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| Happy Autumn, All! |
The moon is nearly full and another month is coming to an end here at Thistledown Gardens. It's been a busy one, as expected. And yet, not as hectic as harvest time.
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| Kathleen and Lunette digging fingerling potatoes |
This month we finished the potato harvest and have gathered the sweet potatoes, all with Lunette's help.
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| Digging Sweet Potatoes |
We ended up with about three bushel each of "regular" potatoes and sweet potatoes. Since we didn't plant any winter squash or pumpkins this year, three bushel will not be too many sweet potatoes for us to use.
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| Dry land cranberries |
I harvested our cranberries...
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| Good Mother Stollard beans drying on the vine |
...and have been picking the dry beans as they are ready. It's always a race to get them picked and under cover before the steady fall rains begin. They can't be picked before they're mature and that takes a long time unless the weather's hot and dry.
We still have parsley, chard, kale, beets and carrots standing. The greens will probably be pulled in the next week because we want to get the beds ready for winter. I hope to bring in the beets and carrots the last week of October.
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| Some of the chard plants |
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| Carrot and beet bed |
I'll plant next year's garlic at the end of October as well.
As I empty the beds, Bob clears out any weeds and fallen acorns (there are a ton this year!), and covers each with a mixture of organic matter: leaves, plant residue, rotted wood, ground acorns, wood ash... He runs all this through his chipper/shredder so it will decompose quickly.
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| Bob cleaning up a bed |
On some of the beds he sows a cover crop that will winter kill.
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| Hen of the Woods mushrooms |
Bob and Lunette found some more Hen of the Woods mushrooms in the woods this fall. We now have three pints chopped and in the freezer. One of our winter soups is Mushroom Barley made with Shiitake and Hen of the Woods and lots of parsley. Very tasty and healthy!
We've had some cold here, and rain, but no frost for us yet. On those inclement days, we've been preparing for winter inside the house. I washed all of the windows, inside and out. I also washed and ironed all of the curtains.
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| Oiling the dining room furniture |
I oiled all of the wood furniture that needs that treatment as protection against the dryness of wood heat.
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| First fire of the season |
We've had two small fires to prepare our soapstone stove for the upcoming season. The chimney's been repaired. Hopefully when it rains hard we won't have it come down into the hearth anymore. Last year's fix was inadequate, so we hired someone different to do the job this year.
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| Bob tackles the fireplace |
Today Bob's sealing up the old air returns in the fireplace. They're no longer used and a good sized source of air leakage. They've got to go!
This week he also put new weather stripping on the bottom of our kitchen door.
Lunette's twelfth birthday was this week. Lately she stays busy as neighborhood sentinel, alerting everyone of roaming cats and deliverymen. She also enjoys a good "dig", from old mole trails to helping in the garden.
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| Relaxed hole digging. Note the dirty back legs! |
That's about all there is to tell around here for now. By the next update the garden should be all put to bed, and our season of rest begun.
See you again at the end of Frost Time/Seed Fall.
Kathleen, Bob and Lunette
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| One last bouquet. |
