Getting Up Leaves

Getting the leaves off the grass and into the garden is an annual event. Rouse the Spouse has been working hard to mulch between the raised beds and to cover the bare soil in the beds that will remain unused over the winter. The rest go into the leaf bin for future use. I do a token amount of work ... helping to drag the drop cloth loaded with leaves to the bin where we dump it, then stomp the leaves down a bit. And who can resist falling into that huge pile of fluffy leaves?!

Greens Galore

arugula in the foreground, + 3 varieties of lettuce

red russian, curly, and toscano kale

tatsoi, pakchoi, broccoli

spinach,  mustard

first cutting of the collards, and lettuce on the side

Andrew's Gourds

The last bit of summer crops ... the "jewelry gourds" are dry.
Andrew will harvest them soon.

New Leaf / Mulch Bins

Rouse the Spouse has rebuilt the leaf / mulch bins. The old ones were in disrepair. Plus, we have a tractor now that could handily toss the mulch or scoop it for use... if only the openings to the bins were wide enough. The new structure fits the bill!

new bins - my brother, Bobby, and Rouse the Spouse add raw material to the pile

Seasons Change

Expected low temperature tonight:  32 degrees!

• Picked a pile of peppers
• Pulled fennel
• Cut parsley and mint
• Harvested roselle
• Tucked lettuce, arugula, kale, spinach, mustard, tatsoi, bakchoi, broccoli under fabric row covers

A good haul from the late fall garden...

peppers, fennel, mint, and parsley

Winter crops going under cover...

chives gone to seed in the foreground

Hibiscus Yield

Harvested a modest 3 pounds 12 ounces of Hibisicus Sabdarrifa throughout the month of October.

It was an attractive plant in the garden, and loads of fun to experiment with. I enjoyed the tea and discovered the boiled calyxes are delicious to eat... similar in taste to cranberry. I have put up a bit of this cooked mash in the freezer, and have a jar full of dried calyxes for future tea parties.

Garlic and Shallots in the Ground

14 rows of garlic to fill one raised bed:

Hard-neck Varieties
Duganski
Krandasher

Soft-neck Varieties
California
Eurowhite

Plus, Roderique Long Banana Shallots
24 bulbs to border one square raised bed

These beds must be mulched heavily before frost.
We're still waiting for the leaves to fall!

What part of the plant is a garlic bulb?

While purchasing my garlic and shallot stock, I spoke to the experts down at the feed and seed store about the problem I had with this past season's garlic... especially the hard-neck variety. At harvest, the cloves were not as filled out as I expected and the papery covering that protects the entire bulb was not there.

As usual, I learned something. Garlic bulbs are not part of the garlic plant's root system, nor are they part of the stem. And even though we plant individual cloves to produce the next crop of garlic, the cloves are not seeds. Can you believe? They're leaves! Who knew?

Yes, the garlic clove is actually a modified leaf. The leaves seen above the ground act as bulb wrappers. That's why it's important to make sure you dig up the bulbs before all the top leaves have dried down, to preserver some wrappers for the bulb to live in. Then, while cleaning the bulbs after drying, try to leave 4-5 wrappers for each bulb.

So, I may have had a couple of issues going on with my 2019 garlic harvest. Maybe I waited too long to harvest the hard-neck plants (hence the missing papery bulb cover) and maybe I should've fed my plants better (to plump up individual cloves). They recommended that I fertilize the soil prior to planting this fall with a mild organic 5-4-3 combination, then hit it with a higher nitrogen mix in the spring.

Today the garlic and shallot beds have been cleared of weeds, a brambling volunteer raspberry, rocks that keep rising to the surface, and other miscellaneous "trash." I spread the fertilizer as directed, just in time for rain expected tonight. I'll plant next week.

Processing the Produce

Catch of the Day

That's a 4-pounder!

Butternut Squash

Tea Time

So ... 5-1/4 ounces freshly picked calyxes translated into 2-1/2 ounces of hibiscus, cleaned and ready to steep in 2 cups of water. That made a nice concentrate ... plenty enough for a few glasses of afternoon pick-me-up!

Hibiscus Sabdariffa

Success! Beautiful blooms, bright red calyxes. Wonder how many I'll get from these three plants? This morning I harvested 5-1/4 ounces of the calyxes. Really looking forward to tea time!

How much tea can be made from this small pile of calyxes?
I think I'll have to "save up"!

Instructions for making tea, from September 2016 post:
https://sueisinthegarden.blogspot.com/2016/09/hibiscus-sabdariffa-new-plant-for-garden.html

More about rosella in the garden:
https://ourpermaculturelife.com/how-to-grow-harvest-and-use-rosella-hibiscus-sabdariffa/

More about drinks and other foods that are infused with hibiscus:
https://www.nj.com/cooking/2013/12/power_flower_hibiscus_sabdarif.html

Drought

Still no rain since September 5. On top of that, record breaking hot temperatures (upper 90s!) predicted in the coming week. The lawn is crunchy. The garden requires daily watering to encourage continued production of end-of-summer veggies AND prevent tiny seedlings with shallow roots from drying up altogether.

Caterpillars have attacked the curly parsley. Aphids have munched a few of the kohlrabi plants into oblivion. But the lettuce and spinach have germinated, and everything else looks great. Time for a rain dance?

Have my seeds sprouted yet?

Yes! Baby plants have already popped out of the ground!

It's hard to believe how quickly some plants germinate. This morning, I see that tatsoi, mustard, arugula, and kale have erupted - tiny little leaves pushing up through the soil - and some have been above ground for a couple of days already. These seeds were planted on September 22. Four days ago!

The spinach and lettuce have not yet shown themselves. Stay tuned...

Peppers

Plenty of peppers to come. These are the beauties I can't wait to stuff ... Poblanos!

Color on the last tomatoes ...

In addition to these traditional tomatoes, I continue to pick a handful of cherry tomatoes every day. But it's clear ... those days are numbered.

Hibiscus Sabdariffa - Take 2

The race is on!

These plants begin to bloom as days shorten. Will there be time between now and the first hard frost for the flowers to mature into the calyces used for making tea?? Last year's attempt was a FAIL. Keeping my fingers crossed!

See more about this plant here .

Anticipation

Around here, if you want to eat fresh deliciousness from the backyard in the winter, NOW is the time to act. It takes a little work to fill out the future menu. The failing summer crops and associated detritus must be cleared away. The exciting decisions around what to plant must be made. Seeds and starts must be purchased, then situated in the ground.

Mother Nature has cooperated very nicely this past week. Temperatures have been pleasant, making it easy to spend time in the garden. Although I'm sad the end of the summer garden is upon us, it's so very satisfying to watch the hope of the next season take shape.

The seeds are sown. The starts are settled. Let the growing begin!

Starts*
planted September 21

• Collards - Vates, Georgia, Morris Heading
• Broccoli
• Pak Choi
• Kohlrabi
• Fennel
• Parsley - Italian Flat Leaf, Curled

Seeds*
planted September 22

• Tat Soi Asian Green
• Kale - Red Russian, Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch, Lacinato
• Spinach - Noble Giant, Hybrid
• Mustard Spinach - Tendergreen Salad
• Mustard - Southern Giant Curled
• Arugula
• Lettuce - Black Seeded Simpson, Buttercrunch, Romaine

* purchased from our local feed and seed store: Country Farm and Home

Autumnal Equinox

It is the summer's great last heat.
It is the fall's first chill. 
They meet.  ~ Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt

The official astronomical beginning of autumn is today. It's hard to ignore the signs in the garden. Plants are withering as sunlight decreases. Leaves are dropping. The okra is getting a little warty. We've had a taste of cooler days and nights... and I'm already anticipating the last taste of a fresh tomato.

We've had a very hot, dry stretch here. Hurricane Dorian brought only 1/2" rain to our neighborhood. Those drops fell on September 5... and no more since.

Despite the dry conditions, the garden has continued to provide us with plenty of okra, green beans, and cherry tomatoes. The success of this year's pepper crop has yet to reveal itself. I have already roasted an oven full of sweet peppers, ultimately transformed into a fantastic pasta sauce. There will be a few more sweet peppers and a pan or two of Anaheim peppers to roast. The poblanos are looking promising, with lots of maturing fruits and blooms. Bonus .... we have at least a half dozen butternut squash growing in the compost pile!

The intensity of the summer garden is over. Now, we look forward to the winter garden, where there are few weeds ... and fewer bugs!

Prolific Okra

Time for gumbo! Oh my goodness. It is summertime in a bowl!

Follow this link to find my recipe... serve over rice :-)
https://sueisinthegarden.blogspot.com/2018/08/okra-gumbo.html

Rattlesnake Pole Beans

We've been enjoying the prolific jade green bean crop. Easy to prep - NO strings - and very tasty. But here come the Rattlesnake pole beans!

Picking pole beans is so much easier on the back than picking bush beans. And the Rattlesnakes are worth stringing because they are so darn delicious.

I think the Rattlesnake beans are perfect when they are cooked just tender, but to the point where they will fall apart, releasing their little beans when stirred into the greasy seasoning of choice. The cooking takes 2-1/2 minutes under pressure. It's surprising how different different green beans can taste!

Summer Garden

mid-summer 2019

jade green beans

zucchini, okra, cucumbers, jade green beans

sun golds, black cherry tomatoes, tomatillas

Delicata Squash

Delicata squash is a variety of winter squash. Our son, Andrew, gave me some seedlings to try in the garden this year. I wasn't sure exactly when to harvest these fruits. Most winter squashes are harvested in the fall, when the stems begin to dry out. But local farmers were selling delicata at the market this morning. Compared to what I saw, mine look every bit as ready to harvest!

As soon as I got home, I picked eight of these beauties. Family vacation coming up next week... These will be a welcome addition to our dinner menu.

The pressure pot was made for cooking fresh green beans!

The jade bush beans are coming in strong. They are prolific producers of exceptionally tender, delicious, stringless green beans.

2-3/4 pounds green beans

In the garden, the strong upright plants are highly resistant to bean viruses. They don't require staking, yet are tall enough to allow the beans to hang freely, resulting in beautiful clean, straight beans.

In the kitchen, they're easy to process. I typically stem them as I pick them, right off the plant. No strings to worry about and no need to trim the tips. The most we might do is snap them into manageable bite-sized pieces that fit easily into the steamer basket. Then, into the pressure pot.

If cooking under pressure is not part of your repertoire, I encourage you to try it! What are the benefits, you might ask? First and foremost, cooking under pressure saves energy, time, and money. Depending on the food being prepared, cooking time can be reduced by as much as 70%! That translates into less energy consumed, less heat in the kitchen on a summer day, less time for the chef supervising the cooking pots. In addition, cooking under pressure has been shown to be a healthy method of cooking, as it preserves more of the natural taste and nutrients of the food when compared with boiling or steaming.

The new electric pressure cookers have the extra benefit of "setting it and forgetting it". They turn themselves off at the programmed time and keep the food warm until you're ready to use it.

These gorgeous fresh jade green beans will be perfectly done and tender in 4 minutes of cooking under pressure (cooking time varies with bean variety). At that point, I use a quick pressure release and remove the (unseasoned) beans from the pressure pot, setting them aside until it's time to eat. In the meantime, I prepare my seasonings. The current favorite treatment is thinly sliced onions caramelized in bacon grease. Be sure to use a skillet or pot large enough to fit the beans being prepared. Just before serving, toss the beans with the grease and onions until coated and fully heated. Add salt and pepper. Voilà!

Potato Yield for 2019

We have dug all the potatoes. Here's the official yield:

4# ... Purple Majesty deep purple color inside and out
5# 12 oz ... Yukon Golds yellow fleshed
7# ... Russian Banana fingerlings
9# 7 oz ... Mountain Rose red skins and flesh
9# 7 oz ... Purple Viking purple skin, creamy white flesh, especially good for baking

We planted 2# seed potatoes for each variety, except for the Russian Banana fingerlings. They certainly did live up to their reputation as high yielding. 1# seed potatoes produced seven pounds to eat!

The Purple Majesty yield was disappointing. Something happened to those plants early on. A section of that bed was empty ... no plants and no sign of seed potatoes in the ground. Our best guess is that "something" ate them!

It's like digging for buried treasure...

a little help digging the second bed of potatoes

Red, White, and Blue ... Potatoes?

We dug up one bed of potatoes this morning. It was a harvest fit for Independence Day!

All the varieties planted are represented here: Mountain Rose in the foreground, a few Yukon Golds and lots of Russian Banana fingerlings in the middle, mostly Purple Majesty and a few Purple Vikings at the far end.

Here's the red, white, and blue part ... Mountain Rose potatoes have RED skins and flesh, Purple Vikings have pinkish-purple skins with WHITE flesh, and Purple Majesty have dark purple skin and flesh. Close enough to BLUE to suit me!

boiled until tender, tossed in melted butter, salt, pepper

First Green Beans

One of our favorite varieties - Jade Bush Bean. They're stringless, flavorful, and tender no matter how big they get. These could've stayed on the plant a bit longer, but I couldn't wait another day!

There are plenty more to come. In the meantime, these will be doled out in scanty portions. It'll feel like we're at a fancy restaurant 😁 Always leave 'em begging for more, right?

Harvesting Shallots

Instructions for harvesting shallots:
Harvest shallots when the leaves begin to turn brown and fall over, 90-120 days from planting. Dig bulbs gently. Wipe off dirt. Place them on tray or a wire rack in a shady, dry, and well-ventilated place for one - three weeks to "cure". Then, pull off the dried tops and store in a cool, dark place.

The shallots have been growing all winter and spring. Although it's typical for them to mature in mid/late-summer, I decided to pull most of them yesterday and have laid them out to dry in the shed. I guess I got tired of waiting for them to be "done", plus a little worried that I might let them go too long in the ground. These had bloomed, had started to turn brown, and were falling over. The plants of one variety are still looking pretty vigorous, though. I'll leave them to mature a bit longer.

Yuck Bucket Bonus

We have three squash vines growing in the compost pile. These are serendipitous bonus plants.

The first one looks like an acorn squash plant. Yay!

The second, appears to be a strange iteration of a crook neck yellow summer squash.

The third is yet TBD as it has not yet set fruit.

Scarlet Tanager in the Blueberries

Along with house finches and other birdie friends. They've been hitting 'em hard. This is the first year we've had an issue with birds eating our berries. I guess we've been lucky. Next year ... install bird netting?

On the positive side, the birds are a lovely sight!

Harvesting Dill Seed

Yesterday, we harvested a bunch of dill seeds from mature / dried seed heads. A lot of stems came off with the seeds when we removed them from the plant. This would be fine and dandy if we were saving seeds to plant next year, but I might want to use these seeds to flavor food to eat.

How to separate the stems from the seeds? I decided to try my screen-mesh strainer. Just dumped everything into the strainer. Wiggled and jiggled and shook it over a large bowl. Hey! It worked! There are still a few stems stuck to some of the seeds, but the majority of the stems did fall through the mesh, leaving the seeds behind.

Staying cool as a cucumber...

... in the air conditioning, as we make refrigerator pickles. It's cucumber time!

It just wouldn't be summer without a pickle jar or two in the refrigerator. My little patch of cukes yielded enough today to make sweet pickles AND dill pickles. These pickles are easy to prepare and ready to eat in a few days. We love the crisp, fresh taste. For recipes / instructions, refer back to the June 18, 2016 blog post, "When life gives you cucumbers... make pickles!"

I was able to use fresh dill as well as fresh garlic, recently harvested from the garden. Bonus, some of the dill plants had dried perfectly to allow seed collection today.

My mom is visiting, and what a good help she is in the kitchen. She mixed pickling concoction, sliced cucumbers, and separated the dill seeds from the dried plants. What did I do, you might ask? I supervised, of course :-) Seriously, we have a good time working together to make deliciousness happen.

Let the summer feast begin!

Modest beginnings ... 3 cucumbers, 3 cherry tomatoes, 1st zucchini, lush basil in today's harvest. Plus, garlic already cured. Basil pesto on the menu tonight!

Summer Crops Begin!

first pickling cucumbers

squash in Bloom

developing tomatillos look like paper lanterns on the vine.

first sun-gold cherry tomatoes

Sugar Snaps and Garlic Scapes

The garden IS a bit overgrown, but peas and garlic certainly make a nice homecoming...