Garden Notes: September 2023

September harvest bucket

Rainfall 

• 8th: 0.01"
• 10th: 0.59"
• 11th: 0.04"
• 12th: 0.06"
• 13th: 1.43"
• 17th: 0.56"
• Total: 2.69 inches

Temperature

• range of nighttime lows: 53 to 70°F (11.7 to 21°C)
• range of daytime highs: 77 to 92°F (25 to 33°C)

Weather Notes

Nothing noteworthy, just the welcome September slide of the temps from hot to comfortable. We could use a little more rain.

Planted:

• lettuce
• kale
• Brussels sprouts
• Chinese cabbage
• carrots
• arugula
• turnips
• beets
• radishes
• Chinese broccoli
• sugar beets
• bloody dock
• garlic
• multiplier onions

Harvesting:

• green beans
• okra
• slicing tomatoes
• cherry tomatoes
• Swiss chard
• bell peppers
• daikon leaves
• kale
• collard greens
• last of the pears
• red raspberries
• muscadines
• yam berries
• watermelon
• pecans
• Ozark Razorback cowpeas
• turnips
• turnip greens

Besides planting, my gardening activity is picking every other morning. Most things have slowed down, but a few are still producing well.

The green beans have responded to the cooler weather by stepping up production. This is welcome since I wasn't able to do a second planting this year, which I had planned to replenish the canned green beans in my pantry. We particularly like Green Bean Caesar as a side dish in winter, so I like to keep them around. While I didn't get a large harvest, I was able to do some small batch canning. Every jar helps! We are certainly enjoying them fresh.

Steamed green beans and yam berries. Tasty!

Any leftovers are good in salads with cherry tomatoes and
green pepper. The dressing is my homemade Ricotta Ranch.

Here's something I've never made before, pear fruit leather.

I don't make fruit leather because we don't eat it, but I had a last gallon of pear sauce that I wanted to dehydrate for powdered pear sauce that I had a problem with. The problem was that it wouldn't dry out to a crispy enough state so I could pop it in the blender and powder it! After about four days of running my Excalibur, it was still soft. I hate to say it, but this may signal the end of that old food dryer. I firmed it up a bit more in a very low oven, cut it into strips, and rolled up in waxed paper. The jars were then vacuum sealed for good measure. So that was the last of the pears.

I decided to use my sole pint of frozen summer strawberries to make an ice cream pie. Ice cream is a summer treat, so I wanted to get an ice cream pie in before the temps dropped too much!

Strawberry ice cream pie with graham cracker crust.

It's such a lovely pink when the color is natural. 

That's about it for me. How's everyone else's garden doing? Done for the summer? Fall garden growing? Ready for a gardening break?

Parting Shot

Orb Weaver and egg sac

The next generation of garden helpers is tucked away under the eve of the front porch.

Garden Notes: September 2023 © Sept. 2023

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Not Pumpkins

It's that pumpkin harvesting time of year! Except, I don't grow pumpkins because they don't do well for me. Instead, I plant other kinds of winter squash. This year, I tried two varieties I've never grown before: a landrace variety and sweet potato squash. Amazingly, both are shaped like pumpkins.

First of my winter squash harvest

The three small ones in the center are the landrace squash. (To learn more about landrace vegetables, check out my post, "A New Paradigm for Gardening & Seed Saving.") Three was all I got, but considering that the parent stock originated in the Pacific northwest, it's amazing they managed to produce anything. I will save all the seed from these and see how they do next year.

The four larger squashes are the sweet potato squash. These are still producing, so depending on when our first frost is, I should get several more. They don't look anything like sweet potatoes, but they are said to be similar in taste and texture. I'll let you know!

Speaking of sweet potatoes, I've just started harvesting these.

Freshly dug sweet potatoes

Our first frost could be any time now, so I'd like to have all of these out of the ground before then.

Smaller ones.

For now, we're still enjoying tomatoes, okra, and green beans from the garden. Fall greens are coming up, so we're starting to get those for dinner too. Only one variety of the lettuce I planted germinated, which is disappointing, but I'm grateful for at least that. If we have a mild winter, we'll have lettuce and greens all winter.

It's hard to believe the year is almost over. I have several interesting things to show you and will get started on that next month!

Not Pumpkins © October 2021

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Harvest Goodies

Garden work has transitioned from mulching and weeding to harvesting and preserving. That means the much anticipated seasonal firsts. These always taste the best! The links will take you to the recipes. 

July is blueberry month!

Fresh blueberries with peanut butter granola and kefir.

Blueberry pie! (A much anticipated season first).

The wheat is all threshed and now we're winnowing it.

Freshly ground homegrown whole wheat flour.

Our first sampling of this year's wheat was in fresh blueberry pancakes!

When we got a sunny day, I sun-baked two
loaves of fresh wheat bread in my solar oven.

This year's wheat seems to taste better than last year's. We definitely had more consistent growth with better formed heads and grains.

Of the tomatoes, the Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes ripened first.
They make a very fun snacking food while in the garden.

Scrambled eggs with cherry toms and goat cheese = delicious lunch!

Of "regular" tomatoes I planted two types: Eva Ball (round red ones) and Black Krim (purplish  beefsteak looking ones.)

Tomatoes: Black Krim in the front, Eva Ball in the back.

Both have excellent flavor. The Black Krim are perfect to slice for sandwiches and burgers. The Eva Ball, I believe, were developed for canning. I don't can whole tomatoes, but they will help make good pizza sauce. What tomatoes we don't eat (all kinds) go into the freezer for a future sauce making and canning session.

Of course, I had to make some of these too...

Fried green tomatoes

I don't deep fry anything, but just a thin layer of oil in the pan gets the desired crispiness.

Cucumbers followed shortly after the tomatoes.

Tomato and cucumber salad with feta cheese.

Cucumber sticks are excellent with my Ricotta Ranch dip.

Speaking of cheese, it's cheesemaking season too.

Stretching fresh homemade goat milk mozzarella.

I start by making our year's supply of mozzarella, which I grate and freeze. Then it's on to feta (stored in herbed olive oil) and halloumi (which I freeze), with an occasional farmers cheese to eat fresh or chèvre for cheesecake. The whey is made into ricotta for my ricotta ranch salad dressing (and dip) or gnocchi (which also freezes well.)

I've dug the first potatoes and picked the first green beans.

Oven roasted potatoes and green beans.

First okra picking.

Roasted okra, potatoes, and multiplier onions.

I've been doing a little dehydrating too. You may recall that last month I canned lambs quarter. It's still growing but in smaller amounts. So I've been drying the leaves to add to winter soups.

Lambs quarter finishing up the the dehydrator.

I still save my leftovers in glass peanut butter jars and freeze them for soup making when the weather turns cold. For each jar I add a pint of bone broth, and then the dried veggies make nice additions.

So July has been busy! I expect it will remain that way until September when the harvest finally slows down.

How about you? How has your July been so far?

Harvest Goodies © July 2021 by Leigh 

at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Seasonal Chores: Wheat Processing

Last month, I showed you our winter wheat, ready to harvest. Shortly after that, Dan scythed it and we've been working on threshing since.

It seems like every year we try a new method. This year, we've each settled on a different method that suits us. Dan likes rubbing the wheat heads on the washboard.

I like gently pounding them with the rubber mallet.

Since we only have one washboard and one rubber mallet, this has worked out quite well! We've got a nice breezy spot in the shade to work, and the time passes pleasantly and productively.

Once we're done threshing, we'll winnow, and then I'll bake a loaf of fresh bread. 😋

Seasonal Chores: Wheat Processing © July 2021

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

My First Hopniss Harvest

I'm guessing you're wondering what hopniss (hopnisses?) is (are?)! They are Apios americana, also known as potato bean, Indian potato, or groundnuts. But they're nothing like nuts!

Peanuts are sometimes called groundnuts too, but these are a perennial vine that produces edible beans and edible tubers. I thought, for sure, I took photos of it growing over the summer, but I can't find them, which is too bad, because it's an attractive plant.

The tubers grow in strings, like beads. That made it fun to hunt for them and dig them up. Dan built a raised bed last spring and planted six small tubers. The other day I harvested a nice bowlful of goodly sized groundnuts. They can be harvested any time of year, but are said to be sweeter in the fall after the vines die back. Here's my first harvest.

Of course, we were curious about the taste! For our first sample, I roasted a bunch with carrots, onions, and the last of the garden broccoli.

I read it's best to peel them because the peels tend to be tough, especially on the older ones. I rarely peel veggies before cooking, but I peeled these because I wanted them to make a good impression! I tossed everything in a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Then, I baked them in my toaster oven at 425°F (220°C) for 30 minutes.

How do they taste? Very mild. Dan thought even a little peanutty. Similar to potato, but drier. In fact, I think next time I'll try boiling them like potatoes. The other thing I'd like to try is to dry them and then grind them to use as flour. I read that a number of Native American tribes used them like that. 

I left the smaller tubers in the bed and planted Jerusalem artichokes with them. These are a smooth variety called Gute Gelbe. 

Jerusalem artichokes (aka sunchokes) are said to provide something for the vines to climb on. We like roasted sunchokes, but the wild ones are very knobby and difficult to clean! I'm hoping this variety will be easier.

So that's my "new to me" new vegetable! How about you? Have you tried anything new lately?

My First Hopniss Harvest © Jan 2021 by Leigh 

at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Sweet Potatoes, Rice, and Peanuts

First frost is the decisive end of the summer garden. We had two light ones back-to-back at the beginning of the month, and although they weren't killing frosts, they did enough damage to set fall harvest in motion.

The first thing on my list was sweet potatoes. I waited as long as I could, since the bed in the garden never seemed to grow well. Of my two plantings of slips, these were planted first (April 5th and 6th). But that particular bed is at the top of the garden and has never held soil moisture well, so the plants never grew well, even with my inverted bottle waterer experiment.

Photo from last August.

The sweet potatoes in the African Keyhole Garden, on the other hand, did fantastic.

The slips in the keyhole garden were planted June 9th.

The difference in the harvest is just as amazing. 

On the left are the largest from the keyhole garden.
On the right are the largest from the garden bed.

It wasn't a huge harvest because my slips were late to grow, but I'll take whatever I get and be thankful for it. 

Another surprise was my rice. We planted a small plot of it last June, and I admit I was doubtful about the seed, which I saved from the previous summer. I'm pretty sure I harvested it too early, so I doubted it was mature enough to be viable. Amongst the (unwanted) volunteer grasses, I assumed it was a no-show. Dan even mowed the patch, and I never watered it, even during our hot dry spell. What a surprise to finally realize I had scatterings of mature rice plant growing there!

I hand harvested these by cutting off the heads. The yield was a bowlful.

Rice harvest so far.

There are still a few unripe rice plants, but even so, I won't get much of a harvest. But at least it's a seed crop for next year. 

Lastly, my peanuts. They're supposed to be harvested when the leaves start to turn yellow and about 70% of the nuts are mature. Well, the plants never yellowed, but they did suffer some frost damage. I checked on them the other day and discovered that between soggy soil and a return to summer-like temperatures last week, they were starting to sprout! So I pulled them.

One thing I observed is that where the vines laid on the ground, more peanuts grew.

That gives me information about how to increase production next year.

The last step is to dry them, and I hope that stops them from sprouting so I can have seed to plant next year!

Of the summer garden, my Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes and Cornfield pole beans are still producing. 

Neither got much frost damage. Looking at the weather forecast, however, I suspect that will come to a frozen end soon. 

Sweet Potatoes, Rice, and Peanuts © Nov 2020 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Pecans Galore!

We're having our best pecan harvest ever, although it started out pretty ordinary.

Pecans started dropping in late September/early October. Every day we'd scour under the trees for windfall.

I picked up a pocketful here and a handful there, and over the weeks managed to find and collect quite a few.

By weighing them in batches I learned that a 5-gallon bucket holds about 20 pounds of unshelled pecans.

Then came tropical storm Zeta. We only got about 2.6 inches of rain, but the winds were so bad we kept looking for tornadoes. After it was over Dan counted five new downed pine trees in our woods. The winds also knocked down a lot of leaves.

And! A ton of pecans! 

Here's what Dan and I picked up in one afternoon.

And we're still picking them up! Every day more drop. The best harvest we've ever had.

In fact, this year I need to find someone who shells them. It's too many to do by hand. 

Pecans Galore! © Nov 2020 by Leigh 

at http://www.5acresandadream.com