Crab Apple Weekend

Spent much of the past weekend processing crab apples into apple butter and jam - about 3 quarts of each. 18.75 lbs of crab apples!

But these aren't actually from our garden, so it's just a side note.

The squirrels are pure evil. What they don't eat of the tomatoes and corn they still destroy. Oh well. The current plan is to tie the tomato vines up (they've collapsed under the weight of the vicious evil squirrels) and surround them completely with chicken wire. Like completely encased. While it will make it difficult for us to harvest tomatoes, it will make it hard for the squirrels to get at them as well. Here's a sad hint of the devastation.

But wait! It's not a complete loss, that is a winter squash (butternut I think) in the background. We've got quite a number of them coming along.

And we've had a trickle of zucchini, a steady flow of peppers, and a firehose to the face of cucumbers. A few carrots. Reminded myself that I don't care for carrots.

The side plot is overflowing with spinach and lettuce. Sadly the lettuce is kind of bitter.

Pepper candelabra.

EDIT - Attempted some hot sauce. 4 oz chilis, 1 cup white vinegar, 1/2 tsp salt. Blend. Boil. Skim foam. Put in hot jar. Cover with cloth. 

Skim off vinegar in three days and pop in the fridge.

Squirrels

The fence is holding against the cursed deer, but now we have squirrels running through the fence and sampling every ripe tomato. Chili powder did not keep them away. Tomorrow we advance to mothballs and chicken wire.

Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. Maybe I shouldn't look at them as a nuisance, but instead as a possible source of protein. That's right, squirrel. I'm looking at you. Back off or you're going in the stew pot.