tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76817143014435848012024-03-05T23:59:28.114-08:00The Nutmeg GardenerA retired Connecticut Yankee chronicles her attempts at veggie gardening and frugal livingnutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.comBlogger118125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-34092184387473941162014-02-22T07:18:00.000-08:002014-02-22T07:18:03.116-08:00A Pictureless UpdateThis is just a brief blog update to say I haven't gone away, but am having problems with out computer as well as with blogger. The computer issues have kept me away for some time and now that I'm trying to blog again, blogger doesn't want to add my photos. It is irritating to say the least and making me wonder if I should look into another blogging platform. I seem to have so much trouble with photos.<br />
Anyway, the news around here is seed starting and dreaming, oh dreaming about spring! We are in the midst of the worst winter we've had in years. Very depressing. But seeing the baby alliums popping up is cheering and today the skies are blue and the temps are mild. Later this week it's back to single digits.<br />
But 2014 is looking to be an awesome year around here. Last year was a toughie, with our older son's divorce and move to Florida. We miss him a lot. But he has a new girlfriend and...I'm going to be a Grammy!! Something I had just about given up on. It is a boy and he is due to arrive in early August. The height of gardening time and we will have to travel down to Florida to meet him, but priorities! I'm feeling very blessed. <br />
Well, here's hoping I can get this blog moving again soon. I tend to lose my motivation when there are technical difficulties to deal with, so hoping they don't last.nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-22831309163849603912014-01-04T12:51:00.002-08:002014-01-04T12:51:27.576-08:00Starting the New Year With Cold Weather But Warm TummyLike much of the country we are in the deep freeze here in CT! Yesterday was spent digging out the snow-covered driveway and keeping the woodstove going strong just to stay comfortable and cozy inside. Now that the holidays are past, it is very quiet and low key around here and I find I am actually missing the busy activities of Christmas and the company of friends and family. I made my first seed orders on January 1 and received the first delivery of seeds today, a small order from Johnny's Selected Seeds, which really put a smile on my face. Normal activities will be starting up again next week and now is a good time to experiment with interesting recipes, the kind that both stick to your ribs and are healthy. It's time to get to using up all that summer produce I stored in various ways.<br />
The 2013 garden produced the very best onions and shallots I have ever grown and they are keeping beautifully in our unheated basement. I had a bushel of large Ailsa Craig onions that are only supposed to keep well for two months but are still holding up well after four and I haven't even begun to use my keeping onions. So yesterday I tried out a neat idea I stumbled upon in a cookbook at our local library:caramellized onions done in the slow cooker to be used for various meals. I'm not sure they're actually caramelized, but they sure were easy and taste great.<br />
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All it required were five pounds of sliced onions and one stick of butter in the crock-pot, cooked on low over 8 hours. OK, I'll admit, I cheated and did them on high over five, but they still turned out well.<br />
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Lots of juice though. I used some of the onions to spoon over pierogis that I'd made for supper. I divided some more into one-cup containers for the freezer to use in future meals. And all that juice plus the remaining onions I also froze, with plans to make a nice onion soup with them in a week or so. You know, the kind with chunks of bread and cheese melted on top. Yum. I'm making myself hungry just thinking about it. Today is all about making bread (pumpernickel, to be precise) and reading about cooking and gardening. And still cleaning up some of the remaining signs of the holiday festivities! Bring it on, 2014!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-35889825337438274902013-12-11T06:28:00.000-08:002013-12-11T06:28:12.061-08:00Winter Is Icumen In...If you've never read poet Ezra Pound's irreverent take on the medieval poem "Summer is icumen in" you should! It always cracks me up and summarizes nicely my own feelings about the season. Except for December and the days leading up to Christmas of course.<br />
We got our first real snowfall yesterday and it's beautiful and Merry Christmassy. Here is the garden in winter mode:<br />
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There is much brush needing to be cleared around it that I never got to during this incredibly hectic fall. And though a rest from garden work is nice, looking at this just makes me sad! I look forward to spring already. Here's a look at more snowiness by the house:<br />
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Erg, the season of shoveling, sloppiness and frigid cold (our highs are supposed to be in the 20s this weekend!)</div>
But spread beneath the Christmas tree, those harbingers of hope, the new seed catalogues! This is the first time in five years I haven't sat down to devour them as soon as each one arrived. I just haven't had the time and likely won't until after the 25th. So my annual seed orders will be placed a little later than usual this year.<br />
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Something to look forward to in the quiet days that follow the holidays!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-39699316077562642152013-12-09T10:11:00.000-08:002013-12-09T10:11:19.407-08:00Back From My TravelsHappy Harvest Monday everyone! I feel completely out of sync with my routine having been away for nine days during this busy holiday season and I'm trying to get it together again with Christmas right around the corner. Hope I don't have to travel during the holiday season again anytime soon! Still, it was wonderful to see my older son after the better part of a year since he moved away from here. Lookin' like a happy mom! And look at all of that green!<br />
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Well, from 70 plus degrees Florida back to 30 degrees Connecticut has brought me face to face with what's left of the harvest, which isn't much. I still have carrots in the ground and they haven't been mulched. But I was able to harvest a handful of bite-sized ones this week which were very sweet eating. Most of them ended up in a kettle of split pea soup.<br />
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This may well be the last harvest of the season for me. I still have more carrots out there, as well as some kale and Brussels sprouts, but they are all looking the worse for wear. Time to hunker down for the winter and dream of next year's crops. But who knows, maybe I'll get a few more bits out of the garden yet.<br />
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In the picture above are my dried scarlet runner beans. The photo isn't the clearest in the world, but the beans really are pretty. When cooked they are very "beefy" and filling. Now that I've admired them enough I plan to soak and boil them like I do with all the dried beans I purchase, then freeze in 2 cup portions, ready to use in any bean recipe I choose. I prefer this to buying canned beans because they are not loaded with sodium prepared this way, are a lot cheaper and once frozen, they are just as convenient.<br />
That's it for this week's Harvest Monday report which is hosted by <a href="http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/">Daphne's Dandelions</a> each week. Time to get inspiration from the southern hemisphere!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-30959783002050110652013-11-18T09:04:00.001-08:002013-11-18T09:04:58.040-08:00Still Harvesting Monday...I'm happy to be able to say I'm still getting some harvests from the 2013 garden, even if they are getting smaller and more spread apart!<br />
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This week I pulled a few small carrots and two very little fall cabbages that were used in a nice stir fry.<br />
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There were also a few greens: mostly arugula, some chard, beet greens, tatsoi and a leaf or two of lettuce. I pulled a few more French Breakfast radishes as well.<br />
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And later on there were a few more carrots and Brussels sprouts. I planted twice as many Brussels sprouts this year as last but look to be getting about half as many sprouts! Go figure!<br />
I am way behind on the fall garden winterizing as seems to happen every year when I tend first to get struck down with a cold, then the many scheduled activities take their toll and I lose my momentum. I am leaving a week from today for Florida to visit with my parents, brother and his family and my son for the Thanksgiving holiday which will further put me behind. But today is gorgeous out and I hope to take advantage of it this afternoon. And maybe a glimpse of green in the Sunshine State will lift my post summer spirits again! The first seed catalogue for the 2014 growing season arrived this week too, so let the garden dreaming begin!<br />
<a href="http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/">Daphne's Dandelions</a> is our host for Harvest Monday and I am looking forward to seeing what is being harvested around the country and the world this week! Head on over for a little garden inspiration!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-64983060877237365872013-11-12T10:37:00.001-08:002013-11-12T10:37:43.557-08:00Leek Greens, Or Waste Not Want NotI've mentioned before on this blog that my husband is a vegetarian, so over the years I've learned a bit about cooking without meat. And I've found that one thing that helps me to make a very flavorful meatless gravy for his holiday mashed potatoes are the tough leek greens that might otherwise get tossed right out into the compost pile. Well, that <em>is</em> where they eventually end up, but not before I've made a flavorful broth from them.<br />
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All I do is cut up the green stems into pieces and stew them with water for about two hours. Sometimes I let them sit overnight in the fridge afterwards. Then just strain the liquid out and voila, a nice golden broth that I will freeze for now and use later as a base for gravy or soup. With some added spices and salt it makes a meatless gravy that has some real depth of flavor to it and I feel like I've wasted a lot less of those nice leeks I grew!<br />
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nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-76845311284441499202013-11-11T06:26:00.002-08:002013-11-11T06:26:55.407-08:00Harvest MondayMy posting has slowed down because I feel like I haven't had much of interest to write about lately. We are gradually moving into winter, with temps this week predicted to plunge into the mid twenties at night and not get out of the forties during the day. But I still have a harvest to share this week:<br />
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I have quite a few leeks out there yet. They are not huge like my Welch forebears are famous for, but they are just fine in the potato-leek soup they ended up in! It's a favorite around here and perfect for cold days. I also harvested a few Kossak kohlrabi that were planted for fall. They didn't get very large either, but again, they work fine for some fresh vegetable in a cold season. It will be interesting to see how things keep with the really frigid nights that will be hitting the garden.<br />
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I finally got around to planting the garlic last week. Discovered unfortunately that my German Red did not keep well at all, so planted a very tentative row. All the other varieties held up great. I planted about half as much as last season, because I really did plant way too much and I need the space for other things in the spring. In the photo above, you see I have the bulbs still at the surface, but no fear, they were pushed down three inches, covered and then mulched.<br />
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Thought I'd take a picture of the Brussels sprouts. You can see all the fallen leaves in the pathways, so there certainly is some neatening up to do down there. I'm still in the process of winterizing things. So that's it for this week's Harvest Monday report! Head on over to <a href="http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/">Daphne's Dandelions</a> to see what other gardeners have been bringing in this week!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-16730923669950791222013-11-04T12:00:00.000-08:002013-11-04T12:00:39.536-08:00Harvest MondayWith the change in seasons I think I completely missed Harvest Monday last week! October became very busy and it looks like November is getting even busier. The calendar is filling up faster and faster and I am having to squeeze in garden time all while fighting the inevitable desire to curl up on the couch near the woodstove with a good book instead. My two week long cold didn't help any either! Though it was mild, it did sap my energy. I only have one photo of this week's harvest:<br />
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It is eleven pounds of parsnips that I pulled from the garden today. I decided to bring in all the parsnips because I've been noticing more and more vole activity down there and sure enough, a number of the parsnips had their lower roots nibbled off. I don't want to provide those varmints any excuse to stay around and breed in there!<br />
The parsnips came in all shapes and sizes, from the long cones you hope to get to squat short ones, to some that defy the imagination. Overall, it was a great harvest and the total for the season was around 15 pounds.<br />
Maybe if I can't beat the rodents I should join 'em! My church group had a harvest costume party and this is how I dressed:<br />
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There's a tail too, but you can't see it. Thought I'd dress up as a famous cooking rat. Not to be confused with a parsnip-eating vole!<br />
I also harvested Brussels sprouts this week but seem to have forgotten to get a photo of them. They weren't very large and I believe I had better results with last year's batch despite the fact that I planted what I thought were better varieties.<br />
The harvests have slowed down to near nothing now and I doubt there will be much more this season. What is still growing? Well, Brussels sprouts of course, leeks, kale, some carrots, kohlrabi (there are a few Kossacks bulbing up enough for a meal, but the Kolibri are just leafy),arugula, and tatsoi. Oh, it makes me sad to see the season ending! I'll be posting some thoughts on the 2013 season coming up.<br />
I still have to plant my garlic! Today was a little too chilly for me, but it's supposed to warm up this week, so I hope to get it planted tomorrow or Wednesday. There is still plenty of winterizing to do too.<br />
Now to check up on the other harvesters at <a href="http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/">Daphne's Dandelions,</a> our gracious Harvest Monday host. I love to see what's going on in the southern hemisphere and dream of spring and summer!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-49783415510032522972013-10-25T15:34:00.003-07:002013-10-25T15:34:45.356-07:00RootsWe had our first frost this morning, so it's time to say a sad farewell to the summer growing season! The next few weeks will be all about cleaning up in the garden and spreading compost and mulch, planting garlic and preparing things for next spring. Unfortunately, accompanying that first frost is my first head cold of the season too, so my energy level is pretty sluggish at the moment. No matter, the freezers are full and the jars of tomatoes, applesauce and sauerkraut are gleaming, and there's still fresh harvest to be had from the garden, including these roots:<br />
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I have three beds of carrots still growing which are quite small, but tasty. Some local voles have discovered them and I find some are missing daily, but they've left a few for us. The radishes are still healthy and producing some bulbs which are less mild than the spring ones, but still enjoyable to crunch in a salad. And there are plenty of parsnips! This year is the first time I've had success with them, which makes me extremely happy. Tonight I decided to make a great recipe with the parsnips and carrots that a friend gave me a few years ago. It's a medley of the two root vegetables roasted with a bit of butter, water and dill and really tastes delicious for all its simplicity!<br />
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I play around with the quantities to suit what I have on hand, but the basic recipe calls for 1 and a half cups each of julienned carrots and parsnips, a tablespoon of water, two tablespoons of butter, dillweed (I use a tablespoon of fresh or a teaspoon of dried) and half a teaspoon of salt. Put it all in a covered casserole and bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Done!<br />
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This goes well with any main course and it seriously highlights the great flavor of the roots, especially the parsnips. More frost is coming tonight by all reports and this recipe suits the chilly evenings we're getting now when comfort food is what a body needs! nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-3616818163539147482013-10-21T06:10:00.000-07:002013-10-21T06:10:56.608-07:00Harvest MondayEach Monday <a href="http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/">Daphne's Dandelions</a> hosts Harvest Monday where gardeners link posts about their latest harvests. It's a great way to be inspired wherever you grow and in whatever season you are!<br />
This is a true autumn week around here. The trees are really beautiful and the days are cool and crisp but quite dry. This morning we had a temperature of 35F, so no frost, but the closest brush with it yet. <br />
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Above are the very last of the tomatoes, save a few Matt's Wild Cherry that always linger on till frost. The brown dirty looking pods are dried Scarlet Runner Beans that have a very pretty purple bean inside. The last of the trombocino were picked, as well as a few Brussels Sprouts and a bowl of Gold Marie Vining beans.<br />
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In the middle picture are some roots: carrots (very tiny, I haven't mastered growing good carrots yet) some parsnips, a good sized handful of French Breakfast radish and the last large beet from my very first planting in the spring. It is a golden variety as you can see. The later plantings of beets never did produce bulbs. I don't know why, but this is always the case for me even when the planting is just a few weeks after the first one.<br />
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I'm still harvesting small amounts of green beans and those Chinese Red Noodles are the very last ones from the vines. There is one Jimmy Nardello pepper and one bell pepper of unknown variety. What a difference a year makes! Last year I had loads and loads of peppers, but this year a mere handful. The trombocino squashes you can see by comparing them to the green beans are very tiny, the immature ones that I picked because the vine was dying, so they weren't going to get any bigger.<br />
What is left in the garden? A surprising amount, though it's coming in slowly. There are plenty of Brussels sprouts, parsnips, leeks and kale. There is some lettuce, arugula and tatsoi, bok choy, kohlrabi, carrots and a tiny bit of chard and spinach. There is cabbage, but unfortunately most of it is unusable due to bug damage. My fall peas were a disaster. They sprouted and started growing well but stopped at about half a foot tall, blossomed a bit and shriveled up and died. The same with the fall spinach. I usually do well with it, but this year most of the large bed I planted sprouted and disappeared.<br />
Despite the setbacks I have almost harvested as much produce as I did in all of October last year, so I will certainly surpass that total with ten more days to go in the month. I still have a lot to learn about Fall gardening, but every year I've seen some improvement so optimism reigns around here!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-7005162090986900652013-10-17T11:57:00.000-07:002013-10-17T11:57:41.897-07:00The Product of Twisted Genes??I spoke to my 81 year old mother on the phone yesterday. She and my dad, who is 86, live far away from us in Florida so I don't see them often. She was complaining how exhausted she was because for the past several days she'd been busy scrubbing her driveway. <em>Scrubbing her driveway???? </em>Ai ai ai!!! I can think of a million better ways to expend ones energy, but she is probably a product of her German upbringing and I'm sure her mother instilled that craziness in her. You could eat off her floor and feel comfortable about it.<br />
My American grandmother on the other hand could have been featured on an episode of Hoarders. The few times we visited her when I was a child I remember the piles of stuff, taller than I was, that you had to steer through just to get to a useable chair in her house. It was utter chaos.<br />
Why am I writing about this? Because as both a gardener and a housekeeper, I seem to have a constant battle going on between these two sets of genes that are warring in me. I like neat and tidy, but I leave bits of detritus in my wake wherever I go. It's been a lifelong struggle and I can't tell sometimes if I'm winning or losing it. I think in the garden I've moved a small step closer this year in the tidiness battle. I won't comment on the house part of the equation! However...<br />
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This photo actually covers up some of my evil ways, but you can see the wheelbarrow, the tipped over watering can and the hose and sprinkler just lying around. And in the photo below you can see how long the wheelbarrow's been standing there by the rain water that's sitting in it! It's hard to discern, but there's also a tin can just to the top left of the marigolds that had been used to drown squash bugs. Everywhere I look there are little tools and plant containers just where I dropped them.<br />
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What to do, what to do? Obviously I have to change my bad habits. My husband is the complete opposite, but after 38 years he has just gotten used to me I guess. I have done a little better this year in terms of garden neatness. At least I got a handle on the walkway weeds and they did not get out of control like they did last year. Not perfect, but much, much better. The picking up after myself is slowly improving too, but has a long way to go. I suspect someday when I'm long gone, those that come behind will be tripping over my tools for years to come.<br />
But on to something a bit more positive than my bad habits. I've enjoyed seeing some of the last of the trombocino doing its best to put out fruits. It is the only squash vine that's still alive and relatively strong. <br />
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There are about eight of these little guys trying to grow before the frost comes. I can't say enough of how glad I am that I grew trombocino, because it really produced where my bush zucchinis failed spectacularly. The vines do take over the world though!<br />
It's forecast to get colder next week, but still no frost predictions. I still have kale, parsnips, carrots, green beans, arugula, bok choy, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts growing well. My fall cabbages look like lace they were attacked so badly by cabbage worms. My bad for not covering them. I also dragged my feet planting out my fall lettuce seedlings, so they are quite tiny, but some are planted in window box planters and can be protected, so I may get some salad out of them yet.<br />
I've begun the process of getting things ready for winter by pulling out two of the green bean patches and some of the dead tomato plants. As various beds open up I've been bringing in cartfuls of compost to build up the soil for next year. And in the process, bit by bit I'm picking up after myself a little. Let the battle of the twisted genes begin again!<br />
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nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-28562840506683822802013-10-14T06:23:00.000-07:002013-10-14T06:23:26.542-07:00Mid-October HarvestIt's Harvest Monday once again, hosted by <a href="http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/">Daphne's Dandelions</a>, where gardeners are sharing with each other what good things their vegetable gardens are bringing in each week. And today is also Thanksgiving Day in Canada, so I'd like to wish all my Canadian friends a very happy Thanksgiving, especially my niece-in-law Kelly who is from Nova Scotia!<br />
The garden is slowing down indeed, but still giving a very nice and diverse harvest. We don't have any frost in sight, although I did wake up this morning to a temperature of 38F this morning, brrrrrr. Since my summer crops...cucurbits, nightshades and beans... are either pretty well done for or I've harvested more than enough, I won't mind the onset of frost, which will get rid of many pesky bugs and sweeten up the parsnips, carrots, kale and Brussels sprouts.<br />
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I had a nice surprise in these beautiful French Breakfast radishes! I'd somewhat forgotten all about them, when I noticed a patch of lush greenery and went to inspect it, finding these fully ripe little gems. Too bad the little bit of lettuce I had growing was eaten by critters, as they would have combined into a nice salad!<br />
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I pulled out two of my green bean patches after getting a final harvest from them. There are still two more small patches that are producing until the frost comes. I love green beans, but am getting a little tired of them now. I know, in the winter when we're eating the frozen ones, I'll look back fondly on the fresh-picked beans of summer.<br />
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The lone Long Island Cheese pumpkin sits on the back stairway. It weighs four pounds and is the last of the winter squash to be picked. I harvested about the same number of squash this year, but doubled the poundage as they were almost all much bigger than last year's crop. That is good progress, since winter squash is well-loved around here!<br />
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Friday brought in an overloaded harvest basket! Spread out on the kitchen table are the contents: kale, a bowl of mixed greens (arugula, lettuce, tatsoi, chard, beet greens,) scallions, carrots, radish, parsnips, bok choy, celery, parsley, dill, beans, a few tomatoes, and a long, skinny trombocino. The surviving trombocino vine is desperately trying to put out a new batch of baby squashes before the season ends, but they are developing quite slowly and it remains to be seen if I get any more.<br />
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The healthiest plants in my garden are my marigolds. They are incredible this year and I'm so glad to see them blooming away in the garden, a beautiful splash of color in the fall landscape.<br />
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I am now in clean-up mode, clearing finished growing beds and putting on a layer of compost as each bed is cleared. I have also to decide where I'm going to plant the garlic for next season and will tackle that job in a few weeks. Hopefully the garden will be well prepared for next spring once I finally put it to sleep for the winter. </div>
nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-31728264494190484722013-10-07T13:20:00.000-07:002013-10-07T13:20:08.919-07:00Harvest Monday: I Can't Believe Its a Week Into October EditionGood Harvest Monday everybody! We are having the remnants of a tropical storm passing through here today, so although it looks like October, it feels more like a muggy day in June. The rain is welcome though, since we've been bone dry for weeks. The harvest, which had slowed way down picked up a little today, not least because I was finally able to get into the garden in between raindrops and other activities. <br />
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This is the view directly out my front door. We are quite surrounded by woods and as you can see, the autumn leaves are falling fast. We'll soon be raking them up for the compost piles.<br />
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The garden is at the foot of our hill and looking rather raggedy, but the marigolds are huge and blooming profusely which gives it a cheerful look. I missed them last year when I dropped the ball and never got any of my little marigold seedlings planted out. This year they are really wonderful. And the harvest is still coming in. I hadn't checked my green beans in a week, because the plants looked so sad, but when I did today I ended up picking two more pounds of them. Many of them were a bit larger than I generally like, but they'll get eaten anyway. The big ones work well in soups.<br />
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We're at the tail end of the tomatoes. Most of the plants are all but dead and I'm picking them off the vines more green than red, but they've been ripening well indoors. This morning I took several bags that had accumulated in the freezer to make into tomato sauce which were then canned. Although the plants were diseased early, and I'm far from where I want to be in the tomato production department, this year I canned as many stewed tomatoes as needed and had enough to make quite a few jars of sauce and even one batch of salsa. That's a first for me and I'm very pleased about it. If I sound unreasonable in my expectations you have to understand that I always plant between 45 and 50 tomato plants so what I harvest is really not much for the amount that are planted out. The problem has always been the limited sunlight and disease.<br />
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Every time I think the Gold Marie Vining beans have to be about finished they hand me another pound of beans. This has happened several times in the past two weeks and I've been giving them away. The Chinese Red Noodles on the other hand really are at the end of their road and we will miss them. I also harvested the last of the Hakurei turnips, smallish because insects had skeletonized their foliage, and I pulled a few of the fall carrots to see if they were developing at all. It seems that I may get some after all if the voles stay away from them, which is iffy.<br />
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There's no frost in sight for our area yet so there should be time for some nice harvests ahead. I have yet to have a really good fall garden. This year while I finally learned to get those fall brassicas planted at the right time, I failed to protect them from marauding insects. So the fall cabbages and broccolis look nice and large, but they've been ravaged, which is a real shame. I always seem to forget that the insects in fall can be and <em>are</em> even worse than the summer ones and I'm less on my toes about it then. Well, something learned again! <br />
While it seems that many of my veggies underperformed this year, those that did well must have <em>really </em>done well, because I have harvested over 200 pounds more than last year's total which was tallied at the beginning of December. I hope that means I am becoming a better gardener. It certainly means that the soil is slowly but surely being improved and the bit more sunshine we're getting since D took some trees down has made a big difference. He plans to take some more down for next year which will be great.<br />
Now to head on over to <a href="http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/">Daphne's Dandelions</a> to check out all the great harvests everyone else out there is bringing in. I hope you gardening bloggers know what a great source of inspiration and instruction you are! I have learned so much from all of you!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-66618148938169404262013-09-30T12:35:00.001-07:002013-09-30T12:35:36.126-07:00Harvest MondayWe have had the most beautiful first week of Autumn here in Connecticut. The trees are rapidly changing color and the temperatures have been perfect. It's been extremely dry though and the harvests are slowing way, way down.<br />
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I don't have much to share this week. And for whatever insane reason, Blogger chose to put my pictures in sideways and I have no idea how to rotate them to the correct position. Big sigh here. I harvested two of the final three winter squashes. One is the only Kabocha squash I managed to grow and the other is a mystery hybrid, probably a mix of Waltham Butternut and Long Island Cheese. I'll be interested to see what the squash tastes like. I always plant all my various squash in one big bed and it never occurred to me that they might be cross pollinated to produce the odd mixed one. The final squash is a Long Island Cheese that will stay on the vine until the first frost is forecast.<br />
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In this second photo are my other harvests of the week. I am almost at the end of the tomatoes and harvesting them with just a pink blush to finish ripening indoors. As you can see, there are more beans, although the Red Noodles are just about finished. I got one final good sized Trombocino, more Hakurei turnips, a parsnip, a few French Breakfast radishes and teeny-tiny carrots, two peppers, one small eggplant, a small handful of dill and my one and only nicely sized watermelon. Alas, the watermelon was not ripe! At all! I tried my best to judge it by all the tricks I'd read about, but oh well, another year perhaps. And in the bowl are a variety of greens, a few lettuce leaves, arugula, tatsoi and swiss chard, enough for a salad.<br />
Harvest Monday is hosted by <a href="http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/">Daphne's Dandelions</a> where you can go and see what other gardeners are bringing in this week!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-61778011926137662312013-09-25T11:52:00.001-07:002013-09-25T11:52:18.520-07:00Apple Season and Nature's Free GiftOne of the subtitles of my blog refers to frugal living, yet I've never written any posts on the subject. I'm not sure I have anything to add to the subject that hasn't been written about in countless blog posts, but frugality is a running theme to my life as a retiree. When my husband and I both retired early we were determined to do everything we could to keep the lifestyle we enjoy but to do it on a much smaller income, which meant learning to tighten the budget in every way we can without feeling deprived. The information I found online was so helpful to me and it's also what led me to discovering the world of blogging and the sharing of information online.<br />
One of the hints I read and took to heart was never to waste things and never to pass up any offers of free edibles, so when at times a friend offers me, say, a bushel of peaches or apples I won't say no. And friends do offer, because as one person put it, "I know you'll do something with these" as opposed to their going to waste. Two years ago for instance, I was given a load of apples which made wonderful apple pie filling, but that source is dried up now since the friend that gave them has since acquired a farm-girl daughter-in-law who also likes to cook and can. And I was sorry about that because that apple pie filling was very handy throughout the year! But nature provides if you keep your eyes open and this is what I found:<br />
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Are these not about the ugliest apples ever? They are scabby and misshapen and absolutely organic! They come from a very old apple tree that is growing behind a nineteenth century building on our church property. We use the building as a "mission house," that is, we let missionaries from far off places live there for free when they are in the States as a help to them. The building was once the town poor house in the days when such things existed so I'm pretty certain this apple tree is a nineteenth century tree too. The variety is nothing like any you'd find today. It seems like a kind of russet, is tart-sweet and the texture is a little different in a way I can't describe. I only know of one person who has ever bothered with these apples, a gal living in the mission house a few years ago who made a small batch of applesauce. So I decided to gather a bunch and see what I could do with them since nobody else seems to care about them.<br />
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I made applesauce. Eleven pints of it! I'm a pretty experienced home canner, but I've never done homemade applesauce before and I've learned something the hard way. That stuff is like napalm! To bring it to the boil they want you to, it pops and blubs like hot lava and I have the burns to prove it. Now I know that next time I need to have oven gloves on and an extra long wooden spoon for stirring!<br />
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And I made my apple pie filling, enough for ten pies. I freeze it in individual pie amounts that later can be thawed and thrown into a pie crust before baking. I also made a huge apple crisp, because we are a divided family here. I like apple pie. My spouse likes apple crisp.<br />
I also learned to really appreciate the amazing gizmo you see pictured above. A girlfriend lent it to me: a peeler-corer-slicer. Even with that helpful tool it took me about eleven hours to get all those apples peeled and prepped because none of them were truly round and all of them had spots that needed cutting out. But without it, I'd still be peeling and slicing and my hands would be crippled. I can foresee an unfrugal purchase in my future!<br />
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It was a good day two days' work to get all this done and I guess the point of this story is that there are some great gifts of nature out there, but it takes keeping your eyes open and it takes time and work! Still, it's a great feeling to have these done. There's no way I'll be making ten apple pies this year, but in the past the fillings have been great gifts for friends who are busy and appreciate a shortcut to a nice fresh apple pie themselves. There is more of nature's free gift on that tree, but I think I'm about appled out now and besides those burns need to heal!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-17491434000526932152013-09-23T06:16:00.000-07:002013-09-23T06:16:16.083-07:00Harvest MondayI can't believe another week of September has gone by already! I had every intention to do another garden post between the Harvest Mondays but the days just flew. It has been a busy week. I actually went shopping twice. To the mall. Nowadays that seems like something out of a different life, but I needed a dress for a wedding we were to attend this weekend and boy, those aren't so easy to find these days! The Bible club for children that I administer at my church started up this week so I was running around preparing for that too. All I really got done garden-wise was harvesting and preparing and canning tomato sauce and a batch of salsa. The garden looks pretty lame but the harvests are still coming in.<br />
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Here they are in all their glory: my eight butternut squashes and one buttercup. Four years ago after every single one of my winter squash plants died squashless, to paraphrase Scarlet O'Hara I said "As God is my witness, I WILL grow a winter squash!" Each year since there has been improvement. Yay! I actually grew nine butternuts this year, but the smallest broke off its stem and began to decay, so I cooked the good (and not quite ripe) part. Not only are these the most butternuts I've ever grown, but they are also the largest, so I'm quite pleased. I actually like the taste of buttercup squash better and the one in the photo is a beauty. I was able to grow three others which are a bit (or a lot) smaller. At the top left of the photo above the squashes are two honeydew melons. My melons all did very poorly, with only three getting to a usable size. These two weren't fully ripe, but still tasted good.<br />
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My honeydews are so rare around here they are taking another bow in this pic! Above also are the first of my fall Hakurai turnips. They turned out beautiful and I still have a batch growing which will be picked this week. The bowl is full of arugula and as you can see I got one Lipstick pepper and a couple of the last cucumbers.<br />
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Pretty close to the last eggplant, peppers and tomatoes were brought in this week too. Just when I think the Gold Marie Vining beans have had it they put out another batch of yellow beans for me. The Chinese Red Noodle beans are still coming in nicely and I'm still getting more green beans than we need.<br />
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My scallions were another interplanting success. I planted them in spring between the early cabbage and they are looking very good now. On the plate you see two tiny watermelons. The vines were dead, so I picked them. They made two tasty mouthfuls. I have one small watermelon that actually has some size to it (maybe about the size of a duckpin bowling ball) and I'm anxious to pick it, but I think it's not quite ready. It'll be another first for this garden. Like winter squash, I have a long way to go to successful melon growing!<br />
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There's still plenty of kale! The late summer bugs are doing a number on it though!<br />
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And lastly, more beans, beans, beans! That the Harvest Monday haul this time around! Be sure to head over to <a href="http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/">Daphne's Dandelions</a> to see what gardeners all over the world are harvesting this week!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-2646558489335767802013-09-16T06:02:00.000-07:002013-09-16T06:02:09.736-07:00Harvest Monday Mid-September EditionAlthough the garden is really winding down, there have been some good harvests this year and at the midpoint of September we have already harvested more than last September's total. My fall plantings are maturing at a very slow pace, so whatever we get out of them is questionable. There are rumblings of frost predictions for tomorrow night, but it is very unlikely to get that low here. Our first frost is usually in mid-October, so it would be quite a blow to get one a whole month early.<br />
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I didn't take many photos this week. Not pictured are the 2 and 1/2 pounds of parsnips I pulled to thin the beds, because I posted that already last week. Some critter is grazing on the parsnip tops now, so I wonder how that will affect the growth of the other roots. I'd like to leave them in the ground until after the frost next month. Most of my harvest has been tomatoes as you can see from the two pictures here. I'm getting a great amount of kale both from the spring planted kale and now from my fall plantings. They've been the only really robust plants of the fall garden so far.<br />
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It has been a terrible year for eggplant and peppers in my garden. The three eggplants pictured are very small and the few left out in the garden are even smaller. No ratatouille this year! Also not pictured, I picked two Anaheim peppers which will go into a batch of salsa I hope to can later in the week. Beans are still coming in both from my bush bean beds and from the Kentucky Wonder beans that are just now ripening. The Chinese red noodle beans are peaking this week. I still get broccoli side shoots even though the plants are looking decidedly ragged and the two Lemon cucumbers pictured above are just about the last of the crop, as the vines have pretty well succumbed to powdery mildew.<br />
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And finally, here are my first ever dried beans. They are called "Aunt Jean's", ordered from Fedco. They seem to be a sort of yin-yang bean. I don't think I even got quite a pound of them, but I'm looking forward to making a pot of baked beans with them later in the winter. I'm trying to dry my runner beans too since we've been swimming in all the other beans around here.<br />
That's it for this week's Harvest Monday report which is hosted over at <a href="http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/">Daphne's Dandelions!</a>nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-72089631133378939732013-09-11T07:28:00.002-07:002013-09-11T07:28:27.393-07:00Experiment Gone Right<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yesterday I decided I needed to thin the parsnip bed. You know, the one that had been interplanted between my spring cauliflowers and cabbages. As you can see from the photo above, they have turned out pretty well and these are just the thinnings. They are quite a mix of large and small, short, stout, long, skinny. I got 2 and a half pounds of parsnips and if I weren't to get another parsnip out of this garden, I can still say they are the best and most I've ever grown. But my hope is that the ones remaining in the garden will get bigger still and sweeter with the cool weather coming. So I would say that my interplanting experiment was a success and I will plant parsnips that way again next year because parsnips take such a long time to grow and I just don't have the space to devote a bed to them alone. Now if only my carrots did as well! I have a long way to go to be able to say I've grown good carrots.<br />
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On another front, two years ago we planted a little apple tree. We coddled it the first year, but this year a rogue blackberry patch engulfed it (and it's gotta go!), but above you see our very first McIntosh apples, all four of them. They are quite ugly and scabby looking because I didn't protect them in any way, but I ate two of them and they were delicious! I have dreams of future apple pies now.<br />
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And a number of people suggested I try salad with my abundance of kale. Since we no longer have any garden lettuce at the moment, it seemed like a good idea, so I went online and found a recipe for Massaged Kale Salad. The massaging softens the kale to a wilt which makes a nicer salad, since kale is not terribly tender. Well, jackpot! I really liked how it tasted and the health benefits are a bonus. So thanks for the suggestions!<br />
Lastly, a little bit of blogger business. I have only had this blog for a little over a year, but I noticed recently that the photos on my older posts are gone. They simply show a blank screen with a little symbol of some sort on it. This is quite annoying because I have friends who go to read the old posts and they don't always make sense without the pictures. Does anyone know why this would be? I haven't seen this with other blogs I've read. Any helpful answers would be appreciated. Have a great week gardening friends!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-78195504484487178002013-09-09T05:02:00.000-07:002013-09-09T05:02:47.307-07:00Harvest Monday: Garden Fatigue EditionI'm feeling kind of blah about the garden this week. We are a week into September and experiencing what I call garden fatigue. The harvest is steady but limited in variety and things look a little sad down there. Many of the older plants are diseased and dying and my fall crops never do that great. Those plantings that survived are still smallish and only have about a month before our earliest frost either does them in completely or at least slows them down considerably. For some reason this is the time of year that the wild creatures become more active too and I find a number of plants that are chewed on. The one thing that keeps things looking at least somewhat perky down there are the marigolds. This year I actually got them planted out and they are blooming merrily. Sorry, I don't have a picture of them today but hopefully will in a coming post.<br />
But back to garden fatigue. When the garden gets to this state I lose a bit of my enthusiasm and tend to pull back on some of the basic jobs I should be doing, like watering and weeding and even taking photos. I'm doing far better this year than usually, so things are improving on that score, but I need to give myself a stern talking to to get things done and that doesn't always work.<br />
The harvest now is primarily tomatoes. My vines are still loaded with them but the vines themselves are all but dead. Thankfully enough of them are big and with a pink blush that tells me they will still ripen, which is a good thing!<br />
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Kale continues producing well and in fact, there is a new planting for the fall that is getting pretty large, so barring any creatures going for them they should provide a good harvest over the next few months. I just have to find some new and exciting ways to eat kale because it does get dull for all it is a nutritional powerhouse. We do kale-bean soup and I have a great sautéed kale recipe. But that's about it.<br />
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We were inundated with beans last week, but this week they've slowed down quite a bit. The Chinese Red Noodle beans are really coming into their own now. They have proved to be a hit with my husband and son, so I'll continue to plant them in future gardens. I have a late planting of green beans that will be ready to pick later in the week. You can see that I picked my first two winter squashes. They are Buttercup, which we love around here, one large and one small. I have two more still growing out there along with eight Butternuts, one Kabocha, one Long Island Cheese pumpkin and one mystery squash (likely a misshapen Long Island Cheese.) Not a ton, but it is my best success with winter squashes to date. Last year I grew the same number of squash, but they were all much smaller. My Delicata plants gave me exactly one stunted little squash and a ninth Butternut, the smallest, broke off its stem and immediately started to get soft around the neck. <br />
You can also see leeks in the photo above, which were harvested for last night's supper of potato leek soup. Yum! That's it for this week's Harvest Monday, which is hosted by <a href="http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/">Daphne's Dandelions</a> every week. I hope you're not experiencing garden fatigue and I hope mine has passed by the next time I post!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-13503191319063321412013-09-02T15:11:00.000-07:002013-09-02T15:11:27.551-07:00Harvest MondayI am a little late getting my Harvest Monday post up today, because it's been a day of catching up with vegetable preserving chores. This past week we had visits from our niece and her husband, who live in Oregon, and our younger son who lives in New York. It has been wonderful to be with family, since we are all so far-flung, but I have been barely able to keep up with harvesting, let alone preserving. Today I am busy canning tomatoes and sauerkraut and blanching and freezing beans. I think I'll be at it into the night!<br />
Don't have too many pictures either, but the harvest has been terrific. I am inundated with beans this year, to the point where I've been giving them away by the bagful just to avoid dealing with them all. They kicked in late, but boy, when they did they really went to town!<br />
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The photo above is what I picked today and it totaled over 19 pounds of produce. It is representative of what I've been picking all week. My zucchini plants are all but dead, and my yellow squash is going fast, but it is putting out a last little flush of squashes. The trombocino is still going strong. <br />
The cucumbers are slowing down, but I am still getting plenty for refrigerator pickles. I harvested green beans, more yellow Gold Marie Vining beans and Chinese Red Noodle beans. I also harvested some of my very first dried beans, but I will post some photos of those on another day. Broccoli side shoots are still producing. Tomatoes are coming in fast and furiously and I now feel pretty confident that I'll be able to can enough stewed tomatoes to get us through the year before the vines are completely dead and the tomatoes stop ripening.<br />
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I pulled two of my larger leeks to see how they are doing and was pretty happy with them, but I'll let the rest try to get a bit larger before I take any more. We look forward to potato leek soup when the weather gets cool.<br />
My August harvest total was 291 and a half pounds compared to 203 pounds last summer. Which is awesome! One good thing about having my son here was that I was able to send him home with the equivalent of a nice CSA box. He left here with a cabbage, a large bag of beans, a bag of cherry tomatoes, a trombocino, some heads of garlic, a container of refrigerator pickles, a container of homemade sauerkraut, homemade yogurt, jam, jelly, pickle relish and honey from his uncle's hives. He groused a little about having to carry it all through the streets of NY, but once he got it home to Brooklyn I'm sure he was happy to have it! Now if only I could get some of that good stuff to the son in Florida!<br />
Harvest Monday is hosted by <a href="http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/">Daphne's Dandelions</a> each Monday where you can enjoy the harvest reports from vegetable gardeners everywhere. That's where I'm headed now!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-40094616784308616972013-08-30T09:32:00.001-07:002013-08-30T09:32:55.611-07:00A Mystery TomatoIn the winter, I ordered seed for an early tomato variety called Glacier. Like most earlies, they are supposed to be small, about 2 inches in diameter, and orange-red. I started several plants and ended up planting the two healthiest out in the garden. It didn't take long to see a significant difference between the fruits on the two "Glacier" plants. And this is what I got on one of them:<br />
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Two large <em>yellow </em>tomatoes. Now, I plant about 20 varieties of tomato. And I know I did not order any yellow varieties. Purple, yes. Yellow, no. So I have a mystery on my hands. What <em>are</em> these? The only thing I can say for certain is they taste quite delicious! Far better than the real Glaciers I have growing, but it's not likely I'll ever know what I'm eating!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-6337246326265341652013-08-27T05:33:00.002-07:002013-08-27T05:33:46.017-07:00Ugliest Tomato Ever Grown?I've been reading a few postings out there about the most beautiful tomato ever. There really are some beauties and I've even had a few myself. But I present: The ugliest tomato ever grown? This one is a doozy. I don't even know what variety it is because once I'm out there picking them I put them all jumbled in a basket and I never remember which plant I took them from.<br />
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Crazy, isn't it? How about you? Have you had some candidates for the ugliest tomato ever grown?nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-653814476293416842013-08-26T05:13:00.000-07:002013-08-26T05:13:26.510-07:00Harvest MondayThis has been a good week for harvest here. I surpassed last year's total August harvest by quite a few pounds already and there's still another six days to go with beans and tomatoes really kicking in. I'm very happy to be getting the tomatoes, but the plants are all diseased and dying fast. Thankfully they had set a large amount of fruit so I hope to be able to can enough pints to get us through the year. We use a lot of tomatoes in our cooking!<br />
I pulled the last of my beets, the remaining Lutz Salad Leaf. They didn't seem to be getting any bigger, so it was time. I have two beds of beets that were planted later, but I have yet to successfully grow such later plantings. They never seem to grow healthy and bulb up and this year isn't looking to be any different.<br />
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There was more kale from my original spring kale plants, more broccoli side shoots and finally some carrots.<br />
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My second planting of yellow summer squash is producing nicely, which is great since the early bushes did nada.<br />
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The green beans are in full swing, the yellow pole beans keep on producing and tomatoes of all varieties are ripening at long last! And what's that? Two small zucchinis from my second planting of four zucchini bushes. So out of a grand total of <em>twelve</em> zuke plants in 2013, I've gotten maybe five small zucchinis. Amazing. The second run bushes are just about dead, so I'm not likely to see more. <br />
The big green bouquet you see is celery, a mixture of Afina Cutting and Tango. I also got a lot of cucumbers, both Lemon and Double Yield.<br />
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And lookee here! My very first Chinese Red Noodle beans! I haven't tasted them yet, but they sure look pretty! <br />
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I harvested the last of the spring-planted cabbages yesterday. They are a variety called Bartolo that produce relatively small dense heads, but are really excellent keepers. Kept in a refrigerator last year, I was cooking with them in January. I have a bed of fall cabbages, hoping they mature before it's too cold.<br />
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My peppers, which did so fantastically last summer are a pathetic lot this year. So it was nice to pick one nice fairly good-sized green one yesterday. And the trombocino is still making up for my zucchini lack. I counted eight babies coming down the pike. So I celebrated with chocolate zucchini cake made with shredded trombocino, which is the most delicious way to use up summer squash.<br />
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This is the last of the lettuce for a bit. It's getting a little bitter, but still useable. There are eight small plants in the garden just trying to get large enough to take leaves from and I have some tiny seedlings that I hope to plant out in a few weeks. Hoping to stretch out the salad days more than I've managed in the past.<br />
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I'm joining in the Harvest Monday postings over at <a href="http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/">Daphne's Dandelions</a> and looking forward to see what goodies everyone else is getting from their gardens this week!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-20933122993771192942013-08-24T05:53:00.000-07:002013-08-24T05:53:43.876-07:00A Little Bit Of This, A Little Bit Of ThatThis week it seems that the summer garden is kicking into high gear and with it a few interesting observations and oddities. The weather went briefly back to warm and muggy, but not really as hot as was forecast. Now it is dry, but sunny and somewhat cooler again. What strange weather this summer!<br />
I am busy with harvesting and preserving veggies and though I've had the tendency to focus on my losses, the truth is the gains have far outweighed them and I'm enjoying my pest-prone, disease-filled, sun-limited garden more than ever. I like to try new things, so this year it is sauerkraut. I've never made it before, but you can see the batch I have going is fermenting nicely as evidenced by the bubbles. I tasted it yesterday and it is sour and delicious! It's magic! Just a combination of shredded cabbage and salt and voila! It really does taste like it's ready, so I'll be canning it soon, I hope. I've read that I should wait until the fermentation is complete and I don't see bubbling anymore.<br />
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The bush green beans exploded into action this week! I picked 2 and 1/2 pounds of them here and there is a whole other bed that is just ripening and will be ready to pick in a day or so. I ended up giving these away since there'll be more coming in and I've already frozen some thirty bags of beans. The Chinese Red Noodle beans are almost ready to pick too and I've decided to let the Scarlet Runner beans mature into dry beans for seed.<br />
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What I am really excited about are my parsnips. I experimented with interplanting them this year since I had no room in the garden for them this spring. What you see below are a few thinnings and I am so pleased at how good they look, albeit small. But they have another two months of growing ahead, so barring any marauding voles, I may end up with a good crop. Here's hoping. This interplanting seems like the way for me to go with such a slow-growing crop as parsnips are.<br />
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The cucumbers are in high gear now and unlike last summer, I'm overflowing with them enough to make relish, pickles, eat fresh and give away. And my second planting is just setting fruit, so I'd better come up with some more ideas. I found this monster hiding behind a fence post yesterday. It's funny, I've never really had the experience of monster zucchinis hidden away under the foliage, but cucumbers get me every year! I can't figure out how I can carefully check the vines, which by the way are growing up a fence, not on the ground, every day and still miss such a big guy. Notice it weighs 3/4 of a pound!<br />
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Thought I'd show him beside the next biggest cuke I got, by way of contrast. Wow.<br />
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My second planting of yellow summer squash (variety is Saffron) consists of a single plant, but that single plant has already put out three times as much fruit as my two earlier plants. I picked five off the bush yesterday, including this Siamese twin. Garden oddity indeed! I also found a "horned" tomato, but forgot to get a picture before it ended up in the stew pot.<br />
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The garden is calling me, so it's time to get to work. It's the time of year when there is low humming going on constantly from all the bees enjoying the flowers down there, not to mention the hummingbirds who have discovered the runner bean blossoms. I love the summery sound of it. We need rain and I am getting tired of watering, but it has to be done for the small fall seedlings to stand any kind of chance out there. Time to pull some old plants and to plant some new ones. Time to consider how I'm going to improve the soil for next season and to clear areas around the garden fence so it doesn't feel so threatened by the jungle out there.nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7681714301443584801.post-81598394257664254942013-08-19T05:15:00.003-07:002013-08-19T05:15:24.202-07:00Harvest Monday Mid-August EditionHappy Monday! Can you believe it's the middle of August already? I feel as if I just finished my spring planting, so it makes for some disoriented thinking! To complicate things around here we've had a few weeks of unusually cool and dry weather, reminiscent of what we normally get at the end of September. It has helped to shift the mind to the renewal of all the yearly activities that begin in fall. For me that includes choir and directing my church's children's program, both of which take a much appreciated break in the summer. But it's still high summer and the garden is busy producing as well as growing the fall crops.<br />
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This week it feels like there's a lot of sameness to what I am harvesting, though strictly speaking that's not true. There are small tomatoes, as the large ones are still far from ripening, beans and more beans. Not complaining though, because it's a harvest! And it's so good to be finally enjoying my own summer tomatoes. But there has been a lot more diversity than it feels like. For instance:<br />
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A few carrots at last! The tail end of the summer lettuce. There's a bit more out there and I have 8 small plants that I hope will grow into production soon. I also picked some more kale, pounds of the Gold Marie Vining beans and the Fresh Pick green beans are starting to really produce now. I have some scallions and herbs like parsley, basil and cilantro. It's my first time growing cilantro. Is there any way to preserve it? Can it be frozen like parsley?<br />
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Still managed to get quite a few broccoli shoots as well as two small heads from a late planting. I harvested four of my late cabbages and another Saffron summer squash. That lone summer squash plant has already outproduced the two early ones I planted as well as those eight miserable zucchini plants. I also picked two more good sized trombocino squashes. Cucumbers are beginning to come in at a nice rate. They are doing so much better than last year's.<br />
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I have two semi-successful dill plants, so I picked a bit to pop in the freezer. I love the taste of dill in many dishes. Above you can see some Tango celery, also ready to be chopped and frozen. I planted another variety called Afina Cutting, which is growing well, but the stalks are really just thin stems and it acts more like parsley than the thicker stalked celery I'm used to. The flavor is the same though so it'll be useful in soups and stews. Not sure I would bother growing it again.<br />
That's my mid-August harvest! This week is expected to be more like our typical August, hot and humid, so I'll have to keep a close eye on the small fall seedlings that are struggling to take hold. Now to pop on over to <a href="http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/">Daphne's Dandelions</a> to see the other Harvest Monday links of the week!nutmeg gardenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06497061826533988682noreply@blogger.com28