Frustration

Remember these cleared out and clean garden beds I spent last Sunday working on?

3 days later I came home to this:

The pictures are blurry but you get the idea that the beds are disheveled and torn apart.  That's thanks to our neighbor's lawn service.  Remember last year when they blew all of our neighbor's leaves into our yard?  Andy had politely talked to them about the problem and we thought it would no longer be an issue.  We were mistaken.

This year they blew leaves all over our yard, into my garden beds and blew the straw all over the place.  Needless to say I was extremely frustrated.  They didn't attempt to clean the leaves out and left the garden as is, they didn't even try to recover the beds with the straw.  Luckily they were still at my neighbor's when I got home and I said something to them.  They tried to act like they didn't know they did it but promised to come clean it up the next day.

Well they didn't show up, so Andy called and they finally came Friday.  When I went out on Saturday to check out their work I realized they cleaned up the leaves but at least a quarter or more of the straw was gone and they tromped all through the beds.  We don't walk through the beds, the point of raised beds is to NOT walk through them for loose soil.  It was obvious they has walked over the beds and compacted the soil.  I was so mad I could have cried, actually I did.

I ended up having to rake back all the straw, take a garden fork to loosen the soil, rake and even out the soil, and recover with straw.  I had to dig up all the garlic I planted and replant it.  I spent an hour and a half fixing their mess.

Preparing for Winter

This past weekend I finally had some free time when the weather was cooperating so I started to clean out the garden and get it ready for winter.

This was the bean, asparagus and random tomato bed with the failed lettuce bed in back before cleaning.

This was after dead plants had been removed, weeds pulled and asparagus cut back.  I topped the asparagus with a nice thick layer of straw and the rest of the bed with a thin layer to help ensure that I don't lose soil this winter to displacement from rain, snow and ice.  The back bed was covered with a layer of leaves from the tree above it.

This is the tomato, eggplant potato bed before being cleaned out.

This is the bed afterward.  The garlic was planted in this bed after it was cleared and so it has a thick layer of straw like the asparagus while the rest has just a thin layer.  As you can tell with the end of daylight savings, and it getting dark much sooner, I was pushing it to get the job done before dark.

Planted!

I finally got my garlic planted.  I was worried with my crazy year that I might not get the chance to plant it.  I either have been working when the weather was nice or had free time while it was raining and not suitable to plant the garlic.  But this weekend I finally had the time and the weather cooperated also.  This year I planted "Music" since I had good success with it last year.  This year it is in a raised bed so we will see if it does better than in the in-ground garden.  I topped the raised be with straw to help keep it from freezing while it takes its winter nap. 

Harvest

I cleaned out the tomato plants this weekend so this is what was left on the vines before I chopped them down, plus a baby zucchini.

Green Tomatoes

I recently was the recipient of a large donation of green tomatoes.  I had been telling my Dad that our tomatoes had seriously slowed down and that we weren't going to have enough green tomatoes to make anything with.  So he took pity on me or just wanted them off his hands. 

I used over 12 cups to make green tomato chutney, which surprisingly cooked down to only 4 pints.

I also still had plenty of dill in the garden so I thought I would try dilled green tomatoes.

Harvest

Indian Summer

We are experiencing an Indian Summer. Since Monday everyday has been in the high 70s and today we supposedly reached 80.  All I know is that its warm again and we even turned the air back on tonight.  I am soaking up the weather while I can because it won't be lasting long.

While I Was Gone

While I was gone the garden suffered.  More specifically this means I haven't done anything in the garden since mid August.  The only thing I have managed to do has been to harvest food, and even then a few things have gone bad on the plant because I didn't have time to get to it.  I did manage to take some pictures during this time.  Here are some of the things I harvested . . .

 

 

Hello Old Friends

I can't believe how long it has been since I have last posted.  I had planned to take a break while I learned how to balance my new schedule and work responsibilities.  I did not plan to be gone for 2 months.  But between working 10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week for at least a month, taking care of the home, getting strep throat, having a car die and buying a new one life has been, well, busy.

But I am back now and hoping to catch up with everyone.  I won't be able to post everyday but I am hoping to get 2-3 posts up a week while I continue to balance, work, home, friends and family.

In And Out

I hope that all of you can excuse my absence lately.  I have not been around and will be in and out over the next few weeks.  After many years of substitute teaching on Monday I was hired to teach first grade for this school year.  It is exciting to have my own class but there is a lot of work in preparing my classroom and most of my days right now are spent from morning to night at school.  I will be in and out over the next few weeks as I have time and I look forward to catching up with all of you soon!

Short

Yesterday I said it has not been a bumper year for tomatoes.  Part of the reason why is that I have three very short tomato plants that have stopped growing.

On the left is the husky tomato plant which has stopped growing at two feet tall.  The top broke off and a sucker has not replaced it.  On the right the celebrity plant has stopped growing around a foot tall.  Both have produced tomatoes but I wonder what they could have done had they kept growing.  Both are indeterminate varieties that should be MUCH taller.  I picked them because they are supposed to be prolific and I wanted to can a lot of tomatoes this year.  Obviously they haven't held up to their claims.

This is a Mannitoba which I tried out this year because it was supposed to produce extremely early tomatoes.  The celebrity produced a ripe tomato first and this plant produced tomatoes just a few days earlier than my other varieties.  It is a determinate plant but I thought it would putter out at around four or five feet tall not at about two feet tall.

These tomatoes have been treated the same and the soil was also amended exactly the same as all of my other plants which are at least three times their size.  I'm not quite sure what happened with these three but they are definitely stunted.

Dying

These are the tops of my Amish Paste(left) and Green Zebra(right) tomato plants.  They have turned brown and are not growing anymore.  Both are indeterminate but have puttered out at about 5 feet tall.  When they were showing signs of slowing down I added tomato-tone to the soil at the base of each plant and watered it in and then a few days later watered in fish emulsion but it seems both are going to give out.

I went ahead and did the same for all the other plants that haven't given out but have definitely slowed down.  It has not been a bumper year for tomatoes.

Baby Eggplant!

I finally have a baby eggplant growing!  It has taken my eggplant forever to get going this year.  My first plant never died but it also didn't grow so a month after planting it I had to change it out.  This one has been growing but a bit slower or maybe it just feels that way because it got a late start being planted out a month after the first.  Last year I only had one plant and it went gang busters, we couldn't keep up with it.  This year I am wishing I had planted more plants, but I was afraid I would have too much.  At least they are coming now!

Another one on the way also!

Canned

I spent time over two days working on canning the bulk of our two boxes of peaches.  We ended up with 25 quarts, which is double what I did last year.  All in all I am happy with the results.

 This year I did a little experimenting with the different batches to try to eliminate fruit float.  Last year I canned peaches using the raw pack method with an extra light syrup since we don't want the extra sugar.  But no matter how much fruit I put in the jars they still floated which isn't harmful but doesn't look as pretty.

 

This year I tried the hot pack method and raw pack with heavier syrups.  In all the methods the fruit floated.  I definitely didn't like the hot pack method because the fruit became too soft and in the cans are mushed together.  The pieces in the raw pack cans hold their shape much better.  The hot pack method also had the hassle of the extra step of heating/cooking the peaches first.  All in all since none of the methods reduced fruit float I am sticking with the easier raw pack with extra light syrup in the future.

Harvest

 My entire potato harvest, a total bust.

Slow and steady of a little bit here and there.

Indy

Over the weekend we went to Indy to visit my sister and her husband.  We started off the weekend with a trip to the state fair.

 

On Saturday we made a trip out to Traderspoint Creamery, an organic, sustainable dairy.  We took the "tour" which turned out to be nothing but a walk down a gravel road to a field with a few cows in it.

 

Multiple times we were warned about the electric fences and not upsetting the bulls while out in the fields.  We didn't quite get what the big deal was until we got out there and realized the only fence between us and them was a single electrified wire (which you can sorta see below) and wouldn't stop a charging bull.

 I got a lot of pictures of the animals but none of the humans, whoops.  We spent the rest of the weekend eating some good food and catching some Olympics.  Overall a great weekend with family!

Peaches

Boxes of Pennsylvania peaches are available in our area a few weeks earlier than normal.  We love these peaches over those from the south because they always seem to have better flavor and are significantly juicier.  No matter how you eat them fresh they are always messy because they drip so much juice.

Our favorite place that carried them closed last fall so I asked around and found another orchard that orders them from the exact same place.  I drove an hour each way just to get these beauties.  You would think living in a big city we should be able to find a closer supplier.  But we take our peaches seriously and can't find any peaches that hold a candle to these in the Cincinnati area.

Last year I only got one box and Andy had to ration the canned peaches to make them last.  So this year I went for two boxes and split the second with my Mom.  I have a couple days of canning ahead of me.

Pasta with Tomatoes, Basil and Mozarella

One of my favorite summer dishes to make is a simple pasta dish that uses fresh tomatoes.  I cook any kind of pasta according to package directions.  Then in a separate pan I saute minced garlic in a tablespoon or two of olive oil for one minute then add in multiple chopped tomatoes.  I normally use at least 4 or 5 large tomatoes but it really depends on the size of your tomatoes and how much tomato you really want.  I cook the tomatoes down for a a minute or two then season with salt and pepper.  Toss with the pasta, add some chopped basil and fresh mozarella.  That's it!

Cherry Jam

I was able to get my hands on some tart cherries even though much of the crop was ruined by frost this year.  I love cherry jam made with tart cherries and so used all the cherries to make jam.  Unfortunately I had 3 half pint jars of jam crack and break in the canner during processing.  One broke in the first batch and two in the second.  I am not sure what happened.  I properly inspected, washed and preheated all the jars before processing.  But it made me sick because of how much I love this jam and how sparse cherries are this year to have three jars ruined.