November 2, 2015

Just a Few Photos

I was inspired to take a few photos over the weekend after picking these.

Red raspberries

Some of you may remember my raspberry harvest last year - one raspberry! This year has been much better, and I look forward to even more in the future.

Also happy these days is my little Meyers lemon tree.




Also still blooming

Marigolds and morning glories still blooming.

Still harvesting

Turnips

Two of about six cushaw winter squashes. They weighed about 18# each.

and

Tomatoes

We've been getting fall greens too.

Dan built two more beds in the hoop house. Clockwise from bottom
left: transplanted kale, broccoli, spinach, arugula, cabbage and
celery, & one bed to be filled. The the turnip bed is to the left.

So greens plus tomatoes means

Dinner (with a side of lasagna & French bread).

Parting shot

Meowy in the corn patch

Still no frost but Sunday it started raining again. So what's going on at your place?

Just a Few Photos © November 2015

40 comments:

Chris said...

You must have a forgiving climate, to still be able to grow stuff. I've read other areas in the States, have been dealing with frosts. Are you going to bring your lemon inside, or is it already in a greenhouse?

Our garden is starting to produce again, after the winter work of preparing the beds. So exciting times as we see how the season progresses. :)

Michelle said...

Rain, rain, and more rain!

jewlz said...

I'm trying not to panic at the realization that my first winter with life stock is here. I have visions of blizzards blowing away outbuildings and having to stuff my small assortment of critters into the basement garage till spring :/.

Leigh said...

We live in a location where the weather can go either way. We range from terrible hot summers to tolerable summers, and from freezingly cold winters to pleasantly mild winters. And there's no way to predict which is going to be which! We've learned to prepare for extremes rather than averages.

No greenhouse yet so the lemon tree will be moved to my unheated back porch soon. My electric cookstove is out there so it gets heated anytime I do large baking projects. Lots of light, so it seems to do very well there.

Leigh said...

Argh! We've shifted into that mode too.

Leigh said...

Oh my, you'll probably worry about them all winter long!

Ed said...

Limes growing in my back yard is probably not going to happen up here. We planted some salad greens but got them in too late so I don't think we will get a salad out of them this year. Fortunately it was only about $0.49 down the drain. Up here, a greenhouse still needs supplemental heat to overwinter things so it is rare that anyone grows things over winter. But if they have one (we don't), it does allow you to grow cool season stuff sometimes well into December.

Beth said...

My raspberries are early summer harvest and so amazing. I remember the first time I actually got enough for a handful! So exciting. We are on year 7 with ours. I keep them pretty contained so they don't take over our yard. This last year I got so many raspberries, I ended up drying most of them to eat while backpacking. I think next year I'm going to make jam! :)

Renee Nefe said...

we "closed" my garden this weekend because the frost had already gotten to it...there are some herbs and carrots still out there that I should harvest quickly...snow on Thursday.

Leigh said...

Ed, you need to read Scott and Helen Nearing's Continuing The Good Life. They lived in Maine and grew fresh food year around. They inspired Eliot Coleman who also lives in Maine, and he grows and harvests fresh food year around as well. He wrote Four-Season Harvest, which is a wonderful how-to on the subject. Highly recommended!

Leigh said...

I forgot to mention, neither of them uses supplemental heat in their greenhouses.

Leigh said...

I can only hope my raspberry harvest is as plentiful next year! Dehydrating them is a really good idea, but so is jam, of course. :)

Leigh said...

Snow already! Oh my. All we're getting at the moment is rain, rain, rain, rain.

DFW said...

Love the lemon tree & glad you got some raspberries. The only way I like them is fresh. Tomatoes in November, unheard of here, the heat got to them a long time ago. Speaking of heat it is supposed to be close to 90 today! I can't wait for it to cool off....

Dawn said...

We have been basking in very unusual sunshine, Raspberries are still being harvested too, I am pleased your lemon tree is coming on, I have some coming on great on mine also a few oranges and limes :-)

Leigh said...

90 degrees! That's almost unthinkable. I know folks say tomatoes love heat, but like you, I've found that too much does them in. Mine petered off during the hottest part of summer and rebounded once the weather cooled off a bit.

Leigh said...

I would love to add some oranges and limes! You've got me wanting to push the greenhouse up a bit on the priority list. :)

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

How wonderful to still be getting all that! Your raspberries are looking delicious!! Wish mine were still bearing. Beautiful day here though. Nancy

Kev Alviti said...

Great pictures and some great produce. although still warm here things are winding down.

Lisa @ Two Bears Farm said...

Your berries look delicious. It's all fall here. We are harvesting walnuts right now.

Leigh said...

I guess different varieties of raspberries bear at different times, correct? I'd love to have them all summer long. :)

Leigh said...

Thanks Kev! Good to hear from you!

Thanks Lisa! I love walnuts! But pecans do better here. :)

Unknown said...

I can taste those raspberries.... one day I will grow some too. The four plants I had died in the heat, so I need to make sure they have shade next time....

Leigh said...

One of the things I've learned is that they need plenty of water. I've lost a lot of raspberry plants in the past, and I think it was because it was too hot and they dried out. The ones I have now are in a location better for watering, plus I kept them better mulched! I just have to make sure it stays that way. :)

Lydia Noyes said...

My Appalachian homestead has been going great! In fact, I just got chickens for the first time this weekend. http://livingechoblog.com/

Sandy Livesay said...

Leigh,

Happy November 2nd to you! Love all your pictures of the fruit and veggies. You still have stuff to harvest, how cool. My garden has been put to sleep until Spring.

Henny Penny said...

That salad looks simply delicious! I love Meowy in the corn patch. My husband Dan and I live on five acres in the country also, but I'm afraid we haven't turned it into the wonderful place that you have. We left way too many trees. I need a week of free time, there is so much I would like to read on your blog.

RanchGirl said...

Your raspberries look delicious! I guess I haven't come up with the right growing conditions for them yet. Your salad looks nice and colorful too. We are still enjoying volunteer greens out of our garden, but had a frost last week, I managed to pick the few tomatoes and peppers we had as well as dug up the rest of our potato crop.

Really enjoy reading your blog, and am looking forward to Critter Tales. Kathy Black

Leigh said...

Lydia, hello, welcome, and congratulations on your new chickens! I look forward to visiting your blog soon!

Leigh said...

Actually i have quite a bit to harvest: sweet potatoes, cushaws, as well as okra, cowpeas, and tomatoes. The fall garden is coming along too and I have high hopes of prolific veggies in the hoop house this winter. I'm aiming for a year-round harvest!

Leigh said...

Well, it looks better on the blog. :) It's a work in progress that still needs a lot of work. Like you, there's never enough time! But you probably feel like I do, thankful that at least we have it.

Leigh said...

Kathy, this is the first respectable raspberry harvest I've had in five years of trying! I have to love those volunteers in the garden, and envy your potatoes as well. I have sweet potatoes to dig, but my potatoes didn't do very well this year

Thank you for your kind words about my blog! Do you have a blog? I'd love to return the visits. I'm spending most of my computer time trying to get Critter Tales ready to release. I hope it meets expectations. :)

Bill said...

It all looks great! I am especially envious of your raspberries.

We've had nearly ideal fall weather so far. Plenty of rain and warm sunny days. But also a mild frost that kissed and sweetened the greens. So our gardens are producing lots of goodness--chard, turnips, spinach, kale, Asian greens, arugula, broccoli, mustard greens, collards. The trees are glowing with the colors of fall and we have nearly a dozen goat mamas set to kid any day now. It's a beautiful time of year in southern Virginia. :)

Leigh said...

Oh my, I'm envious of all those greens! I take it you haven't been getting all this rain! Yesterday I went to the garden to get more raspberries and greens and discovered that the ground is so saturated that my feet sunk even in the grass!

I hope your kidding goes well. :)

RanchGirl said...

Leigh, No, I don't have a blog - I'm afraid I'm more of a reader than writer!

I used to get SO discouraged with trying to grow potatoes, didn't work well at all and blamed our heavy clay soil. Somewhere I came across the hint of planting the seed potatoes in a shallow trench, then instead of hilling the with soil, use straw instead. In our area this is a very economical fix! I've grown them this way for 4 years now, so don't think it was a fluke. :)

It's nice knowing that someone besides me uses their back porch for a greenhouse! I have been able to extend my green peppers and cherry tomatoes for a couple more months, and actually have a couple of 2 year old plants from using this method. It's also nice for having a head start on tomatoes in the spring!

Leigh said...

That is a good idea for the potatoes. I've done trenches, but never used straw. I should give that a try! I know folks have success in containers, but I haven't tried that either.

I like that you use your back porch for planting too!

Mark said...

Wow! Still a lot of stuff growing there. We've had two hard frosts and we are done!

Cassandra said...

The produce is looking great! My raspberries were slow the first year, but this year I had enough to make 4 half pints of jelly, and a handful for breakfast almost every morning. Yours will come along soon, I'm sure. :)

Everything is winding down in the garden and waiting for me to finish clean up. I did plant a few broccoli an cabbage plants, which I'll put a cover over (still have my hoops up from last year) and hope to harvest leaves from for the winter).

Leigh said...

Those hard frosts are always the saddest, 'cuz they mean the end. We're expecting our first frost any time now, and the hard ones won't be long after that.

Leigh said...

I hope it's the same way for me with raspberries! This is the first year I've gotten more than one or two! I spent several years trying to find a spot they were happy in and I think I've got it. I just should have watered them a bit more during the dry spells.

This is our first year with a hoop house. I'm excited to see how it does!