40 days until game 1! Redskins vs. Bills at home!

Martha and I (With great help from her mom) canned our first beans today. I have to admit it seems a bit odd to call putting things in jars canning but oh well. Using Martha’s mom’s pressure canner and a load of our garden pole beans we successfully canned 8 quarts for future consumption. I should have enough by the end of the week to do another batch.

Here’s the process in pictures:

We are now harvesting beans and picked our first okra and one green tomato this week. We already had dinner plans but decided to supplement with some garden veg as a sort of test cooking. Martha prepared the beans using her mothers method and we fried the 2 okra and 1 green tomato. We hope to cook much more over the remainder of the summer with our garden veg and hopefully a bit healthier.

The verdict. Amazing. We can’t wait to cook some more!

I have to start by saying this is an experiment and not a lesson on how-to. I have been told by some I am just to far south to grow them at all and yet others seem to think I have a shot. After watching a lot of British gardening programs I decided I had to try them out.

Another bit of disclaimer: There are still some states that outlaw growing currants and though after much searching and gnashing of teeth I found evidence that Alabama is not one of them I have found no resource that list the legality state by state. You will want to check with your state’s extension office or conservation office to be sure.

So, in this post I am going to show pictures and explain from ordering and arrival to in the ground. Not a long journey but a big step non the less. I had to go to a nursery in IL to find these guys. If there are any closer I would love to know but I did at least get a good deal (I think). I ordered one red and one black current. For the black I decided on Black Consort and the Red is a Red Lake. These are both in the Ribes family but I need to do more research on pollination. I will not mention the nursery for now because though I got a good deal the shipping took forever making me put them in the ground later than I wanted. If they don’t live though I can get a free replacement next planting season.

As instructed by the nursery I ordered them from I planted them to just above the depth of the roots and used compost around the roots and then fertilized. I them applied mulch and stakes to prevent them from getting stepped on. I planted them in partial shade as they apparently cannot stand the heat of our full sun. As you’ll see in the pictures the Red Currant is significantly smaller than the Black Currant and would have easily been broken.

Here are the pictures:

I am interested in getting some better varieties of Currants. If you know where to get them please let me know. Also, if you have any experience in this zone with Currants let me know.