One o’clock and I am quitting for the day. I started the day sewing because it is too dark now to work in the garden at 5 a.m., now I will pin again and might get one more sticking in this after noon. After breakfast we packed up some jars we had on the shelves. We now have 10 cases all packed and ready to go to Florida in Nov. I keep a list of the boxes and what is in them so I can remember what is packed and what needs to go. Then I had room on my shelves to put away the grape juice we canned yesterday. From there we went to the pear tree and picked the pears. You can not let pears ripen on the tree or they get mealy and they are all mature now and needed to be set out to ripen. We cleared off one table to set them out on, we got 14 this year which was very good as we only got one last year. Now if we could get the apple trees to bear fruit we would be in business. That was followed by going to the lower garden and pulling two rows of old beans. We stripped off the good beans and then Norman took all the plants and put them on the brush pile at the far end of the property. Any old garden waste we don’t put in the compost pile because all that does is reintroduce weeds and any bugs or disease that the plants couldn’t fight off. We stopped for break and Norman had his coffee and country biscuit while I had two peaches from the ones I picked yesterday. We did not spray the tree as much as we should have so there are more worms in them than I like but not enough to bother, just cut them out!! After break Norman went out and raked up under the grapes. Because of the Black Mold disease the grapes got this year from so much rain we n0w much keep the ground under the grapes clean and free of mummies, those are the infected grapes that have dried up and look like raisins. If those are left on the ground, when it rains they swell up and burst and shoot spores back onto the good grapes and reinfects the whole plant. I took the basket of beans and after washing them I sat and cut them up. We had a big pot of them for dinner and still have two big bowls of them in the refrigerator for the rest of the week. I tried something new for dinner. I read that blueberries are a good meat tenderizer so I pounded blueberries into the steak we had taken out of dinner. It came out very good!! We will have that again soon, not only tasted good but was tender and very good for us. Now we are done for the day. I still have to feed the birds and Norman is going up for the mail. But that is it for today, I can now sew and Norman can read. Have a great day.
Oumapetts's Blog 
Hello, Carol,
Have you ever heard of pickled beans? They are enjoyed here in Lunenburg County. All one does is put the beans in a plastic pail or crock and add salt water. The ratio is 8 cups of water to 1 cup of coarse salt. They need to ferment for awhile. We eat them in the winter but we had the last of them this past Sunday. I cook them with beef cooking/stew meat and some people use pork. When one wants a meal, the day before, I take them out of the pickle and wash them and soak them in cold water overnight. That is a favourite meal of all our children and even their husbands. I just thought you and Norman might like them. We keep them in our cold room. Maybe you would like them, too.
Rosemary
Thank you, Rosemary, I’ll try some this year as we will have lots of beans. We don’t have a cold room here. What we call a root cellar doesn’t get cool even until Nov. Right now it is 75 to 80 degrees. We can’t keep potatoes all winter in there as it is too warm and they sprout but I have small refrigerator that you keep soda or beer in and maybe that would work as a cool place. I could put them into a small crock and put that in the refrigerator until we go to Florida in mid Nov., then put them into our cool room as the temperature then is about 60 all winter or would it be better to keep them in the refrigerator? Do you cover them? What keeps the brine from getting moldy? We have that problem with sauerkraut, we have to watch it carefully and then can it when it has gotten fermented enough. I have tried pickled beans this year for the first time but that is in a vinegar brine. I don’t know if the family like them or not but will find out this winter. Thanks again, I will try some.
The refrigerator idea sounds good and then the cool room. I put a plate on them so they don’t float and have a rock to hold the plate down. I scoop the mould off the top every now and then but the mould won’t hurt the beans. The mould stays on top. When we made sauerkraut we just took the mould off every now and then. Make sure the beans are in the brine and they will be fine. What we had for Sunday dinner were put in the pail last summer and they were as good as could be even though our cold room has not been cold for a month or so. My husband’s parents’ older house has a wonderful cellar. We are still eating last year’s potatoes and will until the new ones are ready. Ours are not in bloom yet but they are growing.
Thank you again. We just got back from the doctor for Norman’s eye shot so need to get dinner first then I’ll corn the def roast we got and put some beans in the salt brine. We stopped at Walmart and got some coarse Kosher salt to be sure I had the right stuff- must run will post later and let you know how I made out.
It still makes me shudder when I think of Norman having that done. About two weeks ago an old friend told me she has that done, too and she said it sounds worse than it is. She is very afraid of losing her sight and not very happy about it. I can understand that. Rest, Norman.
Hi Rosemary, Norman says he hates it, he says there is no pain but we never drive that far for anything else, it is so tiring to drive 60 miles each way to get something you don’t like and he dreads it so much he worries about it for days ahead of time. I try to keep him from thinking about it as long as I can but the last day or two he gets very uneasy.