"Lettuce" Make You Smile!

This morning I did what I did not want to do. I picked all the last minute little green tomatoes and cleaned out the tomato bed. Fried green tomatoes must have been invented this time of year.



THEN ... I filled that bed back up with the makings of our future salads!

• Arugula, aka Rocket
• Green Romaine lettuce, Winter Density
• Green Bibb lettuce, Buttercrunch
• Mesclin Mix lettuce

The cherry tomatoes were the next to go. I hate to see it happen! But in their place I planted salad turnips. It's a bit late, but there should be just enough time to get a batch in before frost. The roots are a bit like radishes … less spicy and more turnip-y, of course. Plus, the greens are delicious and nutritious!

These Apples are Delicious!

and RED!

The Red Delicious apple tree has provided quite a crop this year. The fruit is still coming in, providing plenty of crunchy sweet munching for the humans, as well as the deer.

Red delicious apples have traditionally been grown for eating fresh, out of hand. They are not prized as cooking apples. Despite that, I made a pretty darn good apple crisp with them last week!

Rouse the Spouse has enjoyed his new apple picking toy, I mean tool! It really does do the trick, reaching high up into the tree to gently grab and catch that perfectly ripe apple with no damage to the tree and no bruised fruit crashing to the ground.

He has been creating some fine cheese and fruit plates. We recently enjoyed an aged gouda and a creamy Amish blue with red delicious slices.

A Little Help in the Garden

My grandnephew, Fenix, has been visiting. Yesterday morning he was up, dressed, and ready for backyard farm duty! He wanted to go with bare feet, but I don't allow that in the chicken coop. There's nothing quite as yucky as stepping into a fresh blop of chicken poo!

Funny five-year-old feet ended up wearing MY pink and green flowery rubber boots!

We picked okra, green beans, cherry tomatoes, and sweet snackin' peppers. After the garden chores, he enjoyed a breakfast of his favorite ... boiled eggs. Later in the day, he collected four eggs for future breakfasts!

I love this photo taken by his mama, Maggie. Before jumping into the car for the long road trip back home, Fenix picked a bouquet of zinnias especially for her.

I look forward to more bonding over veggies with this enthusiastic young gardener!

Another Pepper Day

These have been blanched in preparation for stuffing

Okra

Here's some interesting trivia about okra in India.
From StarChefs :

"Okra is also called Lady Finger in India and other countries. Okra is considered best when it is the size of the ring finger of a lady with small hands. At that size Okra is not too fibrous, tough or hairy. It is also easier to stem and slice."

Dead Chicken

Rouse the Spouse found one of the Dominick hens dead in the chicken coop this afternoon. He reported, "No apparent foul play." Very punny. I know she was alive last night when I closed up the chickens. There was no autopsy. Assumed cause of death: Old Age

Notice the abundance of feathers throughout the hen house. They are not hers. Several of the birds are molting right now, dropping feathers everywhere. It's a normal process. Each year, chickens molt, roosters as well as hens, shedding their old feathers and growing new ones. Most hens stop producing eggs until the molt is complete. This can take months to accomplish.

Here's more information about the molting of chickens: http://msucares.com/poultry/management/poultry_feathers.html

Praying in the Garden

Praying Mantis on Asian Long Bean leaves