The Last Outdoor Farmer's Market of the Year

Today was the final outdoor Lane County Farmer's Market for 2011. The crowds at the market are much lighter now than even a month ago. It's a shame really because there is still so much amazing produce to take home and I even managed to find some new surprises today too!

How about some fresh Ginger! This beautiful white & pink ginger is so much prettier than the brown nobs that are sold in the grocery store. These bulbs still were attached to their stalks. I had no idea that ginger resembled bamboo so much above the soil line.

And these yellow beauties were quince.

And another exotic fruit - persimmon.

There were a number of stalls offering mushrooms for sale. The selection was amazing.

These cauliflower mushrooms reminded me of sea coral.

And the golden chanterelled just glowed.

Mushrooms

I haven't had the luck this Fall finding and photographing mushrooms like I did last year. I think part of this is due to last year's excessive rainfall starting in Mid-September and really never quitting. And I am sure part of it is due to me just not being in the right place at the right time- with my camera. However, I did manage to find these two interesting groups of mushrooms in the last few weeks. I don't think that I have ever seen the group pictured above. I found them in our "island" area, a grassy, mown triangle up by the house. There were groups of them sprinkled all over the island. This was a newer group and the pronouncement between the white mushroom and its yellow crown was quite clear. As each mushroom aged, its "umbrella" dome opened and the yellow eye faded.

In our front yard area, and in the front flower bed, I found many groups of the mushrooms pictured below. After spending a lot of time looking at my "Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest" book that Santa Claus brought me last year, I think that I have pretty confidently identified these as "Coprinus Comatus", Shaggy Mane mushrooms. Shaggy Manes are one of the most popular edible mushrooms and fruit mostly in late Summer to Fall in the Pacific Northwest.

Yet Another Frosty Morning

Yet another frosty, cold morning. The thermometer read 27 degrees and everything was coated in a thick blanket of white frost. I particularly admired the braken ferns, their beautiful geometry etched in white.

The Digging Begins

Today I started the annual task of digging up all of my dahlias. I have 199 plants set out in 15 rows.  I began today by cutting down 3 rows. These will be the tubers that I lift next weekend. Then I dug up the 3 rows of dahlias that I cut down earlier this week. I ended up with 42 clumps. I was pleased at the condition of the tubers that I dug today. With our cool, wet Spring & Summer I was really concerned that the tuber growth might have been affected. But he tubers are all full size and seem to be firm, with very little signs of rot at this point. After I got everything dug I hauled them back to the house. I then gentle hosed each clump off and trimmed them of all the misc roots and stocks. Then they went into the shop to await division and further cleaning.

Here are four nice clumps of the Pom "Willo Borealis". It looks like I should definitely have enough tubers to grow and to share next year. In the picture below, you can clearly see the swollen eyes on tubers, right where they join the stock. This makes dividing so much easier.

A Frosty Morning & A Lovely Afternoon

We were below freezing again this morning. For those of us counting, that's three days in a row. Quite unusual for this time of the year. The difference today was that the sun came out early. It quickly warmed up and we had a beautiful day. Our big leaf maples were glowing in the low afternoon sunshine. This is why we love October.

Even Colder Night #2

Last night the official low at the airport was 27 degrees. We had a reading before dawn of 29 degrees at our house. As you can see, the extra three degree drop in the temperature finished off my dahlias. They are a pretty sad looking lot now. The good news is I can proceed now with my digging and dividing without feeling guilty about cutting down blooming dahlia plants! Tonight after work I went down to the garden and cut down my first three rows. It was a quick and easy task. Since we haven't had any rain for over two weeks, the ground is nice and dry. I can't believe that I am chopping down the dahlias and I don't have mud sticking to the bottom of my shoes. The dahlias plants are also really easy to work with right now. The frost has essential "freeze-dried" the plants. They are dry, light and easy to carry off to the burn pile. Clean up has never been this easy - seriously! I'm just not used to these easy working conditions.

Here's two rows after I was done. I left about 4" of stem above the ground on each plant. This gives me a nice handle to hold as I gently lift the tubers and a good place to wrap the name tag around as it is carried home. I will let these tubers rest in the ground until Sunday before I dig them up. This will give the tubers time to be "shocked' that the plants are dead ( or in this case cut off). The tubers will immediately begin to harden off and cure underground. The eyes on the individual tubers will also begin to swell. When I dig the tubers on Sunday it will be much easier to see where I should make my cuts and the tubers should store over winter better as well. I have fifteen rows of dahlias this year. My goal is to dig 3 rows every weekend and then wash, divide and label the tubers from those plants during the following weeknights. Sticking to this schedule I will finish digging on Thanksgiving Weekend. Wish me luck!

The First Killing Frost

This morning on the way to work the car thermometer read 32 degrees. As I drove by the big garden I slowed down and tried to see if I could find any signs of frost damage. I thought that the dahlia foliage looked a little bit darker than normal but with such a quick glance I couldn't be sure. After work I walked down to the garden. Sure enough, the season is officially over! As you can see, all of the dahlia foliage was blackened by the freezing temperature. All of the new growth had turned to mush too but the main stem on each plant was still alive. It didn't get cold enough for a complete kill on the thick stemmed dahlias.

Tonight it is suppose to get even colder. Since I have had this much damage already, I am hoping that tonight's cold delivers the final knock-out punch! It was interesting to see what was damaged and what few plants survived.

My two beautiful rows of "Persian Carpet" zinnias were killed as were the other two varieties of zinnias. My row of mixed marigolds however, survived just fine. My theory is the heat from the earth kept the air temperature from freezing from a height of about 12" high to the ground. Since the marigolds are all just about 6" tall, they all made it ok through the night.

I was very thankful that the marigolds didn't freeze. I planted 3 varieties in the Gem series; "Lemon Gem", "Tangerine Gem" and Red Gem". One of my "Red Gem" plants appears to be a sport. Instead of the solid red petals tipped in orange that the other plants displayed, this plant had many blooms with orange petals overlaid with two red stripes. You can see some examples of this in the picture below. So, I decided to save some seed from this plant and see what I get next year. Perhaps this was a one-off, and will stabilize next year. Or perhaps I have the seed for a neat variation in the "Gem" series. Stay tuned!

The Last Bouquets of the Year...?

Tonight, right after work, I headed straight down to the big garden. The weather forecasters are calling for the possibility of our first frost of Fall tonight. Yesterday I had picked two bouquets of flowers but I still had a lot of blooms yet to pick. I went through the dahlias and picked a bucket full of red/orange/yellow blooms and then I picked a bouquet of all my Pom dahlias. After I got home and arranged everything I took all of the bouquets outside for a group picture. After all, this could be the last hurrah of Summer!

Here is a close up of my Pom bouquet. I really love this dahlia form. The small, round blooms look sweet, all bunched up together in a mass display. They also remind me of my late Grandmother who also admired this form.

Here's my bouquet of "Persian Carpet" zinnias.

A close up of my pink/white/purple dahlia bouquet.

And my fiery orange/red/yellow bouquet.

This "Jac's Julia" bloom got its own vase. This is a new variety for me this year and this is the first bloom to open. I love it! Here's hoping that it has made some good tubers. I would love to grow more than one plant of it next year.

You can tell that there has been a huge change in the temperature today. It is another lovely sunny day, but there has been a constant, strong, cold wind. As I staged these bouquets tonight my two garden helpers remained curled up in their beds!

A Birthday Harvest

My birthday weekend coincided with the first frost advisory getting issued by the National Weather Service. At this point, there looks to be a chance of our first freeze arriving Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. With this news in mind, I devoted much of my birthday to harvesting the garden - so much for a lazy, restful day! I started down in the big garden. There are lots and lots of flowers left on the dahlias and zinnias. They have all really come on strong this month and I can't stand the thought of all of those last blooms getting wasted by a cold night. So, I started by cutting a bucket of dahlias in the white/pink/purple color group. Then I cut a bouquet of "Persian Carpet" zinnias. I thought both "arrangements" looked pretty stunning against my purple garden bench.

It was also time to harvest my "Speckled Hound" Winter Squash. My poor four plants did the best that they could. They were planted in half day sun and really struggled. Amazingly, each plant did set one fruit. The fruit on the far left, above, best represents their potential. "Speckled Hound" is a boxy shaped winter squash with a concentrated sweet, nutty flavor. The squash are a light orange color with a randomly patterned blue/green overlay. And the skin is amazingly smooth. It almost has the feeling of being waxed. They grow to a size if 3-6 pounds. My four however came in a little below that. They were 2 lbs. 2.5 oz, 1 lbs. 9.4 oz., 1 lbs. 12.8 oz., and 2 lbs. 5.1 oz. for a total of 7 lbs. 13.8 oz.

My final big project of the day was harvesting my "Hutterite Soup" bush beans. I am truly a bit amazed that I was able to get a harvest out of these bean plants. They were planted from seed on July 2nd and I wasn't sure that there would be enough good weather to see them to complete maturity. As you can see, underneath the bean leaves, the beans are starting to turn yellow and dry. We have had a nice stretch of 10+ days without rain and that has really been a blessing.

I pulled up each plant one by one and clipped of the bean pods. It took me over an hour but I ended up with a full garden trug for my efforts. Now I can lay them out in trays at home in a warm room to further dry for a few days.