End of September

A mild, overcast day.  (14 degrees)   It feels and looks like Fall.

I spent most of this morning blending tomatoes to freeze and chopping up green peppers.  The peppers were very small, but we still ended up with a good amount, about 2 medium freezer bags full.  I harvested 14 more leeks, washed them, and will chop them up tomorrow.  

R took down the corn stalks and removed the pumpkins from their vines. 

My poor little eggplant, with shriveled up leaves and no hope of producing anything I can harvest, still stands in its raised bed!

Many of the flowers have seeds or seed pods ready to collect.  I`ve gathered some calendula, Giant Swiss pansy, rose mallow, and Scarlet Flax seeds to dry.  Lots to trade and still have some left to plant next year.

Winter Luxury pie pumpkins

Big "Droopy Sunflower" head

More sunflower heads drying out.

A small bucket of Tene`s beans, with more drying on cardboard beside it.

Potatoes, Butternut squash (underripe, I fear), tomato seeds, and assorted beans drying in the plant room.

What`s left of the south garden.  Neighbour cat Butters happily exploring the new piles of plants.  End of season clutter makes me edgy.  Must remember to breathe, resist the urge to tear everything out at once so it will look neat, and just allow things to be.

What`s left of the potato patch (there are still a few marigolds in there!)

First Frost 2013

The grass is crispy underfoot this morning and everything is covered with a sparkly layer of frost.  I brought my little containers of sage and rosemary indoors, and last night picked most of the peppers and tomatoes.  The ones that are unripe will be wrapped in newspapers for several days. The rest will be chopped or blended this afternoon and put into the freezer.

Anasazi beans

Red cabbage

Sunflowers with frosty leaves

Sage

Nasturtiums

Beurre de Rocquencourt beans drying on the stalks

Discovered a Butternut squash has split.  Not sure what causes that to happen.

Another Butternut squash with a thin layer of ice on top.

Frosty gomphrena

Scarlet Flax seed pods

Wooly Thyme

Close-up of Wooly Thyme

Little pumpkin

The marigolds are still going strong.

Drying Specked Algonquin beans

Plant room - Tene's beans strung on thread and hung to dry.

Little Jalapenos

It is a cloudy, mild day (17 degrees).  The air is full of those tiny little flies that swarm sometimes during the summer.  Feels like it's going to rain today, too.

I have started to blend the tomatoes as they ripen to use in sauces and chilis.  The freezer is very full, and I can get more tomatoes into each container this way!

The jalapeno plant is covered in tiny peppers.  It still looks really healthy, but I'm not sure if the peppers will grow much bigger, as we aren't getting the heat they love.  

A few I picked this morning...

Leeks and a Golden Beet

Sunny, very breezy, and 20 degrees today.

One of the eggplants that shriveled up and turned brown after I doused it with my terrible aphid potion has sprouted new leaves and is recovering.  It's a shame we don't have a longer season - I might have been able to get an eggplant out of this one after all!

I can't bring myself to remove the little eggplants on this plant (two in this picture) even though I know they won't grow any larger.  They're pretty cute.  Maybe next year...

Mid-summer, I planted about 10 Golden Beet seeds.  Here is the first one of those beets.

Some of the leeks I harvested today.  I sliced them, triple-bagged them, and put them in the freezer.  Tomorrow I will give some to my chiropractor, along with a white tomato and some beets.  Hope he likes vegetables.

In the Belly of the Beet.   (Sounds like a thriller)

Saj in the plant room enjoying the first sunshine we've had in two days.

Some Tene's Bean pods I strung on thread to hang to dry.

Saving seeds from our Black Krim tomatoes.

Black Krims

I discovered four big Black Krims hiding at the back of one of the tomato plants.  Here are three of them.  The fourth had a deep split before I picked it, and then I dropped it on the front step while bringing them inside.  SPLAT!  Suffice to say, it ended up being less than photogenic and went straight to the cutting board.

Indian Summer

Another hot, sunny day (24 degrees at 1:00pm).  Why couldn't we have had this weather in July?  Perhaps we will have an Indian Summer.  By this time last year, we had had several hard frosts.

Earlier this week, I tore out the crispy remains of the pea patch, composted them, and pulled up the last of the carrots.  Next to harvest will be the leeks, which have done really well this year.

This morning, we drove to my brother-in-law's place out of town to visit and deliver some vegetables, including a Great White tomato we picked today.  It's the largest one yet at 1 lb 11 oz.

R is outside right now digging up two rows of potatoes, supervised by Saj.

Three monster 'taters in the bunch...

Gomphrena

Saj by the catnip

Opalka Paste

At long last, two of my Opalka paste (aka Gnome) tomatoes have ripened!

 

I am not in love with my hand.  Holding the tomatoes just gives some perspective re: their size.


Some Speckled Algonquin beans drying in the plant room.

More Tene's beans drying in the plant room.

I will never have to buy nasturtium seeds again...

Emerald Evergreen

The first green tomato (Emerald Evergreen) has ripened.  Like the Great Whites, these are big.

We have a new neighbour kitty who likes to join us when we're outside. (Sheila?  Sheba?  Sheena?)  She is the fluffiest cat I have ever seen in person.  Her fur must be three inches long.  She looks like a '70s shampoo commercial when the wind is blowing or when she's trotting full tilt to come say hello.  Thankfully, she is well groomed by her owner, who must brush her daily and who cuts out her knots.  This kitty wears a little bell on her collar, so you often hear her before you see her.  It turns out that, like neighbour kitties Karl and Butters, she is quite comfortable walking into our house uninvited and helping herself to the cat food buffet in the living room.