It’s true – my tomatoes have blight. I spent some time with them this afternoon, trying to cheer them up and picking most of the green tomatoes off the saucey and stupice vines and tomorrow I’ll pull up all the plants. Nuts. They were just developing a whole new round of fruit that would have rivaled what I’ve gotten off the vines already this year.
For all my complaining about having to beat the rat to the tomatoes I still can’t believe I have only maybe 4 gallons of ripe sauceys waiting for me upstairs to process and then the party is over.
I’m hoping the black plum, sweet 100, green zebra and cherokee purple can hold on just a little longer but the rat has chewed any red blush on all the big cherokee purple so those are probably done too.
I’m saving seeds now before it’s too late. I followed directions that I found here but instead of putting them on a plate I put them on a paper towel over a wire rack to dry. Once dry I put them back in the envelope I ordered from Territorial Seed last winter. Except this time it didn’t cost me $2.85 for 30 little seeds. Hah!
The zucchini and acorn squash have powdery mildew but the acorns were ready so I harvested a box of them tonight. Chicken Little was amazed at how many we got so he quickly grabbed a few and ran off to sell them before I could say anything. It’s hard to contain his exuberance. He came home 10 minutes later and told me he had traded them for 2 plums. Umm…I think it’s time to read Jack and the Beanstalk at bedtime.
I cut the zucchini back hard last weekend and they are full of new healthy growth and *may* set another round of fruit. We’ll see. Frankly I’ll be shocked but it was worth the experiment.
That just leaves the cucumbers which are looking a little spotty, the watermelon which have yellowing leaves and the butternut squash which have only a few mildewed leaves so far. I’m hopeful since it finally decided to set a few more fruit. Until now I had only one butternut squash on the vine!
It’s time to get the pumpkins in out of the rain I think and try to make them last until Halloween. If you have any tips or advice on when to pick and storing carving pumpkins I would love it. This is all new territory for me.
Tonight I harvested the first of the brussel sprouts even though they were only large marble sized. I cut them off the plant and took them directly in to braise with a little butter, dijon & tarragon. Even Chicken Little loved them, gobbling them up alongside his chicken and dumplings. He made sure to leave enough room for dessert though.
I realized this week that I’ve been so busy this year I completely forgot about blackberries so Thursday (the only warm sunny day last week) we went in search of some. The huge Himalayans that are so abundant around Seattle are completely different this year. I’m assuming because of the dry weather they were small berries resembling wild blackberries. I got a few quarts before the kids finally wore me down (Are you done NOW?) which we used for a quick blackberry cobbler. Blackberry is my all time favorite of the cobblers and these ones were particularly intense. I could have sat there all night making that bowl last forever but alas I had a huge kitchen mess, bread to start for the morning and two young ‘uns to get to bed.
I’ll leave you with one last photo – from breakfast this morning. I saved one bowl of peaches from yesterday’s peach-o-Rama. We had oatmeal shortcakes, fresh peaches and creme anglaise. I figured creme anglaise is pretty much milk with eggs and the shortcakes were freshly ground whole wheat with oatmeal so why not?
If you haven’t had fresh peaches yet this year you’d better get a move on!
We must have been on similar wave lengths yesterday because I made a big dutch oven pot of chicken and dumplings too! We had leftover pumpkin pie from the prior day’s baking and preserving efforts rather than a blackberry confection but certainly have been enjoying the berry season too.
As usual, everything looks very tasty!
I am staggering my pumpkin harvest, bringing in those that are clearly ripe and ready and doing something with them, and leaving the ones that are not as far along on the vine. The less mature ones will be the Halloween jack o lanterns and the rest will be processed or put into dry cellar storage (which is my garage shelving actually!).
Pumpkin pie – from your own I’m assuming? I’m so bummed I only got one pie pumpkin so it looks like we’ll be eating acorn squash pie this year.
Do you wash the squash with a bleach solution like I’ve read to do? Or do you just put them in the garage?
Love the idea of using coffee bags, fantastic. I have started my zucchini, green onions and radishes so far on my counter and I love this idea!! Thanks
I really enjoyed reading your page here too!
Thanks Donna! Those tomato seeds came up faster than my new varieties I bought from Territorial. Hopefully the blight won’t carry over…I can’t wait to get more stuff planted out tomorrow morning since I’m getting tired of carrying stuff out in the morning and in each night. There’s a lot of seed sitting going on right now!
My garden had also sorts of issues this year too. My tomatos are pitiful. I did fine with blueberries, raspberries and bushbeans.
There was a John Grisham book called A Painted House. It got made into a movie. The reason it is meaningful to me is the characters had similar lives to my parents. It follows a year of the kid’s life on a poor 30s farm in Arkansas. Their dreams and hopes were simple. They ate out of their garden and much of the book was about the farm and day to day lives including the management of the garden throughout the summer. It was a good year, so they had plenty and canned everything. At the end, there was a natural disaster. The characters in the book took in the occupants of a neighboring farm and fed them from the bounty of their garden. I’m hoping to get the movie soon, because my step children don’t read books. They are gaining understanding about how to live and what to think and do, what to teach their children. Important stuff.
LeAnn that sounds like an awesome book! This summer I’m so thankful I had garden diversity. So many folks bank on zuchini, cucumbers and tomatoes. I feel sorry for them!