From commentor Marvel:
The summer garden’s finally starting to wind down out back: picked the last of our corn & cauliflower this AM and have only about a quarter as many tomatoes out there as we started with. No rest for the wicked, though: the apples will want picking, cooking and canning by the end of the week. THEN we’ll rest. We must!
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These are just three pix I took the other morning (9/27).
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Picked: Some days I pretty much know how my morning will go….
Prepped: It’s an easy-going way to spend a quiet morning. Jack’s out back digging up the spent corn plants — they were a mighty lovely bunch. We’ll grow corn again next year, u-bet.
Pooped: The score? Shucked, blanched and shelled 20 ears for the freezer; roasted ten pounds of tomatoes for canning tomorrow; wrestled one monster cauliflower to the ground.
Finally got a couple lovely autumn days here, after ten days of on-and-off mizzle with periodic downpours, which negated my feeble efforts to combat the tomato blight. Picked a big mostly-green bowl of what will probably be the last of this year’s full-sized tomatoes, because there’s a frost advisory tonight — absolutely on schedule, unlike every other weather-related phenomenon this screwed-up year. Still got three or four cherry tomato plants setting fruit, and since the temp’s supposed to bounce back into the 80s over the weekend, I’m hoping for another couple weeks of vine-ripening.
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How are your gardens doing, now that it’s October?
opal
Thrilled.
jharp
Made pepper sauce with the fruits of my garden today.
Habaneros, cayennes, marconis, roasted tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice, maple syrup.
It turned out really good. And will only get better.
Violet
Lovely photos! I ate peppers and eggplant from my garden tonight. Put them on the grill along with some onions. Tossed it all in olive oil when they were ready. They were good, although the eggplant are a little bitter. I haven’t grown this variety before (Dancer) and it seems when they start to turn light purple they’ve been on the plant too long and get bitter. I like the longer, Japanese eggplant better. Still yummy.
pat
with so many farmers markets (lots of Hmong) I never feel the need to grow my own. And the pickup trucks come most every day with the corn and tomatoes and squash and onions, so we have had fresh produce for weeks now.
I had to pull up the impatiens today. really hurt to do it in 80 degree weather, but we are leaving in a couple of days and won’t be back until after frost. at which point the impatiens will have turned into goo.
Linda Featheringill
We finally got some sunshine in Ohio and my fall garden is looking a little better. I may have leafy things for Thanksgiving.
The brussels sprouts really are not doing so well and that’s a shame because I like ’em. The broccoli raab is growing though, and I have hope for that. The spinach is up and should continue growing. Spinach is pretty tough. And of course the kale is growing well.
Lots of different things but not much of each. Maybe if something does well, I can concentrate on it next fall.
You’re expecting a frost already? Wow.
Opie-jeanne
Marvel, that’s a beautiful haul. May I ask where your garden is?
Elizabelle
Marvel: when do we come for dinner?
I will bring cupcakes.
Beautiful pics, and love the pre-canning shot, and the organization within.
Carbon Dated
Very nice. It all looks very prime, but am especially impressed with the corn at this advanced age of the season.
Marvel
Opie-jeanne: Thank you; we garden in western Oregon (Willamette Valley), employing oodles of season-extending tools, e.g., poly- and fabric-covered raised beds.