Canning season is under way...... well kind of...

All winter I dreamed of canning green beans, tomato's, jalapenos and pickles. Of dehydrating squash, peppers herbs and spices...

Then May came.

For those of you who live in Missouri, I need say no more.

For those that don't, let me just tell you there were many jokes going around that we'd better get busy building another Ark!

It rained and it rained and it rained and it rained and it rained and it rained and it rained and it rained and it rained and it rained and it rained and it rained and it rained.... and just when you think it couldn't possibly rain anymore... it did!

Our straw bales were nothing but mush by the end of May... to make ourselves feel better we now call them compost for next year. We scrambled to get enough 5 gallon buckets to plant all the starts my hubby had planted, 3 tries getting those started because of all the rain. He planted everything and then waited.... and waited...  and waited...  and waited... until it finally began to grow, YAY!!!!

Dreams of potato's, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, peppers, green beans, tomato's, jalapenos, pickles, lettuce, squash, herbs and spices began to flow again... then came the BUGS!

Biting BUGS, sucking BUGS, chewing BUGS, burrowing BUGS and one by one we kissed the dreams of our bountiful garden good-bye gone was the cabbage, gone was the broccoli, not one single potato was to be found.

We got some radishes, about 4 pints of beets, a few onions, and about 5 qts. of pickles and a sack of carrots. Out the entire garden the squash did the best. Hubby gave in to the use of Seven when the BUGS decided to start nibbling on his melons.

We talked to a few "old timers" who've gardened their whole lives and they suggested we start over in the middle of August and garden into Fall. I guess hubby may try that.

The bright light in this years gardening woes was wild blackberries! With all the berries that were picked this year, plus all then ones we froze last year... we had a BUNCH of those and I can make jelly in my sleep now.

I've put up so far...

4 pints of pickled beets
10 quarts of pickles (plus one pint)
44 pints of blackberry jelly
28 half pints of blackberry jelly
11 half pints of persimmon jelly
14 pints of carrots
I've dehydrated...
summer squash
zucchini
yellow squash

(NOT from the garden)
potato's
corn
carrots
cauliflower
mixed veggies
green beans
broccoli
banana chips
cantaloupe
strawberries

We've learned a lot along the way, and it's given us both a new appreciation for farmers now as well as those that lived in a time past that couldn't just "up and go" to the grocery store... I can't imagine!