Winter Already?

It really feels like winter today.  It's 47 with a wind chill of 43.  And off and on rain.

Yesterday I picked the last of the cauliflower.  They were a little past their prime, and a little pink, but still very good.  I think I won't grow cauliflower again.  Keeping the bugs off and then blanching them is a real challenge.  Tonight I'm making a cauliflower pizza for supper.  The rest is in the freezer.

This morning I planted the berry starts that I got from One Green World.  I put the two raspberries in the row with the other raspberries, and I set up another row for all the blackberries.  We still need to put in the end posts and put up the wire, but that can wait for a better day.

Pretty Peppers

This morning there is a severe weather warning for all kinds of nasty stuff, including hail, so I decided it was time to harvest all the peppers and freeze them.  I picked 6 lbs. of California Wonder, Gypsy, and Sweet Bananas.

I pulled all the pepper plants and sowed some mache and arugula in the bed.  I also found two green and one yellow zucchinis, which we had for lunch.

Fruit Trees and Vines

Today we got four new bareroot fruit trees for the area where we took out the arbor vitae.  We have two pears, Ubileen and Orcas, a plum, Brooks, and a nectarine, Kreibich.

We also got a Marionberry, a Loganberry, a Prime-Ark blackberry, a Willamette red raspberry and a Meeker red raspberry.  They will all go in the front yard.

Sweet Potatoes

Today I dug the sweet potatoes.  I wasn't sure what I'd find.  I got a modest harvest, including one lunker weighing in at 3 1/2 lbs.  The Beauregards were mostly split, and there weren't very many of them.  There were more of the Georgia Jets, and they're much nicer looking.  The Nancy Halls were all small, long and thin.  I'll keep them in the house for ten days, then store them in the garage.  We'll do a taste test soon.

Squash

This morning David pulled all the butternut and acorn squash.  It's now in the guest bedroom to spend a couple of days curing, then it will go out to the garage.

I still have lots of tomatoes to do something with.  I canned one batch of seven pints yesterday, but it hardly made a dent.

Rain today!

It's the first significant rain we've had since June.  We're expecting several storms to come in in the next few days.  I'm sure glad I got the compost spread.  It would have been a big mess in the driveway.  However, I called One Green World today to order my new bare root fruit trees and they said they couldn't dig them today because they already had a lot of requests.  So, I'll get them next Saturday.  Actually, that's probably better.  Maybe things will dry out a bit by then.

Also, in anticipation of the rain, I picked all the ripe and almost ripe tomatoes.  I got 29 lbs. of Marzano/San Marzanos, 3 lb. 9 oz. of unripe ones, 5 lb. of slicing tomatoes, some ripe and some not, and 7 lb. 5 oz. of Long Keepers.  I'm still not sure what I'll do with them all, but at least I don't have to worry about them cracking with the rain.

I made a yummy eggplant gratin with the last of the big aubergines.  There are still quite a few of the long Asian ones left on the two plants.  I've decided I like the San Marzanos better of the two varieties.  The Marzanos are big and have tended to get blossom end rot and split.

Update:  After canning them, I've changed my mind.  The Marzanos are much meatier and very easy to peel.  The San Marzanos just turn to mush.  I'm planning to save seeds from the Marzanos.

Back Home

We're back from our trip.  The garden looks pretty good, considering it hasn't had any water and it's been warm and dry.

I decided it's time to dig to see if we have any sweet potatoes.  I started to dig and immediately found a big guy.  It weighed in at 1 lb. 8 oz.  We had it for supper. Yumm!

The bell peppers are all turning red.

The banana peppers are orange.

 

There were aphids on one of the cauliflower plants, but otherwise everything looks good.  I haven't seen a cabbage butterfly since we returned, so I took the netting off.

About the only thing that doesn't look good is the rhubarb.  It looks almost dead.  I'm not sure if it's the lack of water or maybe just the time of year.  I plan to move it to the front yard soon.

Since we are expecting rain tomorrow, I spent most of the day spreading two yards of compost into the new fruit tree area.  Then I turned it in, anticipating four new trees on Saturday.