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| We grow some really tall sunflowers! |
Here we are, four days after the full moon, and I'm just getting our Harvest/Ingathering update out to you. That's how busy it is here. This is quite possibly our busiest time of year. So, right on to it...
Our weather in August was very cloudy, and sometimes rather cool. It's obvious that summer is on the decline. Very warm days are predicted for this week, but the nights will still be rather cool. We're hoping for sunnier conditions for September. We want to keep that solar production up!
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| The daily harvest on August 21 |
The garden work has kept me busy. I've picked nearly all of the blue berries, processed all of the celery and the freezers are filling up. There's still room for tomatoes, corn, applesauce and a few more boxes of kale.
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| Harvesting fingerling potatoes |
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| Picking green and yellow beans |
I've begun digging potatoes, we're eating green beans, cucumbers, eggplants and squash daily. Our meals are determined by what's piled up the highest in the kitchen! It makes for some very odd combinations.
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| This is what came in on August 31 |
The tomatoes are starting to come in. I hope to get some into the freezer very soon.
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| Wisconsin Chief tomato |
I began freezing corn on Friday. It generally takes four weekly sessions to process all of the corn in my patch.
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| Shucking right between the patch and compost pile |
Soon we'll be digging the sweet potatoes. You can see how luxurious the vines are. Hope we're getting a nice crop below.
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| Sweet potato vines running rampant |
In addition to all of this, we're also eating and processing our wine cap mushrooms. The bed had gotten too dry, but with extra attention it seems to have recovered somewhat. This delayed production a little. In just one day this week, we harvested over five pounds.
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| Five pounds of Wine cap-they're large! |
In addition to fresh eating, I've sautéed and frozen some and dehydrated quite a few.
In the midst of all this, Bob brought in some "wildlings" from our woods and meadow. One day he came in with a couple of quarts of blackberries and a nice amount of wild mushrooms.
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| Wild blackberries |
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| Chicken of the Woods |
Both are now in the freezer and will be a pleasant treat in the cold months.
While I have been busy with all of this, Bob's been busy outside.
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| The deck almost gone |
He's been removing the old deck. It was 18'x24', so there was a lot to remove. He's saved a few of the reusable materials to make a trellis for my clematis and some planting boxes.
He ran into a snag (this happens on all projects). Notice the white trellising in the photo. On the back of this is growing a shrubby vine that is very large. It has to be cut out before that trellising can be removed. As Bob was hacking away at it, he uncovered an active hornet's nest! It's the size of a basketball and was totally hidden in the shrub. He's very fortunate that he saw it before hacking into it or bumping into it. He didn't get one sting! The colony will disband and die with the cold weather, so the trellis will stand until that time. Other than that, the deck removal is complete. We're still discussing what exactly we want to do with this area.
This week Bob's been busy cleaning up the mountain of discarded material by the garage.
With all of our renovation work and the deck removal, we had amassed quite a debris pile.
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| 20 yard dumpster arrives |
On Tuesday afternoon we had a 20 yard dumpster delivered. As of today the pile has been loaded in and the dumpster is full. It will be picked up this week. That's a big sense of accomplishment!
In the month ahead there's still plenty for us to do. Our garden certainly does not quit on Labor Day, so I'll have my hands full there. Bob's got various little maintenance jobs to do. Many small tasks get set aside during larger jobs. We'll also be sure to take some time to enjoy the nice late summer/early autumn weather, especially on the equinox.
We hope you too, will take time to enjoy the season's change.
Till next time,
Kathleen and Bob
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| Some of our wine cap mushrooms |
