End of the season

Winter is truly upon us so now we're eating the harvest. Jess made some pies. 

She also crushed the last of the tomatoes, which I turned into soup.

 

I've almost finished jamming the raspberries, with one pail of frozen left in the freezer. We were happy the garage was finally finished and we could move the second freezer back into place to free up some space.

We also finally packaged the fruitcakes. This year we did run, malibu and brandy cakes (basically using up the end of the inlays liquor cabinet.

Desert tonight is some malibu-infused cake.

With the garage build going so late, we didn't get time to restore the back yard landscaping and garden beds. Those will be the first tasks come spring.

Last of the harvest

With some light flurries falling, I pulled the last of the carrots and beets this morning. Some of the carrots we'll eat fresh, some will get given away, and I will blanch and freeze for use over the winter.

I also got the last of the strawberries in before the frost. These were a delicious treat!

Last week I pulled the tomatoes. We have five cookie sheets stack with green tomatoes. 

The ripe ones were beginning to get away from me, so I hauled out the tomato mill and made a gallon of puree. This then cooked down into just over a litre of pizza sauce, that I froze.

We also saw some long awaited progress on the garage. All that is left os some stone work and the east of the electrical work. Solar will wait until next year I guess. Along with a fence for the back yard.

The next week will see us deal with the carrots and tomatoes. And, at some point, I need to get the raspberries out of the freezer and make jam.

Garlic, tomatoes, and apples

While garage construction continues, we've been busy with fall work. The weather has been amazing with no frost yet. Jess planted garlic out front. I have a couple of other rows set aside in the back where we can put the rest of the cloves.

We've also been coping with the first rush of the tomatoes. After a tomato-salad mutiny, I ended up oven-drying two trays and then freezing them for winter use

Most of the past week has been focused on processing the apples. In addition to five jars of dried apple rings, I made a dozen jars of apple pie fixing and well as three pies (that I froze).

The rest have gone into multiple apple crisps, been eaten fresh, sauced (maybe 16 jars), and (with exhaustion nearing) been given away

Next up will be the big tomato rush over the next three weeks. I'm hopeful to make and freeze some tomato sauce as well as some fresh salsa.

Tomatoes, potatoes, and apples

September has been gorgeous so far. We finally pulled in abut a third of the green tomatoes in the hope that the rest would ripen.  

Good volume this year, just way behind on ripening.

The potter harvest, on the other hand, was about a quarter of normal volume. I think it was all the rain in July and lack of sun.

We also harvested the apples last week as they were starting to fall in the wind.

Jess is big enough to do most of the ladder work, which is great.

So far, we've sauced, made crisps, and started dehydrating. My dehydrator looks like it is about to bite the dust so a new one may be in order.

Garage progress is, well, thin. After dozing and pouring the new pad at the end of August, nothing has happened for several weeks. I moved a bunch of sod out of the new garden bed and need to start moving plants. 

We're promised construction starts this week but I think we'll be too late to have a fence built this year.

Tomatoes, potatoes and apples

We've been enjoying some early harvesting the past two weeks. The tomatoes are starting to bear despite the wet summer and generally bad conditions for them.

I imagine we'll still have to harvest a bunch green and ripen them in the house.

We've also been culling carrots and beets and potatoes as we need them for dinner.

There might be one harvest of beans left. I've started working on moving one raspberry suckers to better places. The south side of the house is sunny but never seems to yield much produce (maybe too dry?) but the raspberries seem to be colonizing it. So I pulled a bunch of suckers out of a sunny bed and moved them there.

The garage construction has finally started with the demolition of the old garage and scraping out the footings of the new one. Not sure how far they are going to get before the snow flies.

In better news, the apples are ripening. These are not yet ready for eating (very tart). But it looks like a good crop.

Apple sauce and pie filling

The garden is beginning to produce some nice veggies. We did a very early pick (or late thinning?) of some carrots and beans and dug a few potatoes to make a veggie pot pie this week. The beans were amazing--so much better fresh than frozen.

The last of the raspberries are also coming ripe (the delicious but thorny black raspberries).

We're also finally seeing some tomatoes ripen. I suspect it will be a late year for these guys and probably a "headlamps in the sleet" pick one night.

Jenn bought some strawberries at the farmers market this week so I made six litres of strawberry-rhubarb pie filling. There was also some left over to go on ice cream.

And a friend dropped off a bag of early apples, so I sauced them on the weekend. we got about 10 litres of sauce in the end. Our own apples are a ways off from picking and I plan to dehydrate some of them.

My tiny plot at the community garden is going well, with radish and chard germinated and starting to put out real leaves. Not sure we'll get a crop off, though! In the meantime, we continue to plan the new back yard as we get closer to garage demolition (fences and signs arrived this week).

Berries, garlic and building

Looks like I really dropped the ball in terms of weekly updates for some reason. It has not been for lack of gardening!

We're coming to the end of berry season. We've frozen more than four gallons of raspberries this year in anticipation of autumn jamming. We've also probably eaten two gallons!

The potatoes have all blossomed and some are even dying off and are ready for digging. I'm holding of on those to try to keep everything in some kind of order. I only want to dig once!

While we continue to wait for the garage guys to show up, Jess and I planned to repaint the garbage caddy. When we hauled it into the yard, much of the wood was rotten. So we pulled apart the rotten wood and replaced it piecemeal. Jess did most of the work--I offer advice and did some of the tougher sawing. The result is pretty decent and we'll likely get another 10 years out of this.

The dallies are offering some late summer colour out front. I plan to move some daisies around to add some variety.

The community league offersd up some small beds in conjunction with gardening club. I took one. I think the idea is a demonstration project in anticipation of a more permanent set up when the exterior renovations start. It is a bit late in the year so I planted radishes and swiss chard plus some pansies.

After giving away most of the garlic scapes this year, we harvest the garlic. It is presently curing under the deck (whew!).

I turned under the soil and smoothed things out. We then dumped all of our old lettuce seeds in the garden. We might get something edible before the frost. Otherwise, they'll be an okay cover crop and all of the old seed is out of the closet.

It looks like we're about to enter apple season. A friend dropped off a bunch for saucing. Our trees are also starting to fill out (later picking variety).

 

I'm hopeful we'll have some tomatoes soon from the yard. The wet summer has meant a lot of greenery but not many ripe fruit. Assuming we get a garage pad in sometime before the snow flies, I'm going to have Jess design the two wooden garden boxes that we'll put along the sides and four out the lumber order (moving from doing construction to planning it).

Peas and Berries

Despite the ends rain we're starting to see some things come ripe. The peas are huge and we'll be harvesting this weekend.

Clearly the wind has shaped the growth of the peas in the front! I've also started topping the garlic scapes.

We're also entering berry season. The raspberries are just starting to bear.

We've been picking the early volunteers and eating them but I'lll start feeling some of each day's pick for raspberry jam as the Saskatoons quit.

It has not been a great year for Saskatoons. There are some nice berries but they are late and the birds have really been at them.

The beans are also starting to flower finally. this week looks hot so that should help get some beans growing. The slugs have been denuding many of the leaves.

We clean south the freezer last weekend and turned most of the remaining tomato puree into sauce this paste weekend.

I'm keen to start jamming! Probably just raspberry this year. I noticed a bunch of cherries ripe in the neighbourhood (nanking, I think). We'll see if I get ambitious and do anything about that.