Moolie - Happy Thanksgiving :)

[moolie]

Busy evening tonight as I have to go out to a Girl Guide leader meeting, but my freezer cooking is paying off--just about to toss a frozen Lentil and Bratwurst Stew into the oven for dinner!

The weather has been super all of February, with temps above freezing and nice sunny days, but we got a skiff Monday night that is just done melting off my back deck now. Waiting for the usual March blizzards to roll in... although the rest of this week's forecast is still for warm and sunny!

 

[moolie]

Just realized how badly I've been neglecting my journal over the past few months, so thought I'd post a bit of an update

Been super busy all spring and summer so far, raising seedlings under lights then getting the gardens in and growing, hosting out of town family, doing a bunch of camping, and I'm currently up to my eyeballs at the moment in tomatoes (not from the garden, yet, but from the farmer's market) that need to be canned up. Have also already canned various jams, pickles, relish, chutney, salsa, chili sauce and my usual loads of convenience meals and meats when they've been on sale.

Unseasonably cold today, and raining on and off all day, which has been nice for the gardens as it's been high 20s Celcius (80-90 Farenheit) for the past few weeks with just the odd evening thunderstorm, not all bringing any rain.

 

[Corn Woman]

Still waiting for tomatoes to can but I have been overloaded with beans. I get so busy that it's hard to take time to work on my journal.

 

[moolie]

Still waiting for tomatoes to can but I have been overloaded with beans. I get so busy that it's hard to take time to work on my journal.

Hi C! Just posted in your journal, nice to catch up with what's keeping you busy

Still keeping busy here, been busy the past few weeks with some post-flood volunteering on top of my normal summer routine and I've been falling into bed early every night pretty much exhausted. But it's been good sleep and I'm up and ready to go each morning

 

[moolie]

The garden is in full swing, which is good because we are about 2 weeks away from our typical early fall first frost date (usually first week of September). Daytime temps are in the high 20s Celcius at this time of year (around 80F) but night time temps are usually around 10C (50F) and have got as low as 6C (42F) once or twice already. Non-native trees are starting to turn colours.

Bumper crop of Peas, which we are enjoying daily--mostly raw right from the pods. Lots of Green and Wax Beans, Carrots, Yellow Zucchini (which I am really enjoying--don't think I'll bother with the green next year), Red and Yellow Onions, Celery is beautiful this year, still a bit of Valmaine Lettuce hanging on...

Still lots to harvest though--Parsnips look to be doing well, lots of green Tomatoes that we just need to baby along into frost season to extend the season as long as we can, Cardoon is coming along nicely although something out there is munching on it, and it looks like we'll have a nice Winter Squash harvest (again if we can protect it from frost). The Pollock Tomato variety I started from seed seems just right for our short growing season and very hardy so I will do that one again next year.

Some disappointments--our Bell Peppers were small again, may not even bother next year. Didn't bother with Radishes, Beets, or Potatoes again this year, but may do the Potatoes next year if we feel like it as we have lots of space. Our Apple trees took the year off, as did our neighbor's--seems like the local hardy varieties only produce every second year when the trees are still young, and our trees are only two years old.

Canning up a storm as usual, haven't put the canners away in weeks (just wash them and put them right back on the stove for the next batch tomorrow!) Jams, Pickles, Relishes, all done. Want to try a different Chutney recipe this year to move beyond the usual Mango Chutney as we have lots--checking recipes and trying to decide as so many of them sound tasty. 75 lbs of Peaches to do this weekend. In the midst of Tomatoes, have done 100lbs as plain all-purpose Tomato Sauce and would like to do 50 more as sauce, plus another 50 or so divided between mostly Salsa plus some Chili Sauce and Antipasto. Need to put up some Soups over the next while as school starts next week and my youngest loves to take soup in a thermos--she has some faves but I'm looking at a few new recipes. Looking forward Pears and Apples in September/October.

 

[k15n1]

Alternate year production in fruit trees can be as sign that you're allowing too heavy of a crop to set.

Try French Breakfast radishes. They can be eaten when mature without the usual peppery taste and woody texture. Slice and bake with potato and onion slices, dotted with butter.

 

[~gd]

Parsnips? In Wastern NY we always left them in the ground untill the first freeze [not frost, the ground had to freeze] Folklore said that the freeze converted the starch to sugars. We always planted late to keep them relatively small otherwise they had a woody core. Again this was folklore all I know for sure is that i have never had a decent parsnip since I moved from there. After the freeze melted we would mulch heavely with straw or hay so they could be dug as needed suring the rest of the winter
Apples usuly didn't bear any useable fruit until after three years. Many of the old apples would bear every other year {as do many nut trees) we would plant one orchard a year after the first tp have apples every year.

 

[moolie]

Alternate year production in fruit trees can be as sign that you're allowing too heavy of a crop to set.

Try French Breakfast radishes. They can be eaten when mature without the usual peppery taste and woody texture. Slice and bake with potato and onion slices, dotted with butter.

Good to know on the apple trees, we'll watch that next year

Each year we've tried to grow radishes here we've tried different varieties, best so far has been Cherry Belle, but I'll try the French breakfast next spring, thanks!

 

[moolie]

Parsnips? In Wastern NY we always left them in the ground untill the first freeze [not frost, the ground had to freeze] Folklore said that the freeze converted the starch to sugars. We always planted late to keep them relatively small otherwise they had a woody core. Again this was folklore all I know for sure is that i have never had a decent parsnip since I moved from there. After the freeze melted we would mulch heavely with straw or hay so they could be dug as needed suring the rest of the winter
Apples usuly didn't bear any useable fruit until after three years. Many of the old apples would bear every other year {as do many nut trees) we would plant one orchard a year after the first tp have apples every year.

We won't be harvesting the parsnips until just before the ground freezes up The frost does indeed give them a better flavour, but I like the big ones--they are super in stews or just roasted. Never had any woody cores though?

We're told by our neighbors that young apple trees of the local hardy varieties that we've planted take a few years to have annual crops, and we have neighbors in the same situation--our immediate neighbor has apples this fall but had none last year so opposite to our trees. But I'm going to watch the fruit set next year as k15n1 suggested above and perhaps knock a few off when they first start to swell and see if that makes a difference the following year.

 

[moolie]

Starting garden clean-up, onions, zucchini, beans and peas are out and some garden beds are tidied up for winter.

Tomatoes will stay out as long as possible, but frost may be coming within the week so once it's in the forecast I'll pick those and let them finish ripening indoors--nice crop out there at the moment

Spaghetti squash seem to have reached their mature size but aren't quite done, will have to provide frost protection to finish them off. Still some celery in that bed, so it will likely come in soon and I'll get to cooking a lot of it into various freezer meals and soups for pressure canning. Will be canning up some soups today that I've been making over the past few days.

Carrots and parsnips are waiting till we're into frost season and we'll pull them just before freeze-up.

Feeling happy about a nice full pantry, lots of canned and frozen produce (and soon to add the cold storage root veggies) from our garden to take us through the winter months