Fall Journal 2013
Sept. 21st
We picked most of the peaches and canned 12 quarts of peaches. Left some on to eat the rest of the week and took off the tree kept the perfect picked ones for the frig to be enjoyed for the two following weeks. We also canned two quarts of tomatoes and picked some beans. The tomatillos are doing well, it is too cool for any squash or pumpkins to form big enough so time use the blossoms for cooking. The Bartlett pears are almost done, just enough to eat. The keifer will be ready after a couple of frosts which makes them sweeter. The coneflowers are all but spent I will distribute the seeds when they are ready . We bought only one cone flower and now we have them in all flower gardens. We have two good size cauliflowers forming three kalirabi and the brussel sprouts are forming well. The beets we will pickle when the first frost hits and also dig up all the potatoes we couldn't dig up because the vine plants took over. Nothing like fresh dug potatoes. The parsnips we let go until late because they get sweeter as the ground gets colder. The rutabaga we won't know until we dig them up how well we did. The celery in the rain garden is still growing and sweet potatoes vines are still growing in the front yard flower garden with the tomatoes but we will not know until we dig them up after the first frost. I trimmed some of the fruit trees so we can walk under them as they have lower some from the branches with the large number of fruit. The city pickles up tree branches and mulches them to use on their own landscape. We also found some cucumbers as they have vined in different directions, not allot but enough to satisfy a craving. We will have some peppers to pickle. I just pickle them all together. The cardoon is huge but no flower yet. We have much veggies yet as cool weather increase their growth in the cool weather plants.
Sept. 30th
This was an easy weekend, not allot of red tomatoes to can, enough to eat, too cool this week but we will be warm again so we should have enough to can. We are doing Halloween, so we picked pumpkins. We also had bought a couple of big pumpkins. The tomatillas are doing well they seem to only need sun, the temp doesn't seem to effect them to much. The cardoon is still growing, little effects it at all. Picked the last peach off the tree and we still have 3 bowls of peaches in the frig. We do Halloween and next weekend we will put up lites. We do a fall scene that morphs into Halloween. Crabapples are at their best, love the sweet-sour taste. We have 4 cauliflower and will pick a couple this weekend. Found some more beans, enough for a meal. We dug up a couple of beets and they are ready to make picked beets. just great. The missed onions are starting to pop up so we will have green onions for the fall and to put in the pickled beets. We got some rain, but no where near to help the drought. The kalirabi is doing well too. The raspberries I transplanted look like they survived. We bought our Christmas Tree this weekend because Home Depot had discounted their trees to plant, we got Blue Spruce again. The tree has a big root ball in a plastic container. We put the tree in a rubbermaid tub out side so we can water it until we bring in the house a week before Christmas and decorate it. On Christmas Day we plant it outside in a hole we dug in November, before the ground freezes. We do this to landscape the yard and Be Green by planting the tree we use for Christmas. Most of the trees we have done this survived and the first one we planted is now thirty feet tall.
Oct.6th
We had 2 inches of rain last night so everything is just taking it all in. We had 3 months of very little rain and for some plants it was the first real drink of water in a long time. We canned 3 quarts of tomatoes and made 4 quarts of pickled beets. I picked the big beets and left the ones of marble size to grow more we have another mouth of growing. We picked two heads of cauliflower and found another cukecumber. The keifer pears are not in big amounts but they are huge pears and the squirrels have no way to carry these off to their nest unless they have five squirrels to do it. Dug up some potatoes, still have more to dig once the first frost and I can dig where all the pumpkin vines die off and I can get to more of the garden and dig. Did some more pruning of the trees. The raspberries have survived the transplanting to the side of the garage. My wife made a big pot of spaghetti sauce with tomatoes from the garden and onions and garlic. She makes great sauce. The celery is still growing in the rain garden. It will be a cooler week but the cold weather veggies will do well. We still have a bowl of peaches yet in the frig and a bowl of grapes. We have allot of tomatillas and they are filling their their pod . The evergreens just turned so much greener with this rain. The cedar trees have their berries and also the hollies.
Oct. 13th
The weather has been good for October and the tomatoes continue to grow. We canned three quarts of tomatoes this weekend. We picked two more heads of cauliflower. We put up the Halloween decorations a great lot of fun. The kiefer pears are huge but still not very sweet, they get sweet with a few frosty nights. All the cold weather veggies are doing very well. The cardoon is still growing. The crabapples are getting sweeter and they are great to snack on while doing the yard work. I am dispersing any of the flower seeds that are ready. I just spread in the area and as normal and a few will find the perfect conditions to grow, real easy. It rained a little saturday. Any of the not perfect tomatoes are put back in the garden to be tilled back in the ground this fall and I will have volunteer tomatoes plants next year and is always fun to see if I get a new size shape or color tomatoes. Did a little more tree trimming. I found some more green beans I missed and are dry but they become next years seed for growing beans. The tomatillas are doing very well. The cedar trees are producing berries and the birds have found them. A great fall treat for the birds when considering picking trees to grow that useful as for north wind protection and a food source for birds. The fancy weeping crabapple tree is for its beauty and for its little berries that are pea size, just right food size for birds in the fall as a food source.
Oct. 20th
This last week has been really cool it has rained on Monday and Tuesday ,Wednesday was cloudy. The cauliflower is growing very well also the Brussel sprouts. The tomatoes are still ripening and we will probably can more tomatoes. The crabapples are very good right now. The Keifer pears are very big but not sweet yet. They need a couple more frosts to make them sweet. The beets are growing very well. The tomatillos are also still growing very well. Our evergreens trees have started to grow again with this cold weather. I still have a couple pumpkin vines starting to grow small pumpkins. There is Frost predicted for the week . This will be the end of growing for the tomatoes but we will pick all the tomatoes after the frost and bring them in and ripen in the house.The leaves haven't changed yet. The fire Bush has not started to turn red yet. We are carving the pumpkins this coming week and putting in lights. I found a couple of cucumbers and picked some ripe tomatoes and a head of cauliflower Still have crabapples and they just get better tasting. The cardoon just keeps growing and the are doing real well. Picked some peppers and cut them up to make pickled peppers.
Oct. 22nd
This morning there was a frost and killed the tomato plants and the pumpkin vines. We picked all the tomatoes still on the vines and brought them in the house to ripen. In past years they will ripen all the way up to Christmas. The tomatoes plants by the house survived and if they can make through this week, next week is not as cold. The cold weather plants were not effected at all. The tomatillos are still alive as well as the cardoon. The pepper plants also survived and they are surprisingly tuff plants. The frost will start the keifer pears to sweeten. Picked the peppers that are big . The leaves are just starting to turn and start dropping. We had a few flurries today.
Oct. 23rd
Today I pulled out all the tomatoes plants and pumpkin vines that where killed by the frost.We had picked six big bowls of tomatoes mostly green with some partially ripe. This will give us tomatoes till christmas. They will ripen in bigger quantities than we can eat fresh daily so we will make salsa with most of them and can some too. I found another cucumber in the vines and a small pumpkin. I picked all the peppers I could see now all the vines of pumpkin and tomatoes have been pulled out. Also picked three eggplant, small but my wife fried fresh potatoes, eggplant, bacon, onion and garlic, great combo.The celery is still alive and all the tomatoes , pepper, and tomatilla plants by the house still doing good. The cold weather has started the sweetening process on the kiefer pears and they are starting to get a yellow tinge too. The cardoon has not been affected by the cold weather at all. I found a Raspberry plant in the garden so I will transplant it after it sheds its leaves.
Oct. 27th
We canned three quarts of tomatoes and 11 quarts of pears this weekend . The wind storm we had knocked down about 75 huge pears and they were sweet enough from the four nights of below freezing which makes the kiefer pear sweeter . The coming cold days will add even more sweetness to the pears. I picked another cauliflower and wife made another stir fry potatoes, parsnips, onions I dug up with garlic and cardoon and bacon. Crabapples are still good cold and tart .Raked the leaves that the wind storm brought down and mulched them in the garden where I pulled up the tomatoes and peppers. I will rototill the mulched leaves into the garden when all the leaves have fallen and tilled in the garden. The cold weather veggies are still doing well. The cardoon is still growing and we tried it and it tastes little bitter to my wife but not so much for me. The tomatoes on the west side of the house took a hit but tomatillos are still ok. The tomatoes and the tomatilles on the south side are still alive and well. The celery is still growing.
Nov 3rd
We canned 6 quarts of pears that had been blown down and 2 quarts of salsa this weekend. Also took advantage of a beautiful fall day to photograph the yard. The tomatillos by the house are still alive and growing. The tomatoes by southern exposure of the house are still alive and growing some. Dug up some more parsnips. The cold weather veggies doing well. The cardoon is acting like it's still summer. The kiefer pears are still on the tree and the leaves are still green. The pears will start dropping as soon as the the leaves start turning. Mulched the leaves into the garden. All the tomatoes that we brought in and do not ripen, go bad, go right in the garden and some of the seeds will come up as volunteers next year in the garden. Dug up three raspberry plants and replanted them by the garage that the chip monk had planted by one of his entrances to his den. The chip monk likes strawberries too!
Nov. 10th
We canned a pint and a half of mixed hot peppers, pint and one half of salsa from the ripening tomatoes and six quarts of pears. There are about ten or twelve pears still in the tree with the leaves almost gone. Mulched the leaves into the garden .I have been mulching the leaves with the lawn mower and just rake the back yard leaves into the garden and I mulch them. They are cut in little pieces like a paper shedder and if the garden dries out a bit I will rototill them in if not they will break down enough over the winter to be a good compost for spring. The tomatoes and the tomatillas by the house where killed off so we picked all of them. We are looking for recipes for tomatillos because we got allot of them. Good crop for first time growing. The tomatoes will continue to ripen in the house probably to almost Christmas. Our kitchen peninsula is coverer with plastic serving trays full of green tomatoes slowly ripening. They ripen and less likely to rot with good air circulation.
Nov. 17th
Today it is raining and 60 degrees this last week we had our first snow that stuck. We canned the last of the pears(6 qt's) we had picked up as the tree dropped them with the leaves. We also canned 2qts of tomatoes that had ripened this week and a pint and half of salsa. The cold weather has little effect on the cold weather veggies. All the leaves have dropped and the pond has froze over twice. We had potatoes and parsnips together , very good.
Nov 24th
This friday I brought in the lemon trees because the temp is going down to 20 for a high for next few days and 32 for the rest of the week. I dug up the rest of the beets and we canned a quart and half of beets. We still have tomatoes ripening and enough to eat and put on my pizza which I have been doing since the first rush of ripe tomatoes in July. Also dug up some more potatoes and parsnips. My wife made two pumpkin pies from the few pie pumpkins we got this year, very good. The last cauliflower, a small one was consumed. It has been cold a high of 20 today, too cold to do anything except look at the seed catologues that are in the mail boxes regularly now. A little Snow predicted foe Monday .
Dec.. 1st
The week was cold and digging up some more potatoes for Thanksgiving was fun but nothing better than dug fresh potatoes. We also dug up rutabaga and picked two Kalirbbi . The brussel sprouts are still growing For Thanksgiving we had allot of what we grew this year. We had mashed potatoes with rutabaga, turnips and kalirabi. it dresses up the mashed potatoes, very good. The few sweet potatoes were good. We will grow them in the potted tomatoes on the south side of the house, they need allot heat. This was my wife's idea, very good. We had tomatoes as the green ones keep ripening Still a bunch of small ones to ripen. I put them on my pizzas. My wife made two pumpkin pies with the ones I grew and we saved after Halloween just cut up, peel, blend and store frozen till ready to use.The celery and onions went in the dressing. The celery, I cut 2 of them the night before to make dressing and left one for Chirstmas.We had pickled beets as good taste bud starter.The Thanksgiving Dinner was really good as always.
Dec. 8th
It was a long cold week but today we did the video for Making Gluten Free Pumpkin Pie for my Wife's website GlutenFree-Princess.com , It turned out really well. My wife also made mashed potatoes with home grown potatoes with parsnips, kalarabi, and rutabegge. A great combination to turn up the mashed potatoes. Also put some more tomatoes that are still ripenimg on pizza, all small size left except the four big ones I have for Chistmas salad.. I eat the canned pears , a bowl full every day. My wife eats canned peaches regularly. The pickled beets are eaten as taste bud awakener for many meat meals. The pumpkin pies turned out very good, they won't last the week. We used the frozen pumpkin of the Jack O Lanterns. It has snowed and digging up any other veggies will have to wait until it is clear again but they will be just as good.
Dec 15th
It was the coldest this Dec. since 1978 minus 5 one morning. My wife made more pumpkin pie. We had another 4 inches of snow.
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