Autumn Beauty

Out in the backyard, the winter garden is tucked in under a cover of leaves. Collards, kale and other greens that will over-winter show up as small patches of green. Soon, fabric row covers will be needed to fend off the cold.

Sweet Potato Harvest

Digging potatoes is so much fun. It's like digging for buried treasure!

carefully expose the tubers

delight in the largest ones

sorted by size, we'll get a few meals out of this

The End of Pepper Season

Picked a pile of peppers! Sorted on the counter, from left to right - poblano, anaheim, and hot banana. These will be roasted or stuffed, then frozen for future use.

on  the roasting pan

 

This gourd got stuck!

 

Delicata Squash Harvest

Sweet, creamy, roasted delicata squash ... we've been waiting for this moment!

Hmmm ... what kind of bugs are these?

Yellow and spiny, about 1/2 " long.

It's the larval stage of the Mexican Bean Beetle!

Read more at almanac.com

 

Possum in a Pot

It was not injured. We placed the large pot on its side and the possum found its way out. 

Roasted Shishito Peppers

These peppers are considered to be mild ... until they're not! Sort of like playing Russian roulette with your food. Very tasty!

It looks like a tomato, BUTT...

 

Sunflowers

 

Final Days of Cucumber Season

It's been a great season! But now, having provided their final fruits, the vines are dried up and brown. Past time to clear out this bed!

Pan full of stuffed anaheim peppers

Stuffed with chicken (precooked with a jar of salsa in the Instant Pot, then shredded), black beans, corn, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, soft goat cheese, an egg or two ... all the good seasonings - chili powder, cumin, smokey paprika, oregano, salt, pepper ... plus, sharp cheddar spread over the top at the end, broiled until melty and brown.

the giant red anaheim pepper peeking out

The big surprise was these peppers had no heat at all! But they did have a very flavorful, thick flesh ... perfect for stuffing. Delicious! 

Biggest Anaheim Pepper Ever

This picture looks fake ... but I'm simply holding a red anaheim pepper in my hand to give a size reference. It's huge! Specifically, 11-1/2 ounces. I can't wait to stuff this one!

Loaded Banana Pepper Plant

 

Perfect Zinnia

 

Do Not Buy Cheap Canning Lids

The challenge in preserving food this season is the scarcity of canning lids. I was tempted to buy the cheap made-in-China product found on Amazon. Warning! Waste of money!

I used them to process a batch of sweet pickle relish in the boiling hot water canner. I heard a loud pop. Then another. What?? I opened the canner to find that the metal lids had totally deformed, making a seal impossible. Mind you, 7 out of 8 lids FAILED!

Lesson learned: Stick with the tried-and-true brand-name products, such as Ball and Kerr. They use materials that hold up to the extremes needed in home canning.

Amazon Review - wide mouth canning lids

Amazon Review - regular size canning lids

Garden Feast

Last night we had a family dinner to officially welcome our older son and his family 'to the neighborhood'. All the vegetables came from the garden! Corn on the cob, green beans, cucumber / tomato salad, okra, shishito peppers, eggplant and zucchini.

I baked a cake* and topped it with honey roasted figs. I used figs that had been frozen. It worked great!

Honey Roasted Figs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place halved or quartered figs, cut side up on the pan.

Drizzle with honey.

Bake until lightly caramelized, about 20 minutes.

Note:  About halfway through I poured off accumulated juices.

Save this for serving with the cooked figs!

*Need a delicious recipe for a gluten free cake?

Try Perfect Almond Flour Cake from the website, Detoxinista.

More Eggplant to Come

 

First Corn

We ate it for breakfast, before Abigail and Karel left! Rouse was a little disappointed. It was just a bit overdone in the field... not as crisp as desired. A good first attempt.

Fig Preserves

Finally, a crop of figs. We haven't had one since 2012! As they ripen, I've been saving up. Today I have plenty in the freezer to cook down into fig jam! Here's the recipe from Certo:

Fig Jam

Rouse's Birthday Supper

Celebrating with a feast from the garden! On the menu: hot banana peppers stuffed with ground beef and cheese, roasted potato medley, green beans, sliced tomatoes

And what kind of birthday cake? Why, blueberry poundcake, of course! With a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.

 

Eggplant

First time we've had success with eggplant. The flea beetles are relentless. They will totally defoliate a plant, making it difficult to get a seedling grown and healthy enough to produce fruit. This time, we gave up on 'organic' methods. Rouse resorted to dusting with insecticide during the early stages of plant growth. Voila!

It's good to have FIGS again!

This is a big weekend for the Wilson family ... celebrating Queen Betty's 90th birthday! Our grown kids are all home for the festivities.

We've been enjoying these sweet perishable fruits. It's been nine years since we had a good fig crop! Fresh off the tree is such a treat. Plus, I've been putting some aside in the freezer, a few at a time, saving up until I have enough to make fig preserves.

Pick the Garden

 A standard item on my 'to do' list these days ... pick the garden!

beans, figs, blueberries, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes

Blueberry Jam

In addition to eating lots of berries out-of-hand, in yogurt and cereal, baked into cobblers, muffins, pancakes and poundcakes ... I've put some away in the freezer and have made two batches of blueberry jam. Here's the jam recipe from Certo:

Blueberry Jam

Dilly Green Bean Pickles

We have so many green beans! Must make a batch of pickles. Here's a link to the recipe from Ball Blue Book of Preserving:

Dilly Beans Canning Recipe

Summer Garden in Full Swing

Three types of green beans, two types of cucumbers, tomatoes ripening on the vine, weird (but edible) volunteer summer squash, plus abundant blueberries. Baking a blueberry poundcake today!

Cherry Tomatoes

 

Knee high by the 4th of July?

Our first-ever attempt at growing corn in our raised-bed garden... 

There were a couple of empty beds. Rouse said, "Why not?" He purchased two varieties of sweet corn and planted them. Little ears of corn have developed and are tassling. This could turn into one sweet experiement!

Digging the Potatoes

We have enjoyed multiple meals featuring "new" potatoes. Now, the above ground plants have withered and dried. Time to harvest! Here are the results:

Chieftain

11 pounds 7 ounces

Purple Majesty

11 pounds 12 ounces

Banana Fingerling

16 pounds

Bucket of Purple Majesty and Chieftain Reds

The full yield - gorgeous potatoes

Laid out on the ping pong table to cure

Blueberries

I always associate blueberries with the 4th of July. We are picking beautiful, plump blueberries today! The bushes are loaded. It's going to be a good year in the berry patch.

Mediterranean Breakfast

My friend Bess introduced me to this beautiful and satisfying menu that she learned to eat for breakfast while traveling in Turkey. I think it's a great way to start the day, especially during the summer when the cucumbers and tomatoes are at their peak!

hard boiled egg, kalamata olives, cucumbers, tomatoes

Berries

We're still picking black raspberries and are enjoying a few red wineberries that got mixed in with the raspberry canes in the new beds Rouse created last fall. Very soon, the blueberries will be ripe!

Green Bean Season Begins

The bush beans are ready to pick!

Two varieties: Maxibel haricot vert and Roma II. Both delicious!

New Potatoes

We have an out-of-town friend coming for dinner tonight. Wouldn't some new potatoes be just the thing? My first reach under the pile of leaves came up with a beautiful red-skinned chieftain spud! Looks like the beginning of a proper feast!

Support in the Garden

The pole beans are starting to shoot up... time to get the string trellis in place. Don't want those long vines to get all tangled up on the ground. While I'm at it, why not create a trellising system for the cucumbers, too? Providing vertical support for the vines will allow the fruit to hang down, making for easy picking of nicely formed cukes.

Speaking of support, the pepper plants could use some. I use "tomato cages" to keep pepper plants upright and to support the heavy developing fruit. Hmmm ... the eggplants would benefit from such support, too. Luckily, I have plenty of cages to go around!

Sweet Potato Slips

My friend, Betsy, brought me some sweet potato slips from Country Farm and Home, our local feed and seed store. I failed to get my order in on time  :-( but Betsy was able to grab me a few from the "extras" pile. No room for procrastination now ... Rouse and I got them right into the ground!

Raspberries

The black raspberries are typically ripening by Memorial Day weekend. Our new raspberry beds are right on time! Beautiful black raspberries ready for the picking. 

Figs

In 2012 we had a bumper crop of figs, giving us a taste of what could be. In the intervening years, too cold winters or late spring frosts have entirely killed back the tree or ruined the formation of fruit. Maybe this will be the year we break that string of bad luck!

In the absence of freezing cold, it probably doesn't help that our fig tree is not located in the sunniest spot. We're not sure where this fig came from! It grew up in the shade of a southern magnolia tree. So many marks against it, yet the tree is doing its best to do its part.

Fruits have formed, green and growing stiffly out from the branches. We'll see if they ripen properly, to be sautéd in butter and spooned over vanilla ice cream, as a topper for greek-style yogurt drizzled with honey, preserved as jams and chutneys, dried and eaten like candy.... is your mouth watering yet?!?

Refreshingly Cool Morning

Yesterday, late afternoon, the weather service issued a tornado warning for our area, along with predictions of severe lightening and strong likelihood of hail. We were lucky to miss out on the most severe outcomes while getting the benefit of a nice rain shower. (Nearby communities did experience strong winds, hail, and power outages.)

This morning I headed to the garden in long-sleeves. It was 58 degrees. I surveyed the over-wintered greens situation. In a word ... bolting. We're running out of time to eat those plants!

I removed the last of the romaine lettuce, setting aside tender leaves that remain sweet while discarding tough, bitter leaves and obviously bolting plants. Then I planted two 10' rows of rattlesnake pole beans in the newly emptied bed.

I picked a pile of chard and spinach. I think I'll make some sort of greens bake with them... eat some, freeze some. 

Rouse joined in the fun. He removed the bolted and nearly bloomed-out red russian kale and did some general weeding with the stirrup hoe. The yellow kale flowers were so pretty, we allowed them to stand in the garden awhile. The lacinato kale seems to be holding its own. I harvested the largest leaves.

Lots of green goodness to compliment our meals this week, but the garden is in transition. Before succumbing to the heat of summer, though, we look forward to radishes, mint and parsley, the last of the spinach, continued chard... and this afternoon EF will be here to harvest the first sugar snap peas!

Planting the summer garden

Last week we got busy and put some seeds in the ground:

• 1/2 row each - pickling cucumber and green finger cucumber, planted down the center of the bed, anticipating trellising or tying these plants in a vertical position.
• 1 bed full of delicata squash
• 1 row each - maxibel haricot vert bush bean and roma II bush bean
• 2 rows clemson spineless okra
• 1/2 bed early scarlet globe radish, scattered

And some starts:

Herbs

• 8 basil plants
• 1 stevia plant

Tomatoes

• 2 each, sungold and black cherry tomato
• 4 German Johnson

Peppers

• 2 jalapeño
• 4 hot banana
• 2 corno ti toro
• 4 poblano
• 4 shishito
• 2 marconi Italian

Rouse insisted

• 2 eggplants

Potatoes Planted

It's a gorgeous, sunny, blue sky, spring morning. I spent some time in the garden, getting hot and sweaty, making the potato bed. Three types of potatoes, settled and tucked in under a thick layer of leaves:

• Banana Fingerling
• Chieftain
• Purple Majesty

Harvesting the end of the winter garden

We returned this past week from a road-trip to Colorado. We had to go to see something very special that's been growing out there ... a new baby grand daughter! We returned to spring, and a garden that is still producing deliciousness.

Second Harvest Broccoli

 

Fresh Parsley

Chard & Lettuces foreground; Kale & Mustard background
Notice Sugar Snap seedlings in Chard bed

Cabbages

I guess the herb bed has become a mint bed!

Hen house no longer a 'safe zone'

The raccoons have put a hurt on our little flock of chickens. In August, Rouse trapped out three of the hungry critters, removing them to a piece of property we have near the river. Things stabilized for awhile. We were down to five hens. They were providing us with plenty of lovely fresh eggs. Then, over a short period of time in late winter, an assumed raccoon found it's way into the hen house multiple times, through multiple weaknesses in the fencing, and wiped us out. With each loss Rouse attempted to shore up the aging chicken wire enclosure, but in the end the old structure failed. The current design has served us well since 2007, but before we raise up another flock we will have to rebuild the chicken yard fortifications.

 

Hanging out in the garden with the fam