What Did You Do In The Garden?

[digitS']

Relieved to find no frost in the big veggie garden. It was 34°f at the nearest wunderground thermometer. The prediction was for 39° but that's such an exposed location.

It wasn't that there would be a lot to lose this late except for the peppers. The tomatoes down under the big plants would have been okay with a light frost.

It's supposed to not drop into the 30's tonight and then warm considerably over the next few days. One Gris de Rennes melon came home and maybe there will be time for #4, the final. All the pie pumpkins were brought home. I have been struggling with the sprinkler pipe down there and some of the vines have died, probably as much from lack of water as maturity. It's time, anyway. Nice lot of green beans picked and there should be more since there was no frost. Late peas don't look like they have much promise. Maybe the seed was sown too close and the plants are a little crowded.

There will be several gallons of pasta sauce to process over the next few days. I think this has to rate right up there in the top 5 best tomato seasons, ever. We had better not develop any kind of aversion to tomatoes over the next 9 months!

Steve
who ate half a pie pumpkin with dinner last night and rated the flavor as just fine! more pumpkin flavor than winter squash? can't say yet - need to eat another half, at least .

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I turned the dirt for the garlic and hauled in rabbit manure and some rabbit manure compost. I turned that in. I have bought the garlic, but I am going to wait another week maybe and go out and keep raking around and getting weeds out. I will put cardboard around the edges of the garlic. I think I bought too much garlic, so I probably going to have to widen my space.

 

[digitS']

Yesterday, I cut about 20 of those peppers to go in the pot and then in the freezer. Not wearing your gloves. A Big Mistake! I told DW that I would try to think of it as "therapeutic."

Way more than 20, yesterday. Okay, maybe 40 .

Gloves on, I did about 6 and gave up. Sniffling, crying and, generally, choking up. It's just that I doubt if I've ever cut up much more than that many at any one time. This food preservation gig is really something! DW is gonna give it a go, today.

Garden Salsa has been in our garden for several years. I think that some of the larger may be mixed in with some of the smaller Anaheim. Got me spooked! I did the North Star bells, larger Anaheim, and the Marconi (both Giant and standard). I hope DW can survive what she claims that she's up to.

Steve

 

[Zeedman]

Way more than 20, yesterday. Okay, maybe 40 .

Gloves on, I did about 6 and gave up. Sniffling, crying and, generally, choking up. It's just that I doubt if I've ever cut up much more than that many at any one time. This food preservation gig is really something! DW is gonna give it a go, today.

Garden Salsa has been in our garden for several years. I think that some of the larger may be mixed in with some of the smaller Anaheim. Got me spooked! I did the North Star bells, larger Anaheim, and the Marconi (both Giant and standard). I hope DW can survive what she claims that she's up to.

Steve

When cutting open hot peppers, I try to do so outside. Fortunately by the time it gets too cool to prepare them outside, the hot peppers are finished for the year. Curiously, some of the hotter peppers (including the habanero-type I posted about earlier) are not too bothersome when cut open fresh. I still prefer not to take chances, you can't put that genie back once released - and that genie has a hot temper.

When grinding hot peppers for powder, I do so either in the garage, or under the stove exhaust vent, and seal the powder into containers before removing it from that area. Lesson learned the hard way; when I once tried grinding hot peppers on the kitchen counter, I had DW coughing in the next room. Cleaning out the blender after that process is bad enough.

Oh, and whatever you do, don't flush hot pepper seeds into the sink or disposal! Water activates the fumes, it can be very intense - think tear gas. (Another lesson learned the hard way.)

We are harvesting hundreds of the PI 315008 peppers now, most of those will be given to friends who love spicy cooking. Another mildly hot pepper, Italian Cheese, is finally starting to ripen in the rural garden - it will be used for a batch of barely warm salsa, along with more of the ripe Greygo (which it resembles).

Italian Cheese

 

[Zeedman]

It has reached the point in the year where I am beginning to say "goodbye" to a lot of things. After the rains passed, I picked the last okra seed pod, and the last okra. This was probably the last picking for the Sierra Madre yardlong beans too; they put out a surprising amount of pods, even as the leaves were dropping. All but two of the soybeans have now dried down & been harvested. Both bitter melon varieties are done, I just made an experimental batch of refrigerator pickles from the last ones. The last of the German Butterbean limas have also been picked, and frozen.

So the only things still producing in the home gardens are peppers, tomatoes, and the re-sprouted remains of Emerite pole beans. One of the peppers, Taltos, has a heavy set, but is just now getting ripe. Since those are from 2013 seed & had only 16% germination, I may need to cover them when the frost arrives.

In the rural garden, bean seed collection continues. Only Scharze Witwe, Garafal Oro, and Madeira still have large numbers of pods remaining. Madeira only had 10% germination (from 2013 seed) so I really hope to get a little more dry seed. Of course, "dry" is a relative term when in the midst of an extended period of rainfall. We'll have to pick wet pods & bring them in to dry... mud boots it is.

All of the tomatoes in the rural garden are beginning to ripen in numbers, but it remains to be seen how much longer they will survive. We've finally picked enough of the paste tomatoes to make one last big batch of salsa. Some of the peppers there are beginning to ripen also, but it looks like a couple varieties won't make it for seed, and will need to be re-grown next year. There'll be a lot of immature peppers to pick, maybe this will be a good year to pickle some of them. I'll cover Korean Dark Green & try to keep it alive as long as possible, that was given to me by Remy Orlowski... I don't know if anyone will be keeping Sample Seeds going.

A couple things in the rural garden really rebounded, once the weed pressure was removed. Zucchetta Rampicante Tromboncino squash, after initially severe stunting, sprang into growth & is now producing a lot of squash. We just froze 6 pints from those 3 plants, and should get at least one more picking. The Diamond eggplant really exploded in growth too, after clearing the weeds & mulching. The plants are loaded with young eggplant now, this was Saturday's harvest:

Diamond eggplant

 

[flowerbug]

if you can get even the green tomatoes off the plants before they are damaged by frost they'll be edible and useful. we just made a big batch of pasta and tomatoes from the ones we put on the table in the garage to ripen. yes, we did have to throw away some that rotted from splits or frost damage, but you couldn't tell at all from those that were edible. it tasted good enough i had it for both brunch and dinner.

the eggplants look delicious @Zeedman !

 

[flowerbug]

i didn't do anything yesterday but shell beans as it was raining. we'd been dry for a while so the plants outside could all use the rain, but i was scrambling to get the dry beans picked that were ready (i didn't get all of them). today i have a few minutes this morning to get the tomatoes and some bean pods buried and that will be it for today other than more shelling beans later on.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

It has reached the point in the year where I am beginning to say "goodbye" to a lot of things. After the rains passed, I picked the last okra seed pod, and the last okra. This was probably the last picking for the Sierra Madre yardlong beans too; they put out a surprising amount of pods, even as the leaves were dropping. All but two of the soybeans have now dried down & been harvested. Both bitter melon varieties are done, I just made an experimental batch of refrigerator pickles from the last ones. The last of the German Butterbean limas have also been picked, and frozen.

So the only things still producing in the home gardens are peppers, tomatoes, and the re-sprouted remains of Emerite pole beans. One of the peppers, Taltos, has a heavy set, but is just now getting ripe. Since those are from 2013 seed & had only 16% germination, I may need to cover them when the frost arrives.

In the rural garden, bean seed collection continues. Only Scharze Witwe, Garafal Oro, and Madeira still have large numbers of pods remaining. Madeira only had 10% germination (from 2013 seed) so I really hope to get a little more dry seed. Of course, "dry" is a relative term when in the midst of an extended period of rainfall. We'll have to pick wet pods & bring them in to dry... mud boots it is.

All of the tomatoes in the rural garden are beginning to ripen in numbers, but it remains to be seen how much longer they will survive. We've finally picked enough of the paste tomatoes to make one last big batch of salsa. Some of the peppers there are beginning to ripen also, but it looks like a couple varieties won't make it for seed, and will need to be re-grown next year. There'll be a lot of immature peppers to pick, maybe this will be a good year to pickle some of them. I'll cover Korean Dark Green & try to keep it alive as long as possible, that was given to me by Remy Orlowski... I don't know if anyone will be keeping Sample Seeds going.

A couple things in the rural garden really rebounded, once the weed pressure was removed. Zucchetta Rampicante Tromboncino squash, after initially severe stunting, sprang into growth & is now producing a lot of squash. We just froze 6 pints from those 3 plants, and should get at least one more picking. The Diamond eggplant really exploded in growth too, after clearing the weeds & mulching. The plants are loaded with young eggplant now, this was Saturday's harvest:
View attachment 37138
Diamond eggplant

Your eggplants are gorgeous! Mine were eaten up by flea beetles. I'll try again next year and manage it better.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

Its herb drying time. My counters are covered in full trays of herbs or flowers for drying. I've tried the dehydrator but the dainty herbs go flying away when they are dry and the fan is still on. So the counter it is for now. Harvested lots of sweet peppers and diced them up foe the freezer. I have 9lbs of jalapenos and cayenne so I'm making 3 batches of cowboy candy. That stuff is so good! Found so many tomato hornworms in the greenhouse. They scare me! They camouflage so well and by the time I notice them, my face is an inch away from them and i jump back lol. Our temps are cooling down and I am loving it!

 

[digitS']

Yes, indeed. Very fine looking produce, @Zeedman !

I'd asked over on the "what do you freeze" thread about how would a gardener freeze eggplant (@ninnymary suggests freezing eggplant casserole, maybe even in serving slices!) Well, it's become a moot point since my plants just haven't come through with enuf to preserve beyond the crisper drawer.

I appreciate how you came back to that pepper post and edited in the picture of the very colorful Italian Cheese. we have some Giant Marconi hanging on threads in the kitchen that are nearly that color. Not quite - vine-ripened would be better. There are a couple of reasons to do it that way, foremost is the threat of frost .

I have learned that they must be a very long time in turning to powder. There are weeks when a sweet pepper can be clipped off the string and cooked into something. It's sorta like how some people cut an entire tomato plant and hang it with its green fruit in the garage. I have a few Anaheim peppers to hang up today, to learn how those handle the process. It's become quite the standard for the Giant Marconi. Those plants don't grow very large here but their fruit have time to ripen in the garden some years.

I won't be worried much about ripening green tomatoes this fall. Nope. First of all, I like eggplant better than cooked green tomatoes. Second, by sometime in November, they have definitely lost the competition to memories of summer, vine-ripened. Third, I've got more tomatoes than I can shake a stick at!! Nope. Just that frantic run to rescue those with a blush the next time frost threatens.

Steve
@Cosmo spring garden , there are some things drying on a greenhouse bench, here. no hornworms but i worry about the mice.