Peppers are Done

I cleaned the peppers out of the high tunnel last night. The plants have all been bit by the cold and were pretty wilty.

Looks like I need to make some jalepeno pepper jelly. I think fajitas will also be on our dinner menu this week (and next).

November Tomatoes

The high tunnel is still going. Going crazy with cherry tomatoes in fact. Picked these today. As in - picked in NOVEMBER!

The plants are getting a little wilty on top, so it's time to get the row covers out and give a little added protection from the cold.

Today's Harvest

Well pardon the poor rotation on this photo.

This morning's harvest: lots and lots of green pepers, loads of onions (but I only picked one), and a few cherry tomatoes.

Made the sausage suate again this morning in an attempt to burn through some of those peppers.

Everything from the cold frames is pretty well done. The kale is finally starting to look unappealing and the peppers in the cold frames aren't faring nearly as well as the ones in the high tunnel.

Must go clean all that out. Ugh.

Fruit Fly Season

It's fruit fly season!

That's the time of year when, no matter how hard you try, you can't keep up with all the produce on your kitchen counter.

Despite two batches of jam, I couldn't get through all the pears generously donated by an aunt and uncle. So after watching swarms of little winged buggers hovering over this bowl, I decided to move it outside.

I'll step out the door if I want a piece of fruit. (Provided the critters don't find a way onto my patio table, that is.)

What doesn't get eaten will go to the compost bin, and that's okay. The best thing about a compost bin is that I don't have to feel guilty about wasting produce.

'Bye, bye soggy smelly greens. See yah, slimy pepper. Later...whatever you were molding in the back of my fruit drawer. Have fun with the coffee grounds. We'll meet again in year or so.'

Pesto

Okay, so this is another one of those not-so-pretty pics. But I mean, it's green blobs. What could you expect me to do?

What you're looking at is a healthy batch of pesto from my own home garden. I have very little sun space for growing edibles, but I do make sure to have some basil plants every year.

These "blobs" have been frozen and are waiting to be bagged and tossed back in the freezer for some quick grab-n-heat pesto pasta dinners.

What do you like to do with pesto?

Four Pound Onion

We pulled the last of the onions from the high tunnel on Monday to make way for fall planting. This was the biggest, weighing in at more than four pounds. The next biggest was a mear 3.5.

Five Little Peppers

Did you read any of the Five Little Peppers books when you were little? No? Well me neither. But I know they were some of my mother's childhood favorites. Maybe it's time to visit them.

These are five dark purple peppers harvested from the garden yesterday. Most of the plants from our "rainbow" mix appear to be purple. And they're going gangbusters right now.

So far I'm only seeing two other colors -- one yellow plant and a few green. Those green better be turning some shades of orange and red, or I'm going to have words with the seed folk. Colorful words.

Missing Path

These are the cucumbers crawling out of their bed, migrating across the path, and encroaching on the onions. Bill estimates we've picked 169 lbs of cucumbers from the inside and outside beds so far this summer. Add on the....I don't know...10 pounds I picked today and we're nearing 200. Still lots of blossoms and lots of pickin' time to go.

Kaolin Clay

To everyone who saw me in the grocery store on Wednesday night... no those were not deodorant stains all over my black shirt. It was kaolin clay, and I was covered with it after picking cherries.

Totally non-toxic, the clay reduces the insects and birds who bother the fruit, and is considered an organic solution.

Cherry Bomb

Here's two of five luscious jewel-toned jars of cherry syrup I made from the recent harvest.

My husband and I made a batch of this syrup several years ago and were disappointed with the cherry flavor at first. Seemed like the jars were much better after a few years of maturity. We gave the last one away this spring, so I was bracing myself for a few years without.

But I was pleasantly surprised with the strong cherry flavor in this batch. We're ready to go right from day one. The difference, I think, may be because I pitted all these cherry and chopped some up, instead of boiling them whole. (I was prepping to make jam. The syrup was a last minute adjustment.)

At any rate, I'm decidedly pleased. Maybe even a little smug. (It's just soooo pretty.)

Purple Pepper

This little guy is making himself known in one of the outdoor beds. So excited for my rainbow peppers to start making an appearance. Here's hoping I get some orange and yellow and red ones too! But no green. Blech! (Sorry Kermit.)

Feeling Rather Pickled Myself

The cucumbers in and out of the high tunnel are ready. Bill picked nine pounds on Monday and by Wednesday they were begging to be picked again. I got about 10 pounds, although some were too big for pickling anymore. That's okay, my husband is plenty fine with cucumber snacks.

It's been a few years since I pickeled, and I had forgotten how FRUSTRATING it is. You see, the little package of Ball pickling mix tells me to cut up 7 pounds and prep 8 pint jar. Well seriously. No way.

I was able to get HALF that quantity into seven jars. And it took all the hot pickling syrup I had. So I guess I'm a really bad pickle packer. (Hmm...I think there's a Seuss book there.)

What am I supposed to do--carefully place these chunks in the jar one by one like puzzle pieces?? When I woke up this morning I saw that all my pickles have floated to the top of the jar, leaving like an inch of juice below. Arrgh!



Anyway, I quit at 7 jars because I was packing them about 11:30 p.m. last night when I remembered my boiling water canner only holds six jars at a time. And noooooo way was I saying up to boil two batches. The extra jar went straight to the fridge.

But seriously, I'm assuming most canners hold the same quantity as mine. So why wouldn't the Ball recipe be designed to produce batches in increments of 6?? Would seem a bit of a waste to run that canner for 15 minutes with only two jars.

And another thing, local grocery store which shall remain nameless.....why, oh why, wasn't the pickling mix with the rest of the canning supplies in aisle 1? Or maybe the pickle aisle? Or the spice aisle? Or even the produce department? What mysterious logic says, "Pickle mix. Yeah. That goes with the Jello."

They Might Be Giants

Onions in the high tunnel are H.U.G.E. huge.

Cheery-O

These bright red beauties did not come from the high tunnel, but they did come from the extension's organic gardens. I picked a good bunch and hardly made a dent. Soooo pretty.

First Fingerling

Okay the potato plants are still totally flowering, but I just had to sneak a peak at what was hiding underneath. Pulled this nice large fingerling out this morning. I'd say he's ready! (But I'll let his brothers and sisters be for a while.)

Was a little fearful when I reached in to get him 'cause the bees were sure plentiful this morning....


Rolling up the sides lets all those helpful critters in.

Hip High Before 4th of July

The onions in the high tunnel are still doing quite well as you can see. Bulbs are popping up out of the ground and the shoots are hip high.

Will Bark for Peas

Peas were ready to pick yesterday. These were planted outside the high tunnel after we scalded the first row. during a particularly warm weekend in early April. Remember, we were using an interior plastic row cover and we overheated.

Shared a bit of my harvest with our pup, who adores peas, green beans and carrots. He's also a big, big fan of watermelon. But, 'Is that an apple (sniff, sniff, sniff)? No, thank you."

First Salad

No, those apples aren't going brown--it's the balsamic vinegar I drizzled over the top. This is my all-time favorite salad: greens, feta, and apples with some good balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I like it with nuts and dried cranberries too, but didn't have any of those in the house.

Got a nice good helping of spinach out of the garden last night. Wish more of the arugula had survived. Only a few clumps left in the row that got scorched. Ate a couple of those peppery leaves while I was weeding.

Impatience

So I got a little antsy in the garden today and pulled two radishes. The pink one was showing at the top so I had a fair idea how big it was. The white one (obviously) wasn't. But look at the leaves! Surely with that big tall shock of leaves I could expect some kind of reward underneath.

Right? Wrong.

That said, I ate most of that little root anyway. It was spiiiiiicy. Yeck. The pink one was nice and mild. I'm thinking I might try to saute the greens in a tiny bit of olive oil this afternoon and see what happens. Feeling compelled to make the most of this plant I harvested too early.