Harvest Monday, October 3rd

If you haven't been to Daphne's Dandelions yet, you should check it out (http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/). She has a nice set-up and a nice set of links contributed each Monday. I linked back here this morning, though I don't have many new photos to add for the past week, regarding what we harvested. We did process another 40 pounds of tomatoes last night. They are in the pot, ready to be reduced and canned. Our harvest Monday this week is really regarding the stored potential of the garden as we enter the Fall. The garden is in pretty good shape now and hopefully will continue to contribute into the winter. The post below contains a walk-through of our various beds and me rambling about what's there.

Harvest potential - the Fall & Winter garden

We don't have a root cellar or some space that is great storage for vegetables over the winter, though we do keep wishing for one. On our side, however, is our locale. Tacoma, Western Washington really, is generally very mild mannered when it comes to winter weather. Our freezes are not deep or long lasting. Consequently, we are able to keep many things in the ground. Last year was my first attempt to keep full garden beds. They were not fully by any means, but we did have carrots, onions (green), beets, chard, kale, collards and leeks far enough along to pull & cut them for quite awhile. It worked pretty well. The chard died a quick death during an early, surprising, freeze. The beet tops died along with it, but their roots were just fine below ground and I continued to dig them out as needed. The leeks, kale and collards withstand anything our weather will throw at them.

This year, I managed to get more variety in and much of it grown to a good size. New additions for this year are more brassicas: Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and broccoli. I still didn't get as much in as I thought I originally had. There should be more carrots and beets, at least.

Below is me walking around the garden beds, talking to nobody in particular. I didn't know how Blair Witch-like the camera work was until I watched it once.

Squash, round 1

We finally gave up on the squash plants. Their dried up leaves are done with the sun and their stalks are withered. Their job is done.

These are the first squash taken.

Weights and measures of tomatoes

We picked the ripe tomatoes from the garden this evening and processed them through the, now thoroughly loved, food mill. I did weigh them before processing. I came up with around 30lbs, a couple pounds short I'm pretty sure. That means that the last batch we processed was around 25lbs. There are a few more pickings, assuming they ripen, to be had before we are picked out.

Nine Eggplants a'roasting

One exploded prior to me pricking them to release the steam.
Or, I should say that one exploded, reminding me that I should
prick them to release the pressure of roasting.

This is the last big haul from the plants and is on it's way to some variant of baba ghanoush. There are a few eggplant still on the single remaining plant. I noticed that it even has a new blossom. I think it is a little late for that, my little green friend.

Pickles, success!

I sampled the first of the fermented pickles yesterday. It was a little crunchy, a little spicy, and hasn't made me sick yet. They have been in the jar for 17 days. The recipe advised 3-5 weeks. Give that, I should expect them to take on more flavor in the coming weeks? I'll find out. so far, so good.

Cans of our labors

Shari canned the tomatoes yesterday, first reducing them a bit more and adding spices.

Tomato Prep

A little water bath to get things started.

The house is filled with the aroma and moisture of reducing tomatoes. This year won't be a repeat of last year's disaster, where we didn't can a single tomato. This year, the weather was seemingly worse, but our preparations seemingly better. Whatever the combination, it worked and is working. Tonight we are putting away our second round of tomatoes. I probably should have weighed them, but I didn't. I'm happy that we'll have enough to see us through the year by the time it is all done.

Two of these heaping were run through tonight.

We bought a food mill a couple weeks ago. I've been eyeing them for a couple years, but couldn't bring myself to buy. It works wonders and has saved us good amounts of time so far. Luke loves it, also, and that makes it worthwhile right there. He and I spent the evening washing, quartering and running them through our new little machine. He tired himself out quite nicely, cranking through what must have been around 20lbs of tomatoes. I didn't weigh the tomatoes, but I did weigh the skins and seeds after we were done, about 3lbs.

Luke dropped the shirt half way through his duties.

The initial product prior to reducing.

Pickles - now & then

It has been 14 days since the jar on the right looked like the jar on the left. The fresh green color faded by week two. Both of these are fermenting in our kitchen. The brine in the right jar is made from water, salt and vinegar. The brine for today's batch doesn't have vinegar. Its brine is two tablespoons of salt per quart of water. The key for fermentation, be it pickles or beer is to prevent bacterial growth. With beer, you boil the wort long enough to kill everything and then use and airlock to keep any airborne bugs from getting in. With  pickles, the key is to keep the cucumbers below the brine's level. I've never done this before, but I suspect I'll survive. I'll given them a try sometime next week. The recipe called out 3-5 weeks.

Fermenting dills. Started 9/17 & 9/3

Pickles, leather, pickles

Today was a good day for preserving.  We put away four pounds of pickles and a bit of squash. We don't eat a lot of pickles, so four pounds is pretty good for us. I put two pounds into a jar to ferment and canned the other two. Shari made some bread & butter pickles the other week. Basically, we are playing the pickle field for now. I'm glad to say that I still like squash-leather. It is going to let me free up some much needed space in the freezer. That space is probably going to go to beans and to a fall crop of broccoli that is coming on much earlier than I anticipated. 

Fermenting pickles

2 Cups of Squash comes to this

Dinner

Some, but not all of this, was dinner last night. It ended up stir-fried and next to some rice. Most of the remaining beans will find themselves blanched today; a couple of the eggplant will go to work with me to give away; and the remaining tomatoes will go into the freezer where they'll wait for the rest of the canning tomatoes to get ripe.

I'm also posting this link to Daphne's Harvest Monday entry.  I ran across her through Laura's Modern Victory Garden blog. Both are consistent, high quality posters.

Spuds

This is 12 pounds of potatoes. Luke and I dug these from a single hill yesterday. This is in stark contrast to what we've been getting in the few hills we've dug prior to this. There are two notable differences with this hill. First, I planted it in one of the new garden beds, meaning the soil (Tagro potting soil) was freshly brought in. Second, I paid more attention to this one. The others were planted in an ad-hoc fashion wherever there was a bit of room and didn't get properly hilled or watered. This hill was in a bed with our sweet potatoes and some lettuce. The entire bed received more attention.

The potatoes in this hill weren't perfect, however. Some had small white, hardened speckles across their face and some were sporting a red hue around their eyes. Doing some looking around, I found a nice potato disease page. That lead me to:

Swollen Lenticels

White dots can often be seen on the skins of potatoes that have been left in very damp soil for a long time; they are swollen lenticels.

Pink Eye

Pink eye is a disease characterized by a pink discolouration of the skin around the eyes. During storage, or in the field before harvest, it causes a superficial rot (1) that closely resembles the first signs of infection with late blight. Infected tubers do not keep well. The cause of the disease is not known, but it is always found in tubers of crops affected by Verticillium wilt.

Pink Eye and Swollen Lenticels

The swollen lenticels won't be a problem. The Pink Eye looks like it means that I need to find a way to use them sooner than later.

Remedies for aphids

Here's something that I ran across during the morning commute--

To kill Aphids:

Dry and powder bracken leaves. Soak one dram (weight) in six ounces of water. Let it stand for twenty-four hours, strain and bottle. Use one dram in one gallon rain-water. It should tinge the water green. Spray, or better still, wash the leaves attacked by aphis.

Via Common Sense Compost Making, sourced from Steve Solomon's Soil and Health Library. 

Pickled beans

I have never made pickles. Now I can't say that. Shari was great, laying out all the materials to pickle. I have a few cucumbers, but not really enough to pickle. The other issue I discovered tonight was that most recipes called for soaking the cukes for several hours beforehand. Given that, I picked another pound of beans, giving me a bit over a couple pounds. Those two pounds were cleaned, stuffed into jars and bathed in brine. I need to wait three weeks before I can try them.

Big bomb - is it?

I plucked a couple jalapeños and one of those pretty Big Bomb peppers. Would the Bomb be a bomb? It is tasty and a little hot, but not terribly so. The jalapeños are not hot at all. In their defense, they'll turn red before they are done, adding more heat as they progress.

Big bomb

A good angle on the Big Bomb peppers. Their hotness remains to be tested.

Hops

The hops have emerged to hang with the sunflowers.

Eggplant / Peppers

Millionaire eggplant are the way to go. I tried these out the year before last. They produced very nicely. Last year I switch to Dusky, which didn't produce for me at all. This year I'm back to millionaire and they are not dissapointing.

It is a good year for lettuce, broccoli, and peas. It isn't a year for outdoor peppers. The indoor peppers are doing great, which leans me toward a lack of heat, not necessarily a lack of sun. I moved two peppers from the ground to the greenhouse a couple weeks ago. I hope they'll catch up, but I suspect it is too late.

This isn't one of those recently moved peppers. This is one of the Jalapeno plants, heavy with fruit. Our Big Bomb peppers are starting to turn a nice red. Our bell peppers are starting to take on their final yellow hue.

Update: squash leather

It is mine, all mine! The other members of the house tried it and then decided that they didn't care for it (to put it nicely).
It is very sweet and seems like the real deal.
It took about 8 hours at 140F.

Squash leather

My first attempt at fruit leather. In this case it is Hubbard squash from last year.

2 C squash
1/2 C honey
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg

So far so good. It is in the oven still.