Four Seasons Farm and Orchard

July! A tiny bit late posting, busy season y'all! #Pickles are coming in. Time to sanitize those #masonjars and get the boiling pot ready! Don't forget to gather the #herbs, they are crucial for making the #picklerelish come out just right! #Tip(Gather herbs early for the best flavor)... Pickle Relish recipe (dice by hand or food processor) 1st step: fill the following in a large bowl with a lid. 8 cups diced cukes 1 1/2 cups diced onions 1 cup diced peppers. Red or green 1/2 cup seasalt or canning salt 3 cups water, cover, set in fridge for 24 hours. 2nd step: drain water through a strainer and pour contents in a large boiler. Add: 3 cups + 1 sugar 2 cups cider vinegar 1 1/2 tspn celery seed 1 tspn allspice 2 tspn pepper 1 tspn nutmeg 1 tspn dill seed Yields abt 6 pints

A very rainy day at Four Seasons today... so no work in the garden.... but "The woods are lovely, dark and deep..."

Getting some "shish kabob" ready for the grill earlier this evening... everything, here, was organically grown in our garden (except the onions - ours aren't quite ready yet).

After the storm #squash #pruning because they are so high maintenance in my area, I have to keep them up off the ground and sprayed with #neem oil.

Just starting this #Hügelkultur bed/experiment,(ancient composting method).... so can't speak from my own experience here... it's an experiment used since B.C., with a small modern twist, just sayin' ... the frame is about 5' wide, 7' long, and 24" tall... we filled the bottom 12 inches with branches, twigs, firewood sized logs, leaves, mulch, chipper shredded "stuff", etc.... then the rest of the way up we filled with straight leaves, a good bit of leaf mold and worms, chip...per/shredded greens, and more general "refuse"... am going to water it in for a few days... then, will fill it with "topping soil" = my own potting soil mix, some compost, and some dug out of a hole "general, plain old dirt"... and continue to water it in... expect a lot of settling/percolating of the top soil down into the crevices of the "refuse" beneath... once that is kind of settled, I will top the whole bed with a thick layer (at least 6") of compost/potting soil and finally start my very first, very real #hugelkultur #Ancientofdays #mykitchenherbs #raisedbeds. Waterwell! #organicgardening #herbs #vegetables #notillgarden

Starting a new project... a hopeful Southern Gardener's twist on "Hügelkultur"... a very ancient approach to gardening... here, as one of two raised beds (65" x 84") for kitchen herbs... honestly, it's a "let's try it and see how it does" kind of thing... will discuss Hügelkultur at length in a post soon. Wish me luck! #hügelkultur #mykitchenherbs #southerngardening #hardwork