Tomatoes!

We've been harvesting quite a bit of maters this month! We have (heirloom) large cherry tomatoes(I started from seed) Early girl from Costco and Beef Master from Costco.

My Beef Masters have been splitting on top so I went online to find out why and I think I found the answer. If your plants get a dry spell(you ignored them on a very hot weekend) and then you water them (a lot to beg for forgiveness) Then the inside swells and the skin splits. Seems about right. Did these splits effect the taste.?.?.?

NOPE!!!!!

So tasty!!

Is it ready yet???? Corn!

I ate this corn cob a week ago and it was very yummy! But, I don't think it was quite ready to be picked because it was still small??
So I waited another week to pick theses guys! They were bigger and I peeled them back to poke a kernel with my nail, the liquid was milky:) I still wasn't sure so I peeled back further and I noticed that the kernels were starting to get smashed together to look more like rectangles. The top picture shows that the kernels are still pretty round.

So first check for brown tassels, then that it is of good size, then the finger nail test for milky liquid, and last for smashed, rectangle kennels:) Then taste test it:)

I am having this for dinner tomorrow! Yum, Yum!!!

The Skinny on Corn

I never knew how corn grew. When I read the Garden Guy book I was very confused about hairs and block planting and pollinating each hair??? Now that I have grown some corn, I've got it all figured out...Mostly;)

So first they grow nice and tall and these things shoot out of the top. They were much fuller but this picture was taken after the pollinating process so they are a bit spent:)

Then, down below, shoots of hairs start growing?? Crazy! So the goal is to get the pollen from the top of the corn to pollinate the hairs below.

For that reason they suggest block planting instead of a row so that the pollen is more likely to reach the hairs. I planted my in a row because they were going to shade squash but the squash didn't make it:( This is what happens when all of the hairs don't get pollinated...

See all the missing kernels?? I didn't eat them! Each hair is connected to each kernel and so if it's not pollinated...No kernel:( I haven't given up on my corn because I picked this yummy little guy today and it was tasty! And he had all of his kernels:)

I have a plan to plant a big block of corn this July so if you live near me you will probably get some for Thanksgiving;)