Beautifully busy fall days

Whoops! I fell off the tracks here on keeping this updated- time to write something. :) Things have been busy here- trying to finish up the winter wood, harvesting, continuing to plant, etc. We have had frost, like, I suspect, most of you reading this, have had as well. Overnight, from the 11th to the 12th, the temperature dropped like a young man's heart when he sees the girl of his dreams out with another suitor at the Saturday night ice skating get-together. Had 28 degrees that night, and 31 the next night. We anticipated it, though, and made preparations, so no real worries. I alluded to a trick to help the tomatoes ripen in a previous post- the idea was to set posts around the patch, then staple plastic to the posts. It would essentially make walls, that would keep the cool winds off the plants, while still allowing rain to get in and an open top to allow them to vent. Didn't work too well, with the wind blowing the plastics off the posts. But I had one of the cherubs here go by and cut the tomato growing points and most blossoms back, to try and force them to ripen the fruit already set, and cover them through the frosts. The plants are not doing too bad, all things considered. Here's how it looks on one of them.

Sioux Tomato

Yesterday, while out cutting firewood, we saw this neat tree frog. Been working to wrap up the winter's wood, since we all know what's coming. Not really looking forward to it, after last winter, but at the same time, (hopefully) slower days with quiet evenings around the living room stove, eating popcorn and reading The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls, does sound kinda cozy, so, I guess, bring it on. As one of my younger brothers is wont to say, what can't be cured must be endured.

Tree frog chillin'.

We've continued planting more baby green type crops, which we'll set out in our season extension "systems", of which I will explain more when they are up and going. And the winter carrots are sure looking good. These crops will be available primarily through our after the market season veggie delivery system. If I've already mentioned it to you, and gotten your email, no worries, you're in. If you haven't heard about it, and are interested, stop by one of the markets and inquire, or send an email. One of the earlier blog posts explains it in more detail.

Baby brassica greens

Baby lettuce

More baby cukes in the greenhouse

Rouxai lettuce

Helenor Rutabaga.

Below is a picture from one of the winter carrot beds. I call it "the cracking of the row". It's a good sign, when you see the carrot row start to look like a mini earthquake crack- it means the roots are swelling nicely down there. :)

The cracking of the row

Here's a newer shot of the big new herb garden.............

Beautiful happy herbs

Honeybee working on a zucchini blossom.

One of the late spinach beds.

Nope, it's not your eyes, nor is it a mistake- the bed is intentionally tilted toward the left, the left side being toward the south in this picture. Especially when planting late in the season, it helps to capture all the solar radiation you can- and tilting the bed while raking it out is one way of doing that. Seems to be doing well for this bed, it was planted early September, and the seeds are up and growing happily. Probably be harvesting from this bed late October.

Last picture for this post is...........

Nap time for Molly Anne and one of her many dollies. :)

No napping for me, however, I gotta run and wear out the chainsaw some more. :) Y'all take care now!

Tomato and cucumber seed saving, onion seeds, and lots of pictures

Happy Labor Day! As I sit here pecking at the keys, the skies are gray and the rain is gently falling. Kind of a nice slow day. We scrambled this morning to get a few things done before it started raining too much, getting some onions and spuds out of the ground and planted some more fall greens. It always seems strange to be planting seed this time of the year, but the reality is that many greens actually prefer the cooler, wetter, short days of fall more than the blasting dry heat of summer. (Which, obviously, we really didn't get this year, but ..............) When planting the beginning of September, it seems I should go get my head checked out. :) But, as a gardening friend says, when I had mentioned myself being a bit loony having cucumber plants about a foot long now, for late cukes, she said I'm just being optimistic. Thanks for that kind comment, J.M. :)

Had a few tomato plants start ripening outside quite a bit earlier than most of the others, so I saved some seed. My planting records said they were the heirloom variety called "Rose" (a name I really like, one of our daughters also bears that name); having grown the Rose tomato in the past, however, I know these were most certainly NOT Rose tomatoes. I think they were an extra early variety called Glacier, which we also planted a few of, and which obviously got mixed up somehow. Small, red, but with a good flavor, especially considering their earliness. Started by cutting them in half, across the equator, so to speak, then squeezing out the gel and seeds into a cup and labeling them.

Tomato seed saving on the kitchen counter

Squeezing out the gel and seeds

Some of next season's tomatoes

Did essentially the same thing with a pickling cucumber (which by the time it was ready for seed saving was far past being a good pickle). Got my seed saving operation booted out of the kitchen by the two head cooks here, my lovely and gracious wife Janice and our oldest daughter Melissa, who is following in Janice's footsteps and is becoming a great homemaker in her own right. But I don't mind getting moved out of the kitchen, it means good eatin' is in the works. :) So I had to use the little octagonal cabinet/table in the living room to snap this photo. Here's the cuke seed pics.

Seeds ready to be scooped out

Here they are, with the cuke juice and a little water added.

In a few days, the containers looked like this, which they are supposed to look like.............

Mold grown across the top

Rinsed off, lighter mostly immature seeds poured off.

I'll let them dry down on the coffee filters for a few days, then get them in a envelope, and into the freezer for next year's cropping. Here's a picture of the onion seeds we saved earlier. They are still sitting on the old pump organ (boy, it's nice to hear that thing squawk, I like to sit and play a few songs now and again), but when I get some time here, I'm gonna blow off the chaff and get those seeds into a packet as well.

Next season's onions, ready for your salads in about 11 months. :)

Now, a big photo blast, in no particular order.

Two of the little squirts, "helping" make sauerkraut.

Cucumbers and heirloom tomatoes, with a cilantro/parsley/oil/vinegar dressing.

Big caterpillar, was on one of the plum trees.

Fall crops, loving the weather.

Lots of baby lettuces in the little portable greenhouse.

Huge cabbage in the home garden, for more sauerkraut.

Bee balm and Korean hyssop. The bees love them!

Peppermint, growing back from the recent cutting.

Cabbage was harvested, now it's making mini-cabbages. :)

Huge Blue Hubbard squash.

It's strange to see the pond so full this time of year.........

Echinacea purpurea in bloom.

The big caterpillar that was on the plum branch is of an unknown variety. We saw a couple here last year as well. If anyone out there knows what kind it is, I'd be interested to find out. One really strange one last year would shoot out it's orange horns/antennae at you when you touched it. We usually put them in the woods and let them finish their life cycle. I guess that's one of the results of planting lots of flowers and pollinator habitat- you get lots of pollinators, which is of course what we want.


Well, it looks like the rain is letting up a bit for now, so I better run along. Y'all take care now...........