Garden Notes: October 2022

I love October. In September, we hope for relief from the blazing summer heat, but in October, there is a noticeable drop in temperature. It's the month when we start watching for an early frost, and it's the month when the leaves begin to change color. (For my October fall color photos, click here.) It's the month when all our homestead critters are frisky and full of antics. Kitchen and garden projects have slowed down so there's time to enjoy the changes. Most of my cooking is done in the house now, rather than my back porch summer kitchen. October is when we light our first woodstove fire of the season and the first of the canned summer goodness is opened and consumed. The only downside to October, is that it's typically a dry month for us.

Rainfall 

• 12th: 0.05"
• 26th: 0.125"
• 31st: 1.375"
• Total: 1.55 inches

Temperature

• nighttime range: 31-63°F (-0.5-17°C)
• daytime range: 58-80°F (14-27°C)

First Frost

We had scattered frost on the morning of the 18th, and a blanketing frost on the 19th. So the summer garden is officially done. 

Marigolds sporting our first frost.

Planting & Growing

The fall garden is planted, but it's been dry, so it's not growing well. I've been watering some of my seedlings, but chickens got into the garden and scratched up quite a few beds. Anything that survived all that may have a chance! How long it lasts will depend on how cold or mild it is this winter.

Harvesting

Early October yields (before the frost) were meal size pickings.

Sauteed okra, onions, and cherry tomatoes

Orange Glo watermelon

No waste with watermelon. Chickens and goats love the rind.

Kale, collards, and daikon leaves

Greens steamed in butter with some grated carrot

Oregano, rosemary, and thyme (in my olive oil kept feta cheese).

Asian persimmons on the tree

The variety is Ichi-Ki-Kei-Jiro. I chose it because it said to be heat and drought tolerant (which it has been!) It's a fuyu type, which are ready to eat when they turn orange (unlike the kind that are astringent until after frost). This is the first real harvest we've gotten from it. It's about time too, since I planted it in 2015!

Scooping out the gel and removing the seeds.

Persimmon ready for ???

Persimmon pancakes

Freezing the extra in muffin pans.

When frost became imminent, we harvested everything that might suffer damage.

Last of the peppers. These are Giant Marconi.

Last of the green slicing tomatoes

Hugelkultur sweet potato squash

The last of the cushaws.

The mature squash have a home in the pantry. They are like pumpkins in terms of preparation and flavor. The green ones taste like summer squash, and can be prepared the same way.

A tender green cushaw seasoned and sauteed in butter.

But green winter squash don't keep well. The littlest ones still have tender seeds, so they were sliced, blanched, and frozen. The larger green squash, like this one,

Immature (green) cushaw

have large, but immature seeds that are tough.The skin is still tender, so the seeds were scooped out and the rest of the squash was cubed and canned.

Canned "green" winter squash. Eat like summer squash.

I planted three types of sweet potatoes. These are the Georgia Jets.

Taste testing the sweet potatoes required a sweet potato pie.

Overwintering

I'm trying something new this year. I found a YouTube video on how to overwinter pepper plants (https://youtu.be/x09X87UCZTI). I'm giving it a try.

Pepper plant pruned, potted, and ready to come in.

I only had two pepper plants this year, both purchased as 4-inch potted plants. This particular plant looked quite poorly most of the summer, and I kept thinking it was going to die. But the healthier looking plant died instead, and this one really perked up after a good rain and cooler temperatures. It was producing well until first frost threatened. So, it became my overwintering experiment. It would be great to get an early start on our peppers!

Challenges

The problems this time of year aren't so much bugs or disease, but lack of rain and critters. That includes birds (including naughty chickens), chipmunks, skunks, or groundhogs. In fact, we found a young groundhog had set up it's winter home in one of the garden beds! Dan found the hole, and I came face to face with the groundhog chowing down on a chicory plant. We didn't want it demolishing the garden and we hate to waste anything, so the groundhog became . . . 

Garden Groundhog Soup

Now you know why I was looking for a recipe for groundhog. My small harvest amounts were perfect for making this soup. I added peeled tomatoes, onion, green beans, yam berries, cowpeas, kale, tatume summer squash, and previously canned bone broth. Our favorite winter lunch is soup, so here are four lunches, ready to heat and eat.

Okay, I think that's it. At the beginning of the month, I didn't expect this to be a very long post. But first frost changed that! 

How about you? Is your garden just ending, or just starting?

Garden Notes: October 2022 © October 2022

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

Garden Notes: September 2022

Another month has flown by!

Rainfall

• 4th: 1"
• 5th: *1.3+"
• 7th: 0.05"
• 10th: 1.65"
• 11th: 2" 
• 30th: 0.35" (Ian)
• Total: 6.35+ inches

* The plus (+) is because it started raining on the 4th, but the next morning I found the rain gauge down on the ground. The 1.3 inches happened after that, but I have no idea how much we got overnight.

Temperature

• nighttime range: 47-74°F (8-23°C)
• daytime range: 67-91°F (19-33°C)

Planting

• winter wheat
• Daikons
• Carrots
• Cosmic Purple
• Purple Dragon
• Turnips
• Purple Top
• Tokinashi
• Kale
• Siberian
• Tronchuda
• Lettuce, Jericho
• Collards
• Beets, Ruby Queen
• Broccoli, Waltham 29
• Chinese cabbage
• Salsify
• Garlic
• Multiplier onions
• Parsnips, Harris Model
• Cabbage, Nero Di Toscana
• Mizuna
• Mustard, Japanese Giant Red

I think that's the most ambitious fall garden I've ever planted, but it seems prudent in these times to do so. It's in later than the regional planting guides suggest because I was tied up in the kitchen for all of August. But the soil is still warm for germination, and we hopefully have time before first frost. 

How long a fall garden lasts will depend on what kind of winter we have. Winter here can go either way: mild or cold. Last winter was cold, so most of my fall garden died off. If we have a mild winter, I'll be able to harvest greens and root crops all winter long. 

Picking and Eating

We got our first picking of green beans earlier in the month.

Cornfield pole beans

Late, I know, but the plan was to plant them when the corn was about six inches tall. Then the corn didn't germinate well. After two unsuccessful plantings of corn, I finally planted a few pole bean seeds under the porch trellis. We won't get a lot, but fresh steamed green beans with a little butter and salt is a real treat.

Also harvesting by the handful . . .

Late summer okra, tomatoes, and peppers, both bell and sweet banana type.

Herbs: rosemary, thyme, and oregano

September salad: cherry tomatoes, daikon leaves, turnip thinnings,
hard boiled egg, and farmers cheese with my ricotta/kefir dressing.

Of fruit, 

Late figs, which is unusual for September. They were slow to ripen but sweet.

Fall picking of red raspberries (with more on the canes).

This is the first time I got an autumn crop of red raspberries. I added them to the spring raspberries in the freezer for jelly, but only after juicing some and trying the juice in popsicles.

Raspberry-banana popsicle. A really good flavor combination.

Sadly, I missed most of the muscadines.

Foraged, wild muscadines

I knew when they first started ripening, and then we had that heavy deluge. The next time I checked on them most of them had been knocked off the vines and there was nothing left but hundreds of empty skins all over the ground. Disappointing, because production isn't consistent from year to year. The few I got were put into the freezer for a mixed fruit jelly in the future.

First Japanese persimmon

We have about two dozen persimmons on the persimmon tree. A first! This was the first to ripen. It was mild and sweet. I'm not sure what to do with all of them. Anyone have some recipes?

The first of the winter squash are ready to harvest.

Sweet potato squash. The dimpled one is odd, isn't it? I'm not
sure how well it will keep, so it's a candidate for preserving.

Dan's first cushaw.

This year Dan decided to do some gardening. He's usually busy with projects, but the projects are getting smaller as we get things accomplished, so he picked a spot and planted sunflowers, corn, and cushaw winter squash. I've already mentioned that the corn was a fail, but the sunflowers and cushaw did well, and that's the first one. To celebrate his success, it became a "pumpkin" pie!

I don't usually top pie with whipped cream, but since
this was a special pie it deserved a special topping!

It was really good. And actually, few folks would have known it wasn't actual pumpkin by the texture and taste.

That cushaw yielded 8 pints of puree, of which one pint was used to make the pie. The remaining six pints were dehydrated to make powder.

Preserving

Most of the winter squash will go into the pantry for feeding us, chickens, and goats. Sometimes, I freeze pints of puree. Occasionally, I can chunks. This year I'm learning about making fruit and vegetable powders (like tomatoes and pear sauce), so I wanted to try winter squash powder. I made it the same way I made the dried pear sauce: cooked it, pureed it, spread it onto parchment paper, dried until crisp in my dehydrator, and then powdered it in my blender. 

Powdered mixture of cushaw and sweet potato squash.

Drying time was much quicker than for the pear sauce, because winter squash don't contain the sugar pears do. I think the powder will be lovely for making pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, etc. Next, I want to add pumpkin pie spices to the puree before dehydrating and make pumpkin spice powder. Sounds like that would make good Christmas gifts, doesn't it?

[To rehydrate for puree, 2 cups hot water and 1/2 cup powder. Start with some of the water and stir in powder. Let sit for about 10 minutes and stir again. May adjust by adding either more hot water or more squash powder.]

Extra cherry tomatoes (those we don't eat) have been going into the freezer. Then Nancy, from Little Homestead in Boise, made a comment on my "Experiments in Ketchup Making" post and mentioned preserving cherry tomatoes in olive oil. I thought that was a great idea! Something new to try! I remembered that Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning has a chapter on preserving in oil, where I found a recipe on page 98.

Cherry tomatoes, multiplier onions, rosemary, thyme, and oregano.

It calls for cherry tomatoes, small onions or shallots, and fresh herbs. These are layered in scalded pint jars leaving 1.5 inches headspace. Course salt is sprinkled over the tomatoes, and a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice is added (I used my pear vinegar). Then the jar is filled with extra virgin olive oil and stored in a cool place (50-59°F / 10-15°C).

Cherry tomatoes preserved in olive oil.

It's ready to eat in two or three months and keeps for up to a year. 

I made two pints to see how it turns out. This promises to be great addition to our winter green salads. The bonus is that the olive oil is flavored too, and so good for cooking or salad dressing.

Parting Shot

Buckwheat cover crop in the lower garden for soil building.

I think that covers it for September. Are you still with me? Good, because now it's your turn. What's happening in your September garden?

Garden Notes: September 2022 © Sept. 2022

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

Garden Notes: August 2022

 Rainfall

• 1st: 0.35"
• 3rd: 0.125"
• 4th: 1"
• 7th: 0.8"
• 11th: 0.9"
• 17th: 0.1"
• 19th: 0.5"
• 21st: 0.7"
• 26th: 0.1"
• Total: 4.575"

Temperature

• nighttime range: 68-75°F (20-24°C)
• daytime range: 78-94°F (25.5-34.5°C)

No complaints about August weather. We had good rainfall and generally cooler daily temperatures than July. We only saw 90s during the first and last weeks of the month. On the other hand, the higher humidity meant that it felt just as bad as the 90s! What really helps is when it gets down to below 70°F (21°C) at night because we can cool the house down, making it more tolerable during the day.

State of the garden

All I can say is, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Everything is overgrown and runaway so that it looks a mess. But almost everything in it is useful!

Here we have cherry tomatoes, watermelon, mangels, horseradish,
celery, lambs quarter, sweet potatoes, raspberries, cowpeas, landrace 
brassicas, morning glory, a couple of carrots, and a potato plant or two.

Hoophouse: The living shade you see is hopniss, cherry tomatoes, and morning glories.

Also a volunteer winter squash, cultivated grape, and Chinese yams.

My largest sweet potato squash so far.

Inside the hoophouse are winter squash, Malabar spinach, violets,
strawberries (back right bed) and cultivated burdock (back left bed.)

Hugelkultur: winter squash, turtle beans, cherry tomatoes,
chicory, clover, morning glories, lambs quarter, & sunchokes.

Hugelkultur closeup featuring squash and chicory.

African keyhole garden: sweet potatoes and a survivor kale.
The porch trellis is growing green beans and cherry tomatoes.

I planted kale in the keyhole bed about a year ago. This is one of
two plants that survived both our cold winter and hot summer.

Picking and Preserving

Bucket full of cherry tomatoes, a few okra, and one lone pepper.

The cherry tomatoes are still going gangbusters. I got bored with making and canning pizza sauce, so I'm switching to tomato juice and ketchup.

The cucumbers are done, so our salads, now, are cherry tomatoes and kale.

Tomato, kale, and black olive salad
with homemade ricotta ranch dressing.

The okra hasn't been very productive. 

Okra is a member of the hibiscus family.

I don't plant a lot, just enough to have oven-fried okra a couple times a week during growing season, with a little extra to freeze for a side dish during winter. It hasn't produced that much, although it's making a better effort now that our daily highs aren't so scorching and we're getting a little more rain.

August is fig month, and these are the largest figs we've ever seen on our trees.

They aren't all this size, but it's amazing to find them. Can't take any credit, though, because the fig trees are pretty much on their own! They are next to the goat barn, so perhaps they're getting some rich rain runoff.

Breakfast: fresh figs on peanut butter granola with
kefir. Sometimes we swap the figs for diced pears.

There were lots to can.

And dessert!

Fresh fig cake with vanilla goat milk ice cream.

Pear harvest started in late July. The heaviest harvest was a couple weeks ago.

Bucket of pears.

One year, I spent days in the kitchen canning chunked pears, but Dan wasn't very enthusiastic about them. So now, I just make pear sauce. It's easier and faster to do, and we both like it.

Cinnamon pear sauce.

As pear picking slows and the pearsauce jars fill, I switch to drying them. Ditto for figs.

 

The cores and peels are being made into vinegar.

Elderberry harvest starts in late August.

First of the elderberries.

I used the first of them to flavor my canned figs and pearsauce. I also freeze them for jelly making this winter, and will make a couple batches of elderberry wine. This year I want to try an elderberry pear wine. I've experimented with adding other fruits for subtle flavor (of which some are more likable than others).

And a few parting shots.

Buckwheat planted as a cover crop in my newest swale bed.
Only a few plants came up, so this will be my seed crop.

Marigolds and a winter squash blossom.

Our first Orange Glo watermelon of the summer.

I picked the watermelon just the other day. They were planted late, and only after my cantaloupe plants all died. I'm not sure what happened to them. They were doing well until our hot dry spell. I watered them faithfully, but they weren't happy and that was that. The watermelons have done much better and we're just starting to enjoy them.

So there are the pictures to go along with my Summer Mantra blog post. I liked hearing about what you all have been up to in your gardens, so keep the comments coming. 😀

Garden Notes: August 2022 © August 2022

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