Oh, wow! Looks beautiful! It has been a terrible year here too for nearly everything. Squash bugs and wilt got my 3 spring-planted Zucchini. So I replanted last month and "so far", even though there are bugs, there hasn't been an wilt, but of course they are just beginning to bloom. The Yellow bush beans and Italian bush beans just sat there and sat there. I mulched with wheat straw, and now they are making beans out the kazoo! The Purple beans have been blooming, and blooming, but not a beans yet. The blooms just fall off. What the...? (I planted them purple, yellow, purple, yellow, thinking they would look so pretty), especially with the purple cabbages. Then hens ate the cabbages. I managed to get the green early cabbages to maturity and shared them with Mother. So tender, juicy and sweet. The corn is making ears. Grasshoppers are gnawing the hell out of the leaves and I saw one or two of the tassels bent over (grrr). I've been capturing them and tossing them to the hens. No drastic damage, but I bought some liquid Sevin to use if push comes to shove. Getting okra now from the early planting and the June planting is starting to grow. Tomatoes: I've gotten a few from the 2 Early Girl plants, but few and far between, although they were delicious. The Cherokee Purple has ONE tomato now, and I picked the second Lemon Boy yesterday. Hey! That's two more than anyone else around here has. The locals here in town tell me their gardens burned up. Some guy in the store down at Chandler the other day told me the same thing and two other men shook their heads. Their mouths dropped when I told them my garden hadn't burned up. They said they would be coming to get tomatoes from me. (not with the puny production I'm getting dudes!) I got great lettuces this spring, but the broccoli didn't head. I got great cabbages, though. What in the heck? I ALWAYS get great Broccoli! I got about two cups of Snow Peas. Just about the time they started to put on, the heat wave hit Oklahoma and even with a shade over them, their dried up in three days. The pods were very tastey, but again, a puny amount for all the vines I had. Usually I have more than we'll eat. The wheat straw and the drip lines in the corn, the two larger tomato patches and watermelon saved the day. The rest I have been hand watering with good success. All the tomatoes are covered in blooms, but now the da** Blister Beetles are eating off all their leaves. I've been picking them off and squishing them and then washing off their poop (which attracts more beetles), but they are starting to get the better of the Roma tomatoes. So far, I haven't found any on the BeefMasters or Super Sweet 100s. Found a few on one of the two potted Cherokees (squish, squish), but none on the potted Lemon Boy next to them. Grasshoppers, beetles, blister beetles, squash bugs, and other kinds too, and Japanese beetles are devouring everything. My roses have been sick since June. First it was too rainy and too hot in early spring, then too cold in mid-spring and then in June it went straight into triple digit temps. Yesterday the promised rain storms moved into the state. Can you believe some areas ended up flooding? They got 7 inches in just a matter of minutes! We got a slight sprinkle yesterday, but temps never got above 95 here. Yeah! This morning I went out and found it POURING down! I set the plastic trash cans to catch the patio water and the 5-gallon buckets were already set up out in the garden, so I will have it for hand watering. It rained down hard and heavy. Just the five minutes I was out there it filled the cans to 1/4 full! Wow! It was a deluge! Everything is so green and refreshed this morning and the temperature is like early June should have been. Weird weather. Just flat out strange! I didn't have to water yesterday or today. Yippee! Ended up being up all night with my new kitten, 'Meeshka Moushka'. She is a beautiful tortoiseshell with white mittens and boots. About 6 wks old. Sweet, smart and VERY well behaved, but frisky and so cute. I thought she would die last night. High fever and respiratory difficulty. Poor baby. I sat on the sofa holding her all night. If I took my hand off of her and tried to nap, she would cry. So, I kept stroking her and telling her I loved her. Man, I'm tired. I finally got her to take some goat's milk from a syringe this morning at 6:30. She took about 3 CCs or more. Then went to sleep purring on my bed wrapped in a big warm towel. Maybe I can get some sleep since I don't have to water! :) I tried to upload pics to photobucket account a bit ago, but my computer kept kicking me off (grrr). Will try again later. And the drain is partly clogged somewhere in the basement. (good grief!) "When it rains, it ours!" But no complaints from me there! Thanks for sharing your garden pics with me (us). Hasta!

The corn has oxidized, hence the brown color. If it were to be canned, ascorbic acid could have been used to help keep it normal color. If you wanted a bit more yellow, tumeric can also be added in a small amount. Here, I found a big gallon bag of cut corn in my freezer that I had forgotten, it was dated 2000 and it was still a nice light color. I had forgotten why it was still in the freezer until I tasted it again. VERY SWEET, way to sweet to be corn. In fact, its so sweet there was virtually no corn taste, just a sugary sweet taste. I had grown some of the Sh2 variety that time and will never grow it again, due to the extreme sweeteness. With the rest of the bag, I plan to mix some with my recent yelow, less sweet corn when its cooked, in hopes it will dilute the extra sugar taste. Think of it as eating soldified corn syrup.. UGH! Creamed corn does not can well unless the anti-oxident is used.

Ruthie, U need to try this sometime! Coyote or Reindeer "Droppings" 2-cups brown sugar 1-cup butter or margarine 1/2 cup white corn syrup 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 14-1/2 ounce package Cheetos **buy ONE 11 oz size of CHEESE PUFFS, NOT cheetos Both Cheetos and cheese puff are great. Two different textures Bring the sugar, butter or margarine and syrup to a boil for 5 minutes. Stir often Remove from fire. Add baking soda. Stir. Pour over cheetos, and toss QUICKLY . ***i USED TWO 9 X 10, ALUMINUM PANS Bake at 250 degrees F. for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Pour out on waxed paper rubbed with additional butter or cooking spray. Quickly separate the Caramelized Cheetos ****I used the bottoms of TWO broiler pans that I sprayed, put gloves on, and quickly separated, so you won't end up with big globs. Let cool, IF YOU CAN BEFORE SAMPLING!

I'm glad your pup is OK Shaun. I accidentally fed corn to one of mine the other day. While cutting some off the cob for a new recipe a lot wound up on the floor so I let her eat it. I got the finger wagged in my face for letting her eat corn with her digestive issues. At least I didn't drop the cob. LOL Back to corn... It is so cheap and so sweet in FL right now that I went looking for a different way to prepare it. I found a recipe that I had saved from the guy who won Rachael Ray's so you think you can cook contest last year. I liked it alot. I completely forgot to add the butter at the end but I can say that it was real tasty even without the butter. I just finished the leftovers. Yum! Carmelized corn Pete from Rachel Ray 3 tablespoons EVOO Extra Virgin Olive Oil 4 to 5 ears (2 cups) fresh corn, cut off cob Salt and freshly ground black pepper 3 shallots, minced 1 clove garlic, minced 5 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped 1 tablespoon fresh chives, chopped 1/2 cup dry white wine (preferably Sauvignon Blanc) 2 tablespoons butter Heat 1 tablespoon EVOO in a large skillet over high heat. Add corn, a good pinch of salt and 2 to 3 turns freshly ground pepper. Toss corn to coat lightly with EVOO and cook until slightly browned and caramelized, approximately 2-3 minutes. Lower heat under corn to medium-high. Add remaining 2 tablespoons EVOO to the pan along with the shallots, garlic, 5 tablespoons parsley, thyme and chives. Re-season with salt and pepper, give everything a toss and cook until the shallots are translucent. Deglaze the pan with the white wine, scraping bottom of pan to pull up any brown bits. Cook for 1 minute. Cut butter into small chunks and scatter over corn. Cook till wine is reduced by half