Late October at the Market

Today was a picture-perfect day at the Farmer's Market. The early morning fog had burned off completely by 9:00 AM and the sky was a lovely clear blue. Even thought we didn't need anything in particular at the Market, it was just too perfect a Fall day to stay at home! Once again, there were large, stunning displays of Winter Squash.

This clever flower vendor used an assortment of squash and pumpkins as vases. A perfect seasonal centerpiece.

Another special Fall treat - Apple Cider. This vendor was handing out free samples - it was delicious!

I loved this display of cauliflower. All three colors stacked together.

Many of the stalls were selling long stalks of of brussel sprouts.

And there were many, many different apple varieties to try. Liberty & Jonagold seemed to be the two most popular.

There were at least three stalls selling mushrooms. These were labeled as Golden Chanterelles.

And more Winter Squash. You can tell what I love the most! I was also impressed with the size of the pumpkins, pictured below. The vendor assured us if we purchased one, he would hold it at his stand so we wouldn't have to walk around with it. I should hope so!

A burst of Color in the Dahlia Patch

Every year, as the daily average temperature drops and our nights become cool and damp, my dahlias get a second burst of life.  Although the blooms are smaller at this time of year, they re-gain perfect form and attain dazzling, saturated color. Above, is a lovely bloom of "Sean C" a purple and white collarette. I didn't have a good bloom all of September to take to a show. But now my plants are blooming heavily and the blooms are perfect!

I got my "Sorbet" tuber planted very late this Summer. This is my first open bloom this year. It's worth the wait!

Here is a lovely bloom of "Jo". I am so pleased to see this bloom. I lost all of my tubers but one this year and wasn't sure that it was going to sprout and grow. It is also no longer sold in any catalogues, so if I lost it, it was gone for good. Happily, it took off in late July and I can now enjoy its first bloom of the year.

A fiery bloom of "Canoz Anne" a Waterlily form in a dark blend of red & yellow.

A cheery bloom of "Lulu Island Dad" a miniature ball form in yellow.

And my first open bloom of "Chimicum Davi" a miniature ball form in pink.

As you can see below, the dahlia plants are starting to look a little ragged but they are still producing a lot of blooms and color to enjoy.

The Sights of Mid-October

Today was the first day in October that we didn't get any measurable rainfall. Finally, a sunny warm October day to enjoy. After work I took a quick walk around the property. The berries on the Wild Honeysuckle just glow like jewels right now.

The split-leaf "wild" blackberries are attaining some great Fall color

The Wild roses hips are also lovely right now.

And here are the leaves on the "wild" Himalayan Blackberries.

We have found one "wild" apple tree on our property. It is growing in the shade and is very tall and scrawny as it attempts to find some sunlight. It is loaded with apples this year and the sheer weight of them has bent it over. I haven't ever eaten one the the apples but might have to give it a try this year since they are within reach. I imagine that they aren't a very good eating quality but they certainly are pretty with a beautiful red blush over their yellow/green skin.

Garlic Planting

Part of the fun of gardening for me is trying to grow something new each year. This year I wanted to give garlic a try. I LOVE garlic but recently spent $10 for 8 heads at our Farmer's Market. Yikes! So this Saturday I visited Down-to-Earth to have a look at their garlic selection. Jackpot! I have said it before and I will say it again - we are so lucky to have this store in our town.

They had 17 -yes 17 -organic varieties to choose from. They also had one free pamphlet explaining how to plant garlic and another free pamphlet describing each variety in-depth. After much consideration, I narrowed down the field to 3 finalists: "Chesnok Red", "Nootka Rose", and "Silver Rose". Here is the description of each from the pamphlet:

"Chesnok Red" Hardneck : Large bulbs with purple stripes, hard tight heads, and easy to peal cloves. An excellent garlic for baking with a nice creamy texture. Pleasant medium pungency, long lasting flavor. Late Season.

"Nootka Rose" Softneck: Nootka Rose is a well colored variety with the potential for high productivity. The cloves are streaked red on mahogany. Nootka Rose makes an attractive braiding garlic and has a robust flavor for a softneck. Late Season.

"Silver Rose: Softneck: Silver Rose boasts large bulbs with purple stripes. It is an easy to peal garlic with hard, tight heads. A great baking garlic, Silver Rose has a creamy texture and long lasting flavor. Mid Season.

 "Pictured from left to right; "Chesnok Red", "Nootka Rose" and "Silver Rose".

Here is an individual clove of "Chesnok Red' waiting to be planted. Both the bulb and the individual cloves were tinted with such a lovely red/purple color.

I built a raised row to plant the garlic in and then laid out all of the cloves. Per the instructions, I added 1 Tbs. of Bone Meal to each planting hole and then in they went, pointed end up! Then I watered them in well. That should be it for a while. I think that I will see some green shoots appear before our weather turns cold. If so, I will have to cover the row with remay to give the young plants some protection from the birds. Now it's time to sit back, watch, and learn.

Garden Clean-up and another Harvest

Yesterday afternoon I took advantage of the mild weather and started some "garden clean-up" in the kitchen garden. This job always takes me longer then I think that it will. I started by taking out all of the winter squash vines. That turned out to be a bit of a tricky job since many of the vines had climbed up the inside of the deer fence. It took me quite a while to unravel and cut all of the tendrils off to release the vines. The fence is much happier now and is no longer sagging under the weight of those vines and fruit.

Once I got the squash area cleaned up I turned my attention to the Sweet Potatoes. I decided it was time to empty the grow bags and see if anything was actually growing in there! This is the "before" picture of my "Georgia Jet" Sweet Potato. Considering what a cold and wet Summer it was for the most part, I am truly amazed by how much growth the plant produced. This single slip grew to cover most of the grow bag surface with healthy green/purple leaves.

And here is the "before" picture of the "Beauregard" Sweet Potato. It didn't grow quite as large as the "Georgia Jet" plant did. The holes in the leaves were not caused by disease or insects but by finches. Yes, Gold Finches! For some reason they liked nibbling on the green foliage and this grow bag was located very close to a bird feeder.

The big reveal.............there was something growing inside those bags! On the left is pictured the red/orange tubers of the "Beauregard" and on the right the hot pink colored "Georgie Jet" tubers. Not surprisingly, the larger "Georgia Jet" plant produced a bigger crop of tubers.

Fortunately, we aren't depending on this harvest to survive the Winter! My "Georgia Jet" plant harvest was 1 lbs. 6.2 oz.

The "Beauregard" harvest was only 11.0 oz.

And here is the total harvest after getting washed and trimmed.  As you can see the "Georgia Jet" actually produced on fairly big, fat tuber. All the rest were fairly long but skinny. However, I think we can get at least one meal of diced and baked Sweet Potatoes out of this.

Besides Sweet Potatoes, I also harvested my Pepper "crop". Crop is probably too strong a word here! Each of my 2 pepper plants produced exactly 1 pepper! The poor plants had to contend with cold weather and getting completely smothered by the Winter Squash vines. Pictured above, my one "Lilac" pepper. It weighted 1.4 oz.

I also had one lovely "Gypsy" pepper too. It weighted 3.0 oz.

I did have to add this picture. I must have worked outside for close to two hours. And during that entire time Tom-Cat slept nearby in his cat bed. He didn't even open an eye. Not exactly the best garden helper today!

I also had to show the picture, below. I know that it isn't of very good quality. But the exciting part is the bird on the right side of the tray. I know, you can only see the back half of the bird. But it's an Evening Grosbeak! We thought that all of our Evening Grosbeaks had left for the Winter weeks ago. But suddenly, I looked up today and there was this handsome guy. I am guessing he is just stopping by on his way South but it was great to get one more sighting this year. Happy travels sir. We will see you next Spring.

Saturday at the Market..and some Sunshine!

After 8+ days of rainy weather and grey skies, we awoke today to sunshine! I was especially thankful for the nice weather because I hadn't made it to the Saturday Farmer's Market for the last few weeks. Upon arrival it quickly became clear that it was now Squash Time! I absolutely fell in love with this display at the Sweet Leaf Farm stall. A gorgeous mountain of Winter Squash.

And here is a close-up!

I was also smitten with these sweet baskets. A clever vendor had planted individual wicker baskets with assorted Fall annuals & perennials. They were so pretty and it was such a fun idea.

Besides Winter Squash, it was also Pepper season. Every stall had baskets upon baskets filled with all sorts of varieties.The air even smelled of peppers because one stall was roasting them on-site. The smell is quite strong and unique, but I like it. My sister does not!

A lovely pile of bell peppers.

There were also a couple of stands selling bulbs and we couldn't walk by those! I ended up buying 12 bulbs of daffodil "Las Vegas". It is a large, early bloomer that has white petals and a vivid yellow trumpet. It was hard to choose with all of the varieties offered.

And one more shot of Winter Squash! Below is a beautiful little squash called "Carnival". I just love it's mottled skin splotched in greens, yellows and oranges.

The Squash Harvest

There has been a definite change in the weather. Our lovely, warm Summer days have gone and we now seem to be stuck in a never-ending chain of grey days with some sort of rainfall. I decided it was time to harvest my squash before any mold might might have a change to get established. The squash leaves were starting to succumb to powdery mildew and there was little chance of much more growth and maturing happening this growing season.

So here is the group portrait of the Class of '11! It is much smaller than it has been in past years. But since I was truly concerned for a while this early Summer that I wouldn't get a single squash to mature, I am happy with the results.

This is the first time that I have grown "Marina di Chioggia" and I have had such fun with it. It produced monster vines, the largest that I have ever grown. The catalogues loosely describe its final fruit size as "6-12 lbs." While I only had 3 squash set on my two plants, they all beat this size range. From left to right, these three weighed in at 13 lbs., 17 lbs., and 26.1 lbs.! Yes, that's 56 lbs. of Winter Squash from just these three!

I have grown "Delicata" for years and they remain one of my all-time favorite Winter Squash. They have such a sweet, dry flesh and come in an easy, single-serving size. The flesh is quite thin and can be eaten or quickly pealed off. I was afraid that I wouldn't have any home grown "Delicata" to eat this year because I planted my 2 "'Delicata" plants so late. But, after a slow start, and the ever present threat of being devoured by the "Marina di Chioggia" vines, they came on strong  and produced an admirable crop. I ended up with 10 squash that weighed a total of 12 lbs. 5 oz.

Everyone has been cleaned and dried and are safely stored in the unheated garage. Now It's time to get out the recipes and get cooking!

The Great Tomato Glut!

 Every year, as Summer draws to a close, I worry that my tomatoes won't reach maturity. This year, with our wet & cool June & July my worry was greater than ever.Oh why did I worry! With the threat of rain this weekend, I decided I needed to harvest all of my ripe tomatoes tonight after work. I worked from plant to plant, reaching deep into the jungle of vines, looking for that pop of color amidst all of the green.

I started with my "Black Krim" plant. These are by far the biggest tomatoes that I grow. This variety has been a dependable plant for me. It hasn't needed all of the heat that many other "large size" tomatoes seem to need to ripen.I was a bit astonished as I kept finding ripe tomato after ripe tomato on this one plant. When I was finished I had harvested 21 "Black Krim" and there are still more then half a dozen unripened fruit left growing. The total weight harvested was 11 lbs. 5 oz.

The yellow fruit in the above picture are the "Azoychka". I harvested 21 fruit that weighed 5 lbs. 1.7 oz. In front of the "Azoychka" are the "Santa Clara Canner". These tomatoes have the prettiest skin. It is lightly pleated and is a bright and very shiny red. It almost looks like patent leather. I harvested 10 "Santa Clara Canner" that weighed 2 lbs. 9.3 oz.

The cute black plum shaped tomatoes in the above picture are named " Black Plum". I picked 49 of these last night and the total weight was 1 lbs. 12.8 oz. Behind the "Black Plum" are the "Black Prince". These tomatoes are the perfect "in-between" size sandwiched between the "Black Krim" and the "Black Plum". I harvested 15 "Black Prince" that weighed in at 2 lbs. 5.7 oz. Pictured behind the "Black Prince" are the "Peron Sprayless OG". I picked 11 of these perfectly round tomatoes that weighed 1 lb. 10.7 oz.

So, my total harvest tonight ended up with 127 tomatoes weighing 24 lbs. 13.2 oz.