The wildfire smoke finally cleared enough for me to get outside. It took 2 sessions, but I got the weeds pulled around the raised beds, old plants pulled and trimmed and new compost spread in the back one, a few more fall veggies planted, and bark dust spread around the paths. I had 2 bags of the darker brown bark dust left from last spring, so used them. The rest of the paths I spread with some shavings Rob’s been saving in an old garbage can from his woodworking in the shop. I’m hoping the paths will remain walk-able for me this winter as I hopefully harvest lettuce, kale, green onions, spinach, snow peas and boc choi. It’s a little later than I wanted to plant, but if things don’t fruit before the winter, sometimes they will over-winter and give me some goodies very early in the spring. Last year, that’s what my over-wintered snow peas did.
The garden’s getting pretty messy, but there are some plants in there that I still have hope for.
My winter lettuce is very tiny. The Chinese cabbage is growing, and I can see that the cabbage is growing nicely. The spinach didn’t come up. Such is life:).
A little dose of reality? Yup. That’s really what my zucchini patch looks like. But, I still keep getting a zucchini or two every couple of days….
And, a few tomatoes. You can also see the gluten-free flour mix I stirred up. I want to make bread in the next day or two. I don’t eat a lot of bread, but I do eat it now and then.
I made some chocolate cupcakes and used 1/2 the batter to make a loaf cake to slice, freeze and keep on hand. I also froze some turkey meatballs and 1/2 of the pork Rob marinated and barbecued. It’s so handy to have things to grab from the freezer and eat when I’m in a hurry.
My canning and preserving project is slowing way, way down, as the garden is also slowing down. However, I did get enough tomatoes to can 9-1/2 pints of diced tomatoes this week. I am thinking of things to do with all these, as it’s a little too much to eat, but not quite enough to can. Pico de Gallo comes to mind, as does sharing with my extremely good-natured neighbor. She has graciously accepted all extra veggies, including some of the less “popular” ones that others might turn down.
My sister gave me 5 tiny squash. I peeled, chopped, and roasted the bits and we gobbled them down.
Once the hot weather was over, the pole beans bloomed and started producing beans again. I’ve had several bowls in the past couple of weeks. I’m hoping that we will get quite a few more dinners from them before it frosts.
I can’t say things look great out there, but I’m still very satisfied with all of the food we just keep getting. Now that the light can shine on the garden since the smoke is gone, and we’ve had a little rain, I think I may be surprised at what may grow. Here’s hoping anyway……..
The rest of the week was filled with spending time with Jake and Michaela, doing school with Patsy, and a little cleaning. We started exercising again yesterday. We just couldn’t go outside to walk until then, the smoke was that bad.
Your garden looks fantastic to me and I especially like the zucchini bed. It is encouraging to other gardeners when people show the truth. (Translation: I feel better about the weeds in my garden now.)
I have not left the kitchen in a week because of the amount of work needing to be done. I accidentally bought 100 pounds of tomatoes at the Amish auction. How? By talking to the people beside me and not paying attention when I bid. What I thought was one box, really was a bundled lot. I did the same thing with yellow squash and purchased 2 bushels. However, some of the 20-pound boxes were $3 and some were $4 each. No one wanted them because they were ugly, misshapen canners. I can work myself to death in the kitchen with prices like that!
Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry
Good grief! 100 pounds of tomatoes. That was some conversation:). That’s a LOT of tomatoes. However, I can see where that many tomatoes would not be too much, especially if you start juicing or saucing them. Even canned in chunks, I’ll bet it’s around 50 quarts, but I’m not sure how many pounds to a quart. That’s only 1 jar per week. I’m glad you got them for such a great price! But, I’ll bet tired doesn’t even begin to describe how you felt after all that!
My guys love salsa (tomatoes, onions, peppers, cilantro) with chips and will eat it alone as a meal. They can inhale a huge bowl in no time and then be hungry again in an hour. That is how we go through so many tomatoes in the summer. I don’t allow that with the canned salsa because I have to blanch and peel the tomatoes plus scrape out the seeds (which I can’t eat). It is time-consuming so canned salsa is a winter-time treat.
Now that I am thinking, 100 pounds might not be too much after all.
I did so many jars of salsa this summer, because they can scarf it down around here, as well!
I’m thinking I finally got all of my tomatoes done for the year. The bushes are dying, for the most part. I got 1/2 a large bowl, though, but it wasn’t enough to do a canner load so my sister sent enough over to finish up the load. Hers are declining, as well, so……I can consider myself being done with a big job, I think….at least for this year.
So glad the smoke has lessened. I hope there won’t be any more fires this year. What a year this has been.
I’m glad you had a good harvest. Great job preserving everything. I think my garden is about done. It will be 37 tonight and we don’t usually have frost until October but this year has been unusual in so many ways. Hope next year will be better.
Have a great week.
Brrrrrr. 37. Just brrrr. We have an average first frost date of around Oct. 15. Right now, they aren’t forecasting frost, and I’m good with that, as I’m not quite ready. But, sometimes, it does what it does. I hope you get your last minute veggies in before it frosts there!
Love your garden! My problem is usually too much rain and my backyard becomes a swamp. Luckily, I do not have an HOA and I have planted, in the one sunny spot in my front yard, mustard greens, collars, and turnips, I planted a couple of weeks ago in Miracle Grow bags and they are really growing. Of course we have had a good bit of rain, due to Sally, and I hear Beta ,or what is left of that tropical storm, is headed our way tomorrow. The collards, turnips, and mustard greens grow all winter here, since our winters are mild.
I hope you continue to NOT suffer from all of those storms out there! They sound awful.
It is great that you can grow all of those veggies in your yard during the winter.
I think your garden looks great! I need to put in PVC pipe for floating row covers for next year. It was so dry, hot and windy this summer here in Colorado…the garden bit the dust. Thankfully I was able to go to a U-pick farm in northern Colorado and came home with 100# of veggies for $20, including a bunch of peppers and chiles. God always provides!
My goodness! You got a great deal on that produce. God does indeed provide:)