Autumn gardening

How did we commemorate the beginning of October? By gardening, of course!

If you're not out there weeding and planting and tending this time of year, you won't have a nice fall/winter crop to harvest. You don't need a fancy greenhouse either, just some row-covers if you plant cold-hardy crops. If you want to go the fancy greenhouse route, check out Eliot Coleman's books to learn more.

Here are the kids, weeding (before harvesting tomatoes and peppers); no, they don't always have goofy grins while weeding, but they don't complain about having to do it either:

So what are we weeding and tending to? Well, there's choi sum:

and lettuce:

and carrots:

and don't forget the cabbage (although that was planted a while ago) :

Another nice fall crop is kale. It's highly cold tolerant.  Hubby grew 2 different varieties this year:

We're also harvesting some end-of-summer crops like potatoes (no pic, sorry) and sweet potatoes:

Sweet potatoes as big as footballs (with the density of bowling balls) -

Here's a more mature choi-sum that hubby's been harvesting already:

Hubby re-planted some summer squash after vine borers killed our squash plants earlier this summer.  We've been getting a really nice harvest from them.  Both the patty-pans:

and the summer squash:

Because we needed room for the new plantings, hubby pulled out a bunch of volunteer dill plants and I hung them up to dry.  Who needs Halloween decorations when you have these?

I hope you're running a nice Autumn garden yourself!  Next up: tomato pie recipes.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

The Gardening Edition

I know everyone and his/her dog are talking about what they are growing right now, but I'm going to too because 'tis Spring and a homesteader's thoughts turn to gardening fancy.

To complement this whole gardening post, I've added a "garden seeds" (Hometown Seeds) link on the right hand side, and I invite everyone to check out Theresa Loe's amazing gardening blog, Garden Fresh Living.

On our little homestead, dh has been busy planting and tending (while I sit on my fat duff and write stupid blog posts about it). Here he is, watering the broccoli seedlings:
Dh is trying a biodegradable corn-starch based cover to cut down on weeds. He's growing cabbage and broccoli through the cover.
I checked on our asparagus; alas, nothing is up yet.
Hmmm, the blueberries aren't doing much either:
Inside the greenhouse is a different story. Here are some kale that have over-wintered (among the weeds):
Dh started some (more) broccoli from seeds, along with celery, frisee, and red cabbage. Can't remember what the other trays were. Will have to ask him and come back to fill in. My mind is like a sieve. It's sad.
Here's ds#1 picking cilantro from the greenhouse. The tall stuff growing with the cilantro are leeks.
A close-up of the very cute leeks:
This is one of the fruit trees that we need to put into the ground; it's a nectarine. The others are a peach and a cherry.
More seedlings in the greenhouse, from left to right: choi sum, bok choi (which didn't germinate well, so there's hardly any there), and radishes.
And a peek at our house in its drab winter surroundings. The little plot you see in the foreground is what we call the small northern garden.
Well, that's it for now, folks. Not too exciting yet unless you're out there knee-deep in dirt doing the work. I forgot to mention that dh also planted carrots and beets. They're not the best spring crops; they do better in the fall when there's a much longer cool period for them to develop lots of sugar. But, it'll still be nice to have a few in the spring.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Mid-(ahem)-week post - in which Pooh loses his mind and wants to hibernate

...because he has too many things to do, and too little time to do them.

Dang - I'm projecting again. It's actually me, and not Pooh.

Got a whole bunch of random photos to share anyway, but not a whole lot of writing (mercifully for all of you).

Ds#1's gardening pick this year was a purple carrot. They turned out pretty well (see below with a "normal" carrot on the right for color comparison), but I'd advise against growing them as they tend to stain everything, much like beets do. The thing is, there is no good substitute for beets, but there are fine substitutes for purple carrots.
Here are the carrots, roasted up with potatoes, and served with fried chicken:
Dh has always wanted a good hammock so we finally bought one from Gaiam.com. The boys tested it out and pronounced it a great fit.
Lorie (Be Different Act Normal) posted about bandana aprons and I got inspired (because our bandanas had secretly procreated like rabbits in the drawer and we now have a hundred of them). This is my attempt. I wore it today to brown the pot roast. The pot roast was pleased, I could tell.
Have any of you ever tasted paw paw? It's native to Indiana. The animals have always gotten to them before we did, even though we have a good bit of paw paw trees on our property. This year, dh and the boys managed to snag a couple. So, we tried it, and I think it is incredibly foul. Andrew Zimmern (on Bizarre Foods) could not stomach durian. Obviously, he had never eaten paw paw because that would have prepared him for the durian experience. Yes, it is that foul.
On the other end of the gastronomic spectrum has to be this tofu curry that dh makes. It is the current love of my life!
Tofu curry in my bowl...and in my dreams!
These next couple of photos are specially for Sara (Schooling From the Heart). This is the potter's wheel I bought from her before they left for Europe (*sniffle*). Ds#1 has been working on it regularly for a month now. It takes a long time to master, but I'm glad he seems to be enjoying it.
Sara gave us this table that her dh made; it is sturdy and excellent for wedging clay (which is what ds#1 is doing here, before he threw it on the wheel; my photos are out of order).
Ds#2 is taking a short break from ceramics right now, but will start back next week. He's been practicing sketching while ds#1 works on ceramics. I love art days!
And last, but not least, here are the goodies from Amber (Amber's Ambry) that I got for swapping the hat I knitted. Is the package adorable, or what?
Here are the soaps she sent me. I've started using the Blueberry one, and it smells soooo nice! Thanks much for bartering/swapping with me, Amber!
"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams