It's Pumpkin Time/The First Frost

Welcome back.

The weather has been very summer like over the last week or so.  The temperatures have been right around 80 degrees the last two or three days.  However, the weather can vary tremendously this time of the year, and it has.  We had our first frost just 10 days ago on September 19th.  The temperature dipped to 30 degrees and the result was just a light frost.

Luckily, I covered a few remaining plants that I wanted to save.   I still have some tomatoes and peppers on the vine.  I try to protect the tomatoes as long as possible, since I will have to wait many months for next year's crop once a hard frost puts an end to the growing season.  That's a long time to wait for tomato lovers.

The old expression of frost on the pumpkin rang true:

Frosty Morning - Tomatoes and Peppers Covered

Speaking of pumpkins, I recently harvested those and my "manure pile" gourds.  You may recall that last fall I discarded some gourds on a pile of composted manure.  Quite a few sprouted this spring, so I allowed them to grow and the results were pretty good.  See my post of  May 23, 2014 for more details (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com.br/2014/05/garden-updatenice-red-winged-blackbird.html).

Overall, the pumpkins and gourds did well.  The pumpkin varieties I planted this year were Big Max, Connecticut Field, Jack O' Lantern, and Jack Be Little miniature pumpkins.

Since the above photos don't show the gourds and mini pumpkins very well, below is a photo of some of them on our dining room table:

Now that the growing season is winding down, I am starting to start the process of cleaning up the garden in preparation for next year.  So far, the only clean up I've done is where the potatoes were planted.  I removed the vines and the worst of the weeds before rototilling, which I did about a week ago:

The Potato Patch Ready For Rototilling

The Last of the Wildflowers

Finally, a few photos from my home of the fall foliage.  It is shaping up to be a very colorful year. On our hill, which is at an elevation of 1500 ft, the colors are close to peak:

Until next time.

The Harvest Continues: Onions, Potatoes, and Brussels Sprouts

Welcome back.  As always I hope you enjoy reading my blog.

Recently I pulled the two rows of yellow sweet Spanish onions that I started from seed and transplanted in May.  You may recall that in my post on August 21, 2014 (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/08/onions-and-potatoes.html), I wrote about harvesting the Stuttgart and red onions. The Spanish onions are a long season onion and therefore require more time to mature.

In that post I also described how I dry and prepare the onions for winter storage.  After drying in the sun for a few days, I store them in our cellar in plastic bins for the winter.  In the past I have also hung them to store which works well also,  I remember my Mom braiding the tops before hanging them.  That is also a great method which definitely takes some practice.

Yellow Sweet Spanish Onions

I have been continuing to harvest the potatoes.  I have the Kennebec and Yukon Gold varieties dug, only one row of the German Butterball variety remains.  They were planted a little later and are still growing.  However, frost is expected tonight which will probably put a damper on the growing season.

In review,  Kennebec is a great all purpose mid season potato that stores well.  It matures in about 80 days.

Yukon Gold is also a good storage potato known for it's yellow flesh.  This variety matures in about 70 to 90 days, and is great for baking, although it is very good also for boiling or potato salads.

Once the potatoes are dug, it is important to allow them to dry before storing them for the winter.  It is also important that the potatoes not be washed or exposed to light during this process.  If potatoes are exposed to light they will turn green and become inedible.

I have found that drying the potatoes on newspaper works well as the newspaper will wick away moisture.  This is also a technique my Mom used.  I lay out sheets of newspaper on my garage floor and spread out the potatoes.  After allowing them to dry overnight, I then cover them with an old blanket the following morning and keep the garage door closed to keep out as much light as possible.

I allow the potatoes to dry for 3 or 4 more days.  Then I transfer them to plastic milk crates for storage.  I normally sort them by variety and size, puting the larger ones in one crate, the smaller in another for example.  I then store them in the cellar which stays at a pretty constant temperature during  the winter, normally between 40 and 50 degrees.

The final step is to cover the crates with an old blanket or quilt to block out any light.

The Brussels sprouts I planted as an experiment have grown well and were recently ready for harvest. It is interesting how these plants grow, I didn't realize how large the plants get.  The sprouts appear along the stem and mature from the bottom up,

And finally:

Another Beautiful Sunrise at My Home

Until next time.

Making Tomato Sauce/The Great Blue Heron Returns

Hello to all my readers and welcome back.

It's hard to believe that September has arrived and the gardening season is winding down.

The tomatoes have done really well overall, and are producing heavily as September gets under way. The plants are starting to die off from late blight, but there are still plenty of tomatoes left on the vines that will still ripen over the coming weeks.

Since I have an abundance of Corbarino tomatoes, a small paste variety, I decided to experiment with making a batch of tomato sauce.  I also used a few Cherokee Purples, Big Rainbows, and Artisans. For more information on these tomatoes and others I planted this season, see my posts on March 25, 2014 (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/03/its-tomato-starting-time.html) and April 7, 2014 (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/04/planting-more-tomatoes-more-heirlooms.html),

The first step is of course to wash the tomatoes in cool water.

Corborino and Artisan Tomatoes

Cherokee Purple and Big Rainbow Tomatoes

Next, I slit the tomatoes, then gently squeezed them to remove some of the water and seeds.  Even though I used a food mill later in the process, this step helps to remove some of the liquid and seeds.

I then pre-cooked the tomatoes for 5 or 10 minutes to soften them.  This will make the milling process easier.

Now it's time to get out the old food mill and press the juice and pulp from the tomatoes. Be sure to squeeze as much pulp as possible from the tomatoes.

The final step, of course, is to simmer, season, and reduce the sauce.

Which seasonings you use is of course entirely up to you according to your taste preferences.  I  used onion salt, garlic powder, hot pepper flakes, ground black pepper, oregano, basil, and a touch of sugar to help counterbalance the acidity.

Continue to simmer the sauce for about 4 hours to obtain the desired thickness.  The volume of sauce will reduce by about 50%.

In this case we used the sauce to make a delicious pot of chili.

Finally, we had another visit from a Great Blue Heron.  They are fun to watch as then hunt around the pond, moving very slowly so as to not startle their prey.  Enjoy the photo.

Great Blue Heron

Until next time.