Leaves

I continued on my quest to be known as the weird neighbor this week.  At the top of the street is the bus stop.  The yard is a big corner lot and has been covered in the most gorgeous carpet of leaves for a few weeks.  I've been coveting those leaves.  I've spent actual time sitting and thinking about how to get them for myself.  It's a disease.

Then a miracle happened.  The landscapers mowed up those leaves and placed them in 35 large composting bags.  I made Hubby stop the car on Tuesday and ask if I could have them.  They of course looked at me like I was nuts.  Then he said he just needed the bags back.  Hubby and I made plans to get the leaves on Thursday.  Then yesterday another miracle!  The landscaper came down and said he needed the bags sooner than he thought.  So, he and his helper hauled them all down in his truck and helped me dump them on the garden!  All free!  All for me!  Yes, I realize I need help.  We even made plans to do the same thing next year.

While talking to him, I realized we really weren't all that different.  He was working hard to try to buy a place to do the same things.  He had rented a place that he thought he would be able to buy.  He had chickens, both hens and meat birds.  He wants a big garden as well.  I felt a kinship to this wonderful man.  It also turns out that he's a friend of the homeowner up the street.  I now have a leaf dealer!  He can feed the need for leaves!

I'm connecting with Simple lives Thursday blog hop.  Hop on over and check out how else people are living simply.

Pretty fall day

The weather here has been quite warm lately.  Today was a nice return to the cool, crisp Autumn that we all love here in New England.

Burning bushes next to the shed.

The garden beds with their cozy manure blankets.

Dogwoods turning behind the clothesline.

Broccoli waiting to be harvested.

The chickens are molting and getting ready for winter.

Toby playing with his best friend, Brutus. 

I hope you're all out enjoying the beautiful weather.

First frost 10-10-10

Last night was our first frost.  It was late this year, which wasn't really all that surprising.  After a  early, wet spring and a hot dry summer, we weren't looking for an early frost.  It has been a wonderful year for gardening here in New England.  Just what the doctor ordered after last year's debacle. 

I had already ripped out the dying tomatoes on Friday.  All that was left in the garden was the cool weather crops who don't care too much about the frost.  I'm hoping to get them to continue doing their thing until Thanksgiving or so.  We'll see. 

There were plans for hoop houses, but after a difficult year in other aspects of my life, I've decided to forgo the overwintering until next year.  I'm hoping that next year will be easier on me.  This year was wonderful for figuring out when things needed to be planted for the fall garden.  What is there will be eaten by us and the chickens, or stored for later use. 

Today is 10-10-10 which is a date used by several organizations to highlight the climate crisis.  I'm planning to spend today in the garden putting it to bed.  The garlic bed needs to be amended and planted.  I'll also be looking to plant my potato onions.  More about those later.

The tomato bed will be capped with a good layer of cow manure this weekend and then left to sleep for the winter.  I still have lots to do in the garden.  The last bed of potatoes still needs to be dug.  We've had quite a bit of rain, so I'm waiting for it to dry out still.  There is an "almost 17" year old up the street who has offered to help.  He spent an hour here turning beds over on Friday, but I haven't seen him since.  Hopefully I didn't scare him off. 

My constant helpers in the garden will be assisting me along the way.  They'll get some treats along the way. 

My October garden

It isn't big or fancy.  It is a bit weedy, but I have quite a bit still happening. 

The chickens are in the main garden doing their clean up.  The fall garden is the jungle in front.   I haven't erected any new hoops.  That has to be done this week, if I have time.  We've been having some warm/hot tropical weather lately, but that will end after today.  They aren't saying well get a frost yet, but it can't be far off.  It's already rather late for my area.  I'm actually now questioning whether I'll put them up, or just throw a cover over a few things. 

This is another angle of the bed.  At the top is broccoli, then red cabbage, overgrown bok choy, rainbow chard and then at the bottom is carrots. 

I'm in awe of the carrots.  I've tried so many times to grow decent carrots, without success.  These were planted in late July after the garlic was harvested from this bed.  So far they seem to be doing amazingly well.  In another bed are some beets, planted about the same time.  They are both doing very well.  My spring plantings generally are pretty pathetic.  Since we don't really appreciate the beets in the summer, but love them in the fall, I think I'll stop even doing a spring planting.  It seems it would work out perfectly to harvest the garlic, amend the beds and plant my carrots and beets.  How cool is that? 

The broccoli is also doing remarkably well now.  All those plants that had looked beautiful and healthy, but weren't doing a thing, are now pumping out broccoli like crazy.  With these, there are a few things I'm thinking.  First, they got planted later than they should have.  Second we had a very hot summer and the broccoli loves the cool.  My plan for next year is to winter sow the coles and greens.  I'll then plant a second round in early July and see how that works.  We love our broccoli around here, so finding a good way to grow it is imperative.

How is your fall garden doing?

Fall garden update

The fall garden is really starting to come into it's own.  The broccoli has finally started to make a head.  I was wondering if it would ever behave.  The heat this summer is messing with things.  I'm hoping that the heat we're having this week won't stop the broccoli progress. 

The pac choy is doing extremely well and really needs to be harvested.  In the background is some chard sizing up nicely.  I think I'll plant some more of the pac choy this week.  It grows very quickly and is very yummy as well.

This is some more broccoli that the bugs have been enoying along with some red cabbage.  This bed also contains some carrots that seem to be doing well.  I'm hoping that they'll put on some good growth in the next few weeks.

In the second bed, the beets are also doing very well.  We are big fans of roasted beets in the cooler weather.  These won't over winter well, so we'll eat what we can and harvest the rest for storage in a few weeks.

Also in the second bed are my second crop of cabbages and broccoli.  Some of the cabbage was harvested last week, the rest needs another week or two. 

This is my first year doing a real fall/winter garden, so I'm still figuring out what works and when they need to be planted.  The spinach I sowed a few weeks ago didn't do anything because of the heat, so I'll re plant that.  I'm thinking of starting the mache as well.  We're really looking forward to eating fresh from the garden this year.  It seems odd to think about harvesting in the snow.  I know it's possible though!

Pumpkin seed saving

When I processed my pumpkins the other day, I decided to save some seeds.  Pumpkins tend to cross rather easily, so this isn't something I would normally do from a pumpkin I didn't grow myself.  However, we picked these at a farm where there was an acre of just pie pumpkins, so I thought it was probably safe. 

Pumpkin seeds. like tomato seeds, have a slimy coating that needs to be removed first.  I started by removing the amount I wanted and placing them in a bowl with a small amount of water.

After a few days they developed a bit of scum on them.  The scum helps to rid the seeds of their coating.  The next step is to place the seeds in a colander and rinse them thoroughly.  They are then put on a plate to dry thoroughly.  You need to dry them a bit more than you might think.  I leave mine on the plate in my kitchen for a few days.

When they are thoroughly dried, you can package them into envelopes or other containers to await planting.  If anyone wants a few seeds, let me know and I'll send what I can off to you.

One more weekend outside

We've been having an unusually mild fall so far this year.  Its really amazing considering last year we had already had several snow storms and below average temperatures.  This year I still have unprotected veggies growing.  Imagine what would be growing had I built hoop houses? 

The thing is that with the nice weather, I haven't had that sense of urgency to finish up all the fall tasks.  There were a few little things that still needed my attention.  Since our forecast is finally showing some winter on the way, I got out and got a few things done.

The compost bins were married together to finish off for Spring.  They were already doing quite well, but I had added quite a bit of green matter over the last few weeks.  This way the pile can heat up again and hopefully finish off for next year's garden.  That also leaves me an empty bin to fill up over the winter months.  I continue to compost over the winter because my bins are right out the back door and over the side of the deck.  They are looking a little rough, so next year I'll be looking to rebuild them.  I'm also realizing that I won't have nearly as much matter for the bins this winter, since we now have the chickens eating lots of bits and pieces.  However, I'll have some wonderfully composted chicken poo for the garden next year as well.

I also finally got around to weeding the edge of the garden.  This will allow me to plant my peas as early as possible.  Last year they didn't get planted until May and my crop was pitiful as a result.  We love sugar snap peas, so this was very necessary. 

Lastly the half made bed got the tarp layed over it.  This was originally where I had put the sod from the garden expansion 2 years ago.  It had composted down wonderfully and was used as an overflow bed this summer.  It also still has way too many weeds and seeds in it that need to die back.  The tarp will help to heat things up and kill of a lot of the seeds and allow me to finish off the bed early next spring.  Its final destination will be as an allium bed for all my onions and garlic.  I'll be adding lots of compost and sand to make it a light, well fed bed.  An online gardener friend tells me that I can keep it as a permanent bed for them.  As long as it is kept well fed with compost, it should be fine. 

There are so many plans I have in my head for next year's garden, I just can't wait. 

Making pumpkin puree

One of the things I'm asked a lot, is how to process pumpkins.  Its very easy and while the whole process takes a while, it doesn't take much of your actual hands on time.  We got these pumpkins on a field trip with our wonderful nature club.  They've decorated the house for about a month and its time for them to do their part. 

First you need to wash the outside of the pumpkin.  They can get dirty and you don't want that in your food.

Then cut them in half.  This is actually harder than it looks.  The shells of pie pumpkins are very hard.  Hubby used my cleaver to whack these pumpkins for me.  We ended up with shards of pumpkin and seeds all over the place.  You then scrape the guts out.  I saved some seeds for next year's garden.  I'll show the process in another post.  The remaining seeds and insides went to the chickens, although you may want to roast the seeds.  My family isn't big on pumpkin seeds, but the chickens are.

Then lay the pumpkins cut side down in a baking pan.  I slide it in the oven and then put about a quarter of an inch of water in the pan to help them steam.  Let them bake at 350 for about 50-60 minutes.  Then pull them out and let them cool for 30 minutes so that they can be safely handled.

Scoop the flesh out and put it into the food processor or blender to break up the strings.

I then put the pureed pumpkin into a colander lined with paper towels or cheesecloth.  There is a remarkable amount of water in that pumpkin, so be sure to do this step.

Lastly, package it up.  I like to put mine in bags with 2 C of puree, the same amount in a can of pumpkin.  They can be stored in the freezer for quite a while.  Ours is usually gone by the following summer.  I got 6 cups of puree from 3 medium sized pie pumpkins.  Considering how many pumpkins will grow from just a few seeds, its not a bad option for the garden.  

I'm a pot head

I was walking through my yard today, realizing that I still need to get everything put away.  There are pots everywhere.  This one is by itself on the deck.  Its a leftover from a project for the kids Nature Club.

This is a pot sitting just outside my garden.  My brother was quite upset that I bought it.  You see at the time he worked for a large pottery company located nearby.  I told him he needed to give me more pots to satisfy my addiction.

So he gave me this one.  Its just outside my front door in the herb and flower bed.  Once upon a time there was mint growing wildly in it.

I haven't a clue where this one came from.  My daughter decided that she and her friend were going to plant some flowers.  The got this pot, filled it with dirt and planted some zinnia seeds in it.  Its been sitting in my garden for the past few weeks.  Do you think anything is going to grow?

This is my post for the Sunday Stroll.  Check out who else is strolling at the Quiet Country House.

Baby, its cold outside!

It was 22 degrees when I woke up this morning.  We've had quite a few good frosts already, but this is the first real freeze.  The really crazy thing is, we're supposed to be in a warm up in the next 4 days or so.  There will be highs in the mid 60s at least.  The parsnips couldn't care less.

 

The chard is probably going to care a little bit more.  We'll see how it all goes.  I've never had chard this late, so I have no idea what this will do to it.  If all else fails, it will go to the chickens.

Almost done for the year

The kids were a huge help yesterday.  It cost me some candy and a few bucks in the end, but was well worth it.  They finished filling all but one bed.  I had already done a lot of it, but they did 3/4 of 1 and 1/3 of another of the big beds.  Then they decided that wasn't enough and raked my leaves, spreading them over the tops of the beds.  The little ones helped me plant 200 bulbs out as well.  I'm just amazed.  My back is still killing me, but it feels much better than it would have.  It would have taken me at least another day or so to do what they did in an afternoon.  Great kids.  Last Friday they raked another neighbor's leaves up as well.

All I have left to do is turn the last bed and fill it, weed the edges of the fenced garden and rake out the rest of the soil.  If my back was feeling better, I would get some cow manure spread, but its not the end of the world if I don't.  The garden is put to bed well and will be ready for me to plant the early things like peas, onions, lettuce and cole crops.  Maybe I'll get the kids to help me spread the manure...

Child labor

Ah, what a beautiful sight.

Canning applesauce

Time to make the applesauce.  The kids were so excited.

I cut up all the apples, leaving the skin on for added flavor and nutrition.  The cores were placed in a bag to save for the chickens.

Into the pot with an inch of water.

All soft and yummy.

Through the strainer to get the right consistency.

Then 20 minutes in the water bath and we have sauce!  The kids love it, so I need to use up the rest of the apples tomorrow.

Thinking about Thanksgiving

 This sounds great!  I just found this nifty little site.  My family has always had a relatively local Thanksgiving, even before we really understood the whole locavore movement.

My Mom has always gotten her turkeys from a local turkey farm called Bongi's.  We love the taste of the fresh, local turkeys.   They are so different from the plastic encased, frozen birds. 

Then there are the sides.  My family has always had a garden if at all possible.  I've now got one as well.  So, between us, we have lots of veggies at our disposal.  The butternut squash is a must have, along with the pumpkin pie from our own pumpkins.  We also have goodies that were frozen during the summer, like broccoli, green beans and peas.  Apples are abundant here in New England, so pies and cider are a yummy addition.

It seems that the biggest thing that is not local are the grains.  We buy all of our flour from King Arthur Flour.  The company is relatively local, being in Vermont, although I don't know where they get their grains from for the flour.  I'm told that there will be a grain CSA starting up in the Western part of MA, so that should be very exciting.

Interestingly, I've never thought about this before.  I'm relatively new to the locavore and green movements.  It is neat though, that we were doing it right anyway.  The only thing we need to find local now is the little boiling onions for creamed onions.  Those are a must have at our Thanksgiving meal.  What will you be having for Thanksgiving?

Apple Picking

I love apple picking.  We were late going this year, but thankfully there were still plenty left.  I packed the kids and the wagon into my car and off we went to Honey Pot Hill.  Its a great orchard about an hours drive from me.

The only problem was that most of the apples were too far up for us to reach.  Here is Noah trying to find apples low enough to pick.

Any that Morgan found were instantly eaten.

These were out of reach, taunting me.  I am scared of ladders and didn't have my 6'4" hubby to get them for me.

Every tree had hundreds of apples on the ground under it.  So much waste made me very sad.  It was impossible to walk without making applesauce as you went.

The wagon was very useful, since we ended up with a bushel of apples.  The kids are excited to make applesauce from them.

It really was a perfect day.

Over at the farm store, they had pumpkins for sale as well.  They look so nice all lined up.  When the kids were little we would have them sit on the pumpkins for pictures.

I loved the rows of future trees.  This orchard is truly massive.  We have been going there for years, but ended up in an area that I didn't even know existed.  Tomorrow I'll post pics of the animals they have.