September 8, 2025
With these cool, dew-wet September mornings, my days are split between doing indoor stuff in the morning, and outdoor stuff in the afternoon. Everyday, a little bit more gets accomplished in the processing and preserving department, and a bit more of the worn and weary looking garden, is cleared out.
One morning it was bread and applesauce.
Another morning it was making another batch of sauerkraut with the last cabbage. What a beauty!
Here it is, just harvested, laying beside the fall greens bed.
We have had a couple of good downpours of rain, thankfully reducing the wildfire risk, and relieving me of the weekly watering routine. In the squash patch, I've been fighting powdery mildew, but as of now, am letting it go. The fruit are very mature, and I'm going to let nature take it's course.
Last night and tonight we are under a frost advisory, so the covers are out over the pepper and tomato plants, and the still producing zucchini. Warmer nights are forecast once we get through these couple.
Today, I dismantled the cucumber fence. I am cucumbered out! The pickle shelves are as full as they need to be in the storage room, and the last pickings are fermenting in a jar with some dill and garlic. There are always a few mammoth green cylinders hidden in the greenery, how on earth did I miss them?
What I did miss, was this..
A bird had built a nest in behind the screen of cucumber leaves, perched partially on the fence wire, nestled in the old pea vines. Inside was one little brown-speckled egg. One assumes and hopes that there were more, and that they hatched successfully.
We had some gusty winds one evening, and the bean teepee took on a decided lean, so we buttressed it up with some guy ropes.
Some late-sown sunflowers have started blooming, and bees are loving them.
Hubby has been busy building me a new, taller shelving unit to hold my cookbooks. Can't wait to get them moved into their new home.
Here frost do not show themselves for a few more weeks, and down in the south it's often October, our growing season is over by then. Loved your neat rows of veg.
ReplyDeleteThese early frosts are usually light. It will be a few weeks still until we get a killing frost.
DeleteNow I think you should just try to be a little more productive and not fritter your time away! My word, you are a busy lady, but the results are exceptional. The place my daughter and son-in-law bought outside Maberly has a mere sixty acres but I don’t think they will have acreage envy. They are having great fun exploring. Retirement is still a couple of years off for them, so a vegetable garden is not in the cards for now, but who knows what the future holds. We have a large collection of cook books, but find ourselves using them less than we used to. Recipe recommendations seem to flow in from friends, and many others are found on the internet. We have, however, been using an Indian cookbook quite a bit of late and enjoying delicious meals with flavours not tried in a while. Have a great fall. All the best - David
ReplyDeleteIt is the time of year when the throwback genes say to prepare for winter!
DeleteIt is wonderful to have a chunk of land to explore, and to watch the seasonal changes as time goes by.
Only a shelf and a half for cookbooks, half a shelf for garden books. I whittled my collection down severely when we moved here, just kept the favourite tried and true.
South of you here in C.P., it is foggy this morning. Once upon a time, I would have been out with my camera. This morning, I am under a blanket reading posts. May your happy harvesting continue.
ReplyDelete'Tis a little cool in the AM's. We lit a fire one morning, but the temperature warms up as the day progresses, and then the residual heat makes it too hot inside, so we just get moving to stay warm!
DeleteEverything, except the tomatoes, seems to have given up here. Those are so loaded with fruit they are starting to topple over and bend the tomato cages. I pick the fruit as soon as they show a bit of blush. I should be out clearing out the gardens. The rest of the week looks pretty decent.
ReplyDeleteAre you finding that the tomatoes are taking much longer to ripen than normal? Wondering if the extreme heat earlier, affected them negatively...I also pick them as they start to colour, but they still are taking their sweet time.
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