Tent City

Tropical Storm / Hurricane Sandy collided with arctic air from the north and an early winter storm from the west, morphing into a monstrous Super Storm and proving to be an epic billion dollar disaster.

Very little rain fell on my garden as a result of Sandy, but local conditions produced winds gusting at 40 - 45 miles per hour with low temperatures in the mid-30's.  Andrew and I worked on getting row covers in place on Sunday.  We used pvc piping to assemble a simple hoop system over each raised bed.  The structure supports lightweight fabric which will remain in place throughout the winter months, protecting cold tolerant crops from frost and boosting the effects of the sun.  The landscape staples we used to secure the fabric to the ground were seriously challenged by the strong winds.  I had to bring in heavy rocks as reinforcement!

The tender seedlings are safely under cover now.  Delicious greens will be on the menu this winter. Today, I piled my lunchtime sandwich high with fresh-cut arugula.

What the heck is a peck?

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

I challenge you to say that five times in a row, as fast as you can. It will surely leave your tongue twisted and tangled in your mouth!  But, what is a peck, anyway?

A peck is 1/4 of a bushel. So, what is a bushel?  That all depends on what you're measuring!

A bushel measures produce by volume, not by weight.  A bushel of grain will weigh more than a bushel of apples which will out weigh a bushel of beans which will beat out a bushel of turnip greens and so on and so on.  Professional farmers may understand and know these relative weights, but if you are a gardener, a home canner, or even a consumer who frequents farmers' markets it would be helpful to be familiar with these terms.

Here's an interesting article that explains in simple language all those odd gardening weight and measurement terms.  In it, the author says that a peck of peppers would weigh in at 10 - 14 pounds.
http://voices.yahoo.com/how-much-bushel-peck-1899378.html?cat=32

Here's a listing of US commercial bushel sizes for various crops.  I have to admit, I'm disappointed that these charts do not include peppers!
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/scales/bushels.html


Here's a picture of the peck of peppers I picked today:

And when you need just the right word to describe your feelings for that special someone...

I love you ...
A bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck;
A hug around the neck, and a barrel and a heap;
A barrel and a heap and I'm talkin' in my sleep about you!

Tomatillos ...

... the key ingredient in fresh and cooked green sauces. I harvested all of mine today.

Outdoor Work Day

Still waiting for rain as Tropical Storm Sandy does her thing.  With the high temperature right at 70 degrees, it's been a pleasant, albeit gray, day.  A balmy breeze has been blowing ... feels like spring ... not at all the blustery autumn wind one might expect this time of year. The leaves are falling steadily.  Rouse mowed and blowed and raked those leaves.  I helped him a little bit, managing one end of a big drop cloth piled high with leaves as we dragged it to the now-almost-full leaf bin.  The leaves in that bin will be used this winter to heavily mulch my potato beds.

It was an outdoor work day.  Tackling the chicken chores, getting up leaves, replacing summer plants in outdoor pots with cold-weather-hardy kale and pansies, cleaning up the garden and the garden shed, picking up trash, weeding, tidying up in general.  There's a simple joy to getting lost in the task at hand, going with the flow of things, following your nose, breathing in the fresh air ... and very rewarding to see the neat and tidy space that evolves.

Fava Beans in the Ground

Tropical Storm Sandy is heading up the east coast.  She ought to be far off the coast of North Carolina but we're expecting to get some rain as she passes.  I spent a little time in the garden today, filling two beds with fava beans, hoping to take advantage of Mother Nature's soaking.

Fava beans may be used as a food crop for bean production or as a cover crop for soil improvement.  That's a real win-win situation!  These beans prefer cool weather and tolerate frost.  In central North Carolina they will grow and bloom all winter, then set fruit in early spring, producing extra-long pods containing giant beans.  Shelled and cooked green, the beans are tasty!  Very similar to edamame (green soy beans).

I purchased my bean seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  http://rareseeds.com/  I like the fact that they offered several varieties of favas. 

I filled one bed with the standard Broad Windsor fava bean.  This old English favorite produces high yields of high-protein beans.  I'm counting on these to do well.

I planted half the second bed with Aquadulce fava, a 19th century Spanish heirloom that produces large white beans extra early in the season, but is known for lower yields.

The other half of that bed contains Extra Precoce A Grano Violetto fava bean, another extra early variety - this one from Italy - that produces deep purple, sweet tasting beans.

We have a fall garden ... Thanks to Andrew!

October 2nd is my birthday.  The kids were asking me what I wanted for my birthday.  With all the wedding activity late in the summer and early fall, plus a week away in early October for my annual music study, I did not have time to start the fall garden.  One day it hit me.  I told son, Andrew, that what I really wanted for my birthday was for somebody to plant my fall garden.  He did it!

He perused the catalogs, ordered seeds for all kinds of delicious greens and roots, cleaned up and prepared the beds, sowed the seeds, and has been tending to them since.

It may be a little late, but in our part of the world there's plenty of time to enjoy these crops. With the help of some lightweight row covers, they'll be producing all winter.  Here's what the fall garden looks like today ...

 

The marigolds continue to brighten the space. The pepper plants are still producing.  The bed containing the big bushy lima bean plants is in line to be cleared next.  The new seedlings are getting a foothold.  The bright green spot in the foreground is arugula ... just now getting big enough to enjoy.

Mother - Daughter Bonding in the Kitchen

Abi and I spent some quality time in the kitchen tonight.  I made two batches of jam ... one each of red jalapeno and fig.  Abi cooked up the golden delicious apples leftover from wedding time to make a big pot of spicy apple butter.  Jars of summer's sweet goodness are now safely put up on the shelf.

While I was away last week the last of the okra pods were not picked.  They grew to monstrous proportions!  I sure am going to miss fresh okra, but I have to admit that the season is over.  Son, Andrew, and visiting nephew, Forrest, worked together to clear the okra bed.

While they were at it, I had them remove the spent pole beans and associated string trellis.  Pole beans are a good "cross over" crop.  They produce from summer into fall.  We've been eating so many green beans lately ... if they weren't so delicious we'd definitely be at risk for being sick and tired of them!

A green anole watched the proceedings.  He's not very green today!

Sue is STILL not in the Garden ...

She's been away for a week, studying the hammered dulcimer with a bunch of like-minded folks, at Sandbridge Beach, Virginia.