October 7, 2023
This is my fall greens patch. It was pak choy and collards. I am pretty sure these are the culprits. (ignore the date on the camera.)
There is a doe with two fawns, (one of the fawns is front and centre, and the doe is behind her) who have been hanging around. We have many trail camera pictures of them and have seen them in daylight under the apple trees in the front yard and behind the barn. The little guys appear to not have a care in the world, prancing around and play butting each other, their little white tails flipping up, while the doe watches cautiously. We are pretty sure it is the same threesome I posted a picture of in the spring when the fawns were small and still had their spots. So...I cleared out that mess and installed hardware cloth to protect the lettuce and radicchio that are behind, because I am sure they will be back. They also had a nibble on the broccoli plants that I have been harvesting shoots from, so those are pulled and composted as well.
We have still not had a hard frost, and all the remaining blooms are crawling with pollen and nectar gathering insects. The red dahlia has exploded into this.....
the blooms all drooping down from the heavy rain we had Thursday.We did a little back roads drive to see some colour before the rain arrived.
The colours are a little muted this year because of the last few weeks of drought. I did find a branch or two that was worth a close-up.
I am so done with apples. This is the last harvest I did with ladder and picking pole.
And this is where some of those apples are now.More apple pie filling. The rest are filling a crisper drawer in the fridge, and will give us an "apple a day" for quite a while.
I have two questions for you: What do you do with your dahlia bulbs? Also, the apple pie filling, was it water bath canned or pressure canned? I've never bothered with dahlias because of not really wanting to store the bulbs (corms? rhizomes?). -Jenn
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I've grown dahlias here, and only did it because the tuber was free in a nursery order. SmartAlex over at Too Many tomatoes has a post on storing the tubers. https://2manytomatoes.blogspot.com/search?q=storing+dahlias
DeleteI will wing it and store it like I do my glad corms in a cool dark space in net bags.
Water bath canned the apples. Hot jars, hot syrup, pack the apples, pour over the syrup, lid, and boil in the canner for 30 minutes. I've never done that before either, but there were SO many apples, and the freezer has lots of frozen slices, and I prefer shelf stable stuff.
I'm sure Mama Deer and Babes appreciated the fresh greens you grew for them! We're starting to see more and more deer grazing in our small "hay" field now. I've never canned apple pie filling, but rather made pies from the apples stored in our spare refridge or down in the root cellar. Wonder which is more "work?" The canned fillings would definitely be more efficient, I'm thinking. I'm with Jenn in that dahlias (gorgeous blooms) have always tempted me but I'm not fond of any flower that requires digging up and storing over winter. More unsure of my ability to store them in a good spot than just laziness. Or maybe just lazy? ;o)
ReplyDeleteYes they did, and came back last night looking for more! Ha...foiled this time! Apparently pickin's are getting thin in the bush!
DeleteI have no way to keep apples for long. How long do yours keep in the spare fridge? The root cellar has to cool down, and everything I've read says to not store apples with other produce, as they encourage sprouting.
Canning apple pie filling is new to me...we'll see how we like it. I did one batch thickening the syrup before adding it to the jars, but found it hard to get the air bubbles out, so did another batch where the syrup will have to be thickened when the jar is opened. Re the dahlia tubers, see above answer to Jenn.
Deer are so pretty, but they are really destructive in a garden. Ask me how I know!
ReplyDeleteHome canned pie filling is a wonderful convenience food. I know you'll enjoy it this winter!
I am a little concerned that the fawns will remember the garden when they come back next spring from the winter yard.
DeleteSure hope the filling is good!
I took my friend down to Quadville for a tour last weekend. It sure wasn't as bright as last year.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree on that! The September drought took the edge off of the colours, and peak colour, such as it was, was over before TG weekend.
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