as it tones down the humidity and perks up the steamy garden plot. Another bonus is the beautiful rainbow in the eastern sky with its seven brilliant colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The thing that is really special is when the dark gray departing storm clouds form a background for the rainbow and causes it to look like a double rainbow glowing above the original rainbow.
Exercising wisdom during a thunderstorm. We talked about thunderstorms and their benefits in the above paragraph. We failed to mention the fact that thunderstorms can produce serious lightning strikes. Most of those people that become victims of being struck by lightning are those who don’t respect it. When lightning and thunder approach, it’s best to be inside a building and not outdoors. As children, we were taught to get in the house when we heard thunder. At grandma’s Northampton County home, she would call you inside where you were made to sit in a chair at the kitchen table and no one at the table was allowed to speak until the storm was passed. Grandma always told us that the storm was the Lord’s work and we need to be still and respect what He was doing. Grandma may not have had much education, but she had a whole lot of common sense.
Good liquid plant food for feeding crops, flowers, vegetables during Dog Days. When planting summer vegetables, give them a boost and a great start by applying liquid plant food directly to the base of the vegetable crops. Use liquid Miracle-Gro vegetable or tomato food mixed with proper amount in a sprinkling can and apply it to base of the vegetable plants. Another great liquid plant food is Alaska fish emulsion. Mix it in a sprinkling can according to instructions on the bottle with correct amount of water. Liquid plant food provides the nutrients quickly to the heat-stressed vegetable crops and refreshes them at the same time.
Staying ahead of the summer weed games. It seems that during the weeks that Dog Days occur, the weed population jumpstarts itself and they try to overtake the garden plot and smother the vegetables before they reach harvest stage. Stay ahead of the weed games, not with herbicides, but the old-fashioned way of pulling them up by the roots, placing them in a buckets and then throwing them out of the garden. Weeds like morning glories, lamb quarters, Bermuda grass, nut grass and crab grass. There are two kinds of weeds. There are the annuals such as morning glories, lamb quarters, and chickweed that every season in spring and summer. The perennials such as Bermuda grass, nut grass, and crab grass that grow by producing long roots, and grow most all year. Both are best controlled by pulling them up by their roots and throwing them completely out of the garden. Pull up morning glory vines when they first sprout before they develop a long root system that looks like a drill bit.
Helping prevent blossom-end rot on mid-summer tomatoes. Nothing is more frustrating than red tomatoes with blossom-end rot that ruins them. Prevent rot on tomatoes by placing two quarts of powdered lime (calcium carbonate) in a sprinkle can of water and pour before sunset. Most blossom-end rot is caused by a calcium deficiency. It’s always when setting out tomato plants to mix a handful of powdered lime around roots of tomato plants when setting them out to help prevent rot. Another preventive measure is applying Vigaro tomato food with enriched calcium as a side dressing once a month while plants are growing.
Cucumbers perform a disappearing act. When the cucumber vines sprawl out and are dorned with bright yellow blossoms, the elusive cucumbers try to perform their disappearing act. The abundance of shady, green leaves are almost the same color of the green that the cucumbers are. The cukes seem to grow overnight and it’s important to discover and harvest them before they get too long to eat. Several ways to make harvesting easier is to crawl through the row and get your eyes close to where the cucumbers lurk. Feel around so you will not miss any. Use a rake to pull back leaves to search one more time in case you overlooked a couple of cukes. Make sure your search for cucumbers is after the sun has dried the foliage.
A pan of fried summer straight-neck squash. Straight-necks are the best of summer squash, because they are meatier, have less moisture, and have smaller and less seeds, plus they are easier to cur into uniform cubes or chunks. When you fry squash, never use water because they already have enough moisture in them. To prepare a pan of fried squash, wash and cut into quarter-sized chunks (about ten or twelve per squash). Cube two large white onions into dime-sized chunks, melt a stick of light margarine and allow it to melt in a large frying pan, add onions and squash, salt, pepper, half-teaspoon sugar. Fry on medium until tender but not brown. Add a teaspoon of Karo syrup.
The simplicity of squash sonkers. Sonkers are a Surry County legend or relic and like the tomato pie of Bertie and Northampton counties, both are a mystery because they have been around so long, no one can actually trace their ancestry. Both have one thing in common — they have been around a very long time and their ingredients are so simple almost any cook already has them in their kitchen. No fancy mixes, no gourmet items, just plain uncomplicated items to concoct into a sonker. There are so many recipes and some are secret family recipes but it does not take long to decode the secret of the basic sonker because any decent cook that knows their way around a kitchen can do that math and discover the ingredients of a sonker. The real secret, if there is any, is the crust. Basic ingredients for squash sonker is cornstarch and a pie crust recipe. This is why many people do not make sonkers because to make a sonker crust you should be capable of making a homemade biscuit. This leads us to a simple squash sonker recipe that has a self-forming crust that anyone can make.
A simple straight-neck squash sonker. To prepare the squash for this sonker, wash six or seven straight-neck squash and cut into half-inch chunks. Boil in water until squash are tender. Drain the water from boiled squash, add one and a half cups sugar, one tablespoon real vanilla, one can evaporated milk, two tablespoons flour or preferable corn starch, one stick light margarine, one teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (optional). Mix all ingredients except the margarine. Melt margarine into squash mixture and set aside. To prepare crust, melt one stick light margarine and pour into a 13x9x2 inch baking dish or pan. Mix one cup sugar, three-fourth cup milk, pinch of salt, two teaspoons baking powder. Mix all crust ingredients together and pour in baking dish over melted margarine. Pour squash mixture over the crust mixture. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown. When sonker is completely done the crust will be on top of the sonker.
Hoe-Hoe-Hoedown: “A watered down solution!” A man went to his family doctor and told him he was not feeling well. The doctor examined him, left the room and returned with three bottles of pills. He told his patient “Take the green pill with a glass of water when you wake up. Take the blue pill with a big glass of water at lunch. Take the red pill with a glass of water at bedtime.” Shocked at being put on so many pills, the patient asked, “My goodness, doctor, what is my problem?” The doctor replied “You’re not drinking enough water!”
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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