I tried out a new pizza crust recipe this week, and topped it with some cherry tomatoes. I did tweak it to make it gluten free. I want to try again and make a few more changes, but this was pretty good. When frost was threatened, I picked the green cherry tomatoes and put them in a 9×13 pan in the garage. They are slowly ripening up and we are eating them as soon as they do.
Rob has been finding some ripe larger tomatoes in his stash in the shed. They are wrapped with tissue paper, and ripening slowly.
We still have some things growing in the garden that are not frost sensitive. We’ve had boc choi in stir-fry. The “Quick Start” cabbage has made heads. They are small heads, but just right for us. I’ve picked several and there are still more out there. We had broccoli a few times this week, too, in various stir-fries. I made a beef-broccoli one for dinner one evening that was delicious. The celery isn’t doing well–it’s too dry, I think. The winter lettuce is growing and there’s kale, which is very hardy. The spinach is so tiny that I doubt I’ll get any before spring.
We’ve done well this week at eating up all the leftovers. We ate a lot of salad and used most of the lettuce I picked before it frosted.
I’ve had to water the veggies with watering cans, it’s been so dry! That’s very unusual for our part of Oregon this time of year.
Rob went ahead and tilled the empty part of the garden one more time, since it was dry enough, after I pulled up the last few dead tomato and zucchini bushes. It will help the weeds be more manageable in the spring. He also tilled in some grass clippings while he was at it.
We went for several walks. One day, when we were keeping Michaela and Jake, we went down to Waterfront Park in downtown Salem and all took a nice walk. The weather has been amazing!
The wood project continues. Rob went up to the forest several times again this week, and the piles continue to grow.
While he cuts wood, I’ve been sewing and doing school with Patsy. There should be more projects to show in a few days. When her school is done, she goes with him. She enjoys getting out of the house! I’m not sure how much more he’s going to cut, but I’m loving the fact that he’s got so much piled up already.
So do you usually not need to water during the growing season? The weather looks beautiful out there; I love the fall, except for the shorter days.
When you perfect your gluten-free pizza dough, post the recipe 🙂
Have a great week!
We do water during the growing season. Rob sets up sprinklers on tripods and hooks them up to our automatic watering system. They just come on in rotation when the yard is watered, or we can turn on just the garden if needed. We took all those down a few weeks ago since he wanted to till the empty part of the garden. Usually, by November 1, the fall rains have come and there would be a wet, soggy garden with no hope of tilling until next spring. It is very unusual that he could till this late in the season at all. We also have never had so many fall/winter veggies before. I’m delighted that they are not slug-infested, soggy, and sad!
Your pizza looks so tasty!
So glad that Rob is doing well. That is a lot of wood! “He is twice warmed who cuts his own wood.”
Hope you have a good week.
It was really good!
I’m so happy he’s able to cut wood, as well. It’s a miracle he can do that, since a year ago, he could hardly walk!
We stripped the garden Friday evening of every summer vegetable we could find and I have been working in the kitchen processing ever since. I made hot pepper jelly for the first time for Reese. I asked Dustin to taste test a small spoonful and he ran panting to the refrigerator and grabbed a glass of milk to drink. He said it would be perfect for his brother when he gets home. Does that mean it is good or not?
Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry
I was surprised to find one more cucumber lurking under the weeds when I cleaned out the other day. I truly thought I’d got them all and we’d had several heavy frosts. It was surprisingly good, and I was glad for Rob, who scarfs them. I’m glad you got things cleaned up. Red pepper jelly sounds fine….especially for Reese, if he likes it that way:). I haven’t made that before, either.
We picked two small cucumbers and they weren’t all that great. Tasted like they had been frozen…well, I guess that one frost night had damaged them. Didn’t matter. They went into the salad anyway!
It dropped down to about 28 and that ended that.
We’ve had a few nights in the 20’s as well, then another rush of warm weather, now this weekend, cold at night again. Michaela announced that the weather people just could not make up their minds. I had to agree with her:)
It has been so dry here. We live so close to each other in “real” life! I’m up north, in Tualatin!
Yes! Way too dry! It’s supposed to rain a little today, and more in the next two days. So, of course, woodchopper Rob is out there with both Michaela and Patsy this morning. He mostly wanted to take the girls out into the woods one more time before the rains come. I doubt they will get much wood chopped–it’s more of an excursion, and there are some horses in a field up there somewhere for Michaela to look at. She loves horses.
I hope you can get cozy if it does actually rain and get chilly!
Nice work on the sewing and wood projects! I hope you get some rain soon.
Thank you. Me, too! We need some. It’s supposed to rain in the next couple of days, so that’s good.