At last, the temperature pattern has changed. It was an overnight change, not a gradual one. We were still pushing almost 90°F (32°C) everyday up through the first weekend of October. Then a front pushed through and the temps have been lovely since then. And the pattern is holding.
So it feels like autumn, even though it doesn't look like autumn, except for the mistflowers and golden rod, and a few swirls of windblown leaves beginning to fall.
 |
| Mistflower |
The harvest is wrapping up. It was a good year for muscadines.
It's breeding season for the goats. The bucks are constantly on the lookout
for the does. Behind their little barn is their best spot for catching a
glimpse of the girls.
|
| Ralph and Jonah |
The girls, on the other hand, are only interested when they're in heat, which
occurs about every three weeks. Otherwise, they are busy hunting acorns.
|
| Lily, Nora, Saluda, Willow, and River, way off in the background. |
The boys are out of luck until November. The timing of breeding is based on
making sure the kids are born in mild weather.
I'm still getting a few things from the garden. Like okra.
|
| Jing okra. It turns green when cooked. |
Groundhogs (which are still a problem) destroyed much this year, including
demolishing our peas and lettuce. Of the sweet potatoes, they continually
munched off all the leaves, so that the plants had little time to actually
make sweet potatoes. Here's my total harvest.
Some of them are pretty sorry looking, although the goats won't mind those. I
should probably just plant the best ones in pots to overwinter.
One thing the groundhogs didn't touch was the winter squash.
|
| sweet potato squash flower with pollinator |
|
| Gracie showing us the green squash she found |
|
| It's been an excellent year for winter squash |
I love this variety. I still have three or four almost mature ones left to pick. We eat the small green ones chopped fresh in salad or steamed or sauteed like summer squash.
The groundhogs haven't touched the green beans either, although perhaps because they are pole beans.
I planted them in late spring, but they have been very slow to produce.
 |
| Our first picking was just the other day. |
My slicing tomatoes are done, but our volunteer cherry tomatoes are still producing. You may recall I mentioned my fermented cole slaw, in which the fresh cherry tomatoes are wonderful.
I've also taken to adding my hard cured goat cheese, grated. Such complimentary flavors! This is currently our favorite salad. At least until the greenhouse lettuce is big enough to eat.
 |
| Gracie and Violet |
1 comment:
Checking what needed to be picked was on my to-do list yesterday, but didn't get done with everything else on my list; still playing catch-up from being gone for eight days! I know I have tomatoes, beets, and at least a few green beans, but there may also be a few zucchini and little sweet peppers to pick. A friend gave me two cape gooseberry starts which have turned into big, beautiful plants but I don't know if I'll get any ripe fruit from them.
Post a Comment