Winter Garden

Life is good when you can eat out of the garden in December! We're currently enjoying the collards and the salad turnips.

Wrinkled Egg Shells

Last week we collected two eggs with "wrinkled" shells. There was a vein-like texture to the shell. The eggs were obviously from two different hens (one dark brown, one light brown). The insides were normal. We ate them.

Knowing that the waterer had gone dry one day last week (my bad) my theory was that a couple of hens might have become dehydrated while these eggs were developing. Very creative thinking, but not correct.

Today, we collected another wrinkled egg! No shortage of water this time. What's going on? Well, I needed some expertise, so I did what I always do when I need to know something. I googled it! Turns out wrinkled eggs are a real thing.

Basically, if the white of an egg is watery, it is harder for a shell to be built correctly around it and can cause an egg shell to be wrinkled. This is a problem of old age (we do have a lot of old hens) and some diseases, such as infectious bronchitis. Our hens eat a good diet and appear to be healthy. I guess they're just getting old … like me! The eggs are perfectly fine to eat.

http://poultrykeeper.com/egg-problems/wrinkled-egg-shells 

The Last of the Peppers

They're calling for frost tonight … a low of 29 degrees. The last of the peppers have been harvested.

• Poblanos stuffed with a seasoned and spiced mashed potato mixture for Andrew's graduation celebration last Wednesday.
• Anaheims roasted on the grill this morning. Chopped chili verde in the freezer.
• One more batch of jalapeño jelly? I have enough peppers...
• Sweet peppers chopped and frozen for future use.

Planting Garlic on a Beautiful Fall Day

Garlic

Friend and Master Gardener, Chris Diggs, gave me several varieties of her famous garlic during a recent visit from her home near Seattle. I separated the cloves and got them all in the ground this morning.

• Chesnick Red
• German Red
• Incheliuon Red
• Shantung Purple
• Toch
• Braque

The best time to plant garlic here in the Piedmont of NC is late September through early November. It's not a hard task. Here's everything you need to know about growing garlic:  http://www.almanac.com/plant/garlic

Autumn View

Looking toward the garden from my back door

Sundays in the Garden

The garden, of course, has been slowing down this month. The number of green beans and okra have gradually decreased until production stopped altogether. Garden chores are light this time of year. It seems that Sundays are meant for messing around in the garden. A lot gets done once one begins messing! One thing leads to another, and suddenly hours have passed and my back is tired. Here's a summary of happenings in the garden the last few weeks:

• Rouse and I dug the rest of the potatoes.
• I harvested some dried Rattlesnake pole bean seeds. Will return for more as the seed pods continue to dry on the plant. Hope to gather Garden of Eden Italian flat beans, too.
• Rouse removed the Moonflower vines and harvested a few seeds.
• I harvested parsley for the freezer.
• The peppers are still growing, but will need to be harvested soon.
• The mustards are looking fantastic. I've cooked up one mess of those greens already.
• Collards are growing well. Just need to get some size on them. Same with the kale.
• Don't know if the salad turnips will have time to produce edible roots before hard frost...
• Arugula and some lettuce is growing, but still too young to cut.
• I planted more lettuce to fill in the empty spaces: Romaine Winter Density, Black Seeded Simpson, Mesclin Mix
• The original planting of spinach germinated well, but evidently didn't have the proper support (water at the right time?) to continue growing. I replanted: Hybrid Smooth Leaf Spinach Raccoon, Hybrid Spinach Smooth Leaf Green; Dark Green Spinach Bloomsdale
• General clean up of old plants, trash, string trellises etc.