Song Time/ Falling Leaves Time 2023

The Harvest Moon marked the end of our month of Song Time/Falling Leaves Time. We're still busy with the garden, but the emphasis has shifted to final harvests and dismantling.

Right now we're in a brief period of warm and sunny days. Total duration should be almost a week. It's a great opportunity for maturing the dry beans and getting the clean up seriously underway.

Here's the garden report:

The corn, squash, cucumbers, green beans and tomatoes are all done.

My tomatoes got late blight, so I had to pick what I could salvage and ripen them in the pantry.

Ripening tomatoes

I lost a large amount of fruit, but am pleased to report that I still got 56 pints in the freezer and five quarts of tomato leather dehydrated.

Macoun Apples

Bob has picked our early (Macoun) apples. We're enjoying those. Our Spitzenburg apples should be ready later in October. Soon I'll be freezing applesauce and drying apple slices.

Harvest starts with trimming vines

We harvested our sweet potatoes. The yield was between three and four bushels. We harvested a little late this year and so the potatoes are larger that I care for. We have to get on the ball earlier next year.

Large potatoes mean 2 meals per potato

We are enjoying fall raspberries and the Wine Cap mushrooms are really producing.

Wine Caps can get BIG!

I have nearly 11 quarts of dried slices so far, and they're still coming!

Dry beans are maturing. The Aduki and Kidney beans are all picked. Black beans and Turkey Craw are nearly all picked. In the next couple of days I will make another pass through the Hidatsa Shield beans and a first pass through the True Red Cranberry and Good Mother Stollard beans.

Harvesting Turkey Craw beans

We harvested my red cabbages and put down a crock of sauerkraut last weekend.

I chop the cabbage.

Bob packs it into the crock with salt.

Now, in addition to picking beans and what not, I'm beginning to seriously clean up and dismantle the garden for winter. I was lax about weeding this year, so I have a good bit of work ahead of me. I'm alternating this work with a quick window washing during this lovely warm spell.

Modern windows are SO nice!

Bob's got the old deck off, except for the old trellising. He ran into another snag there. The hornets have abandoned their nest. That's good. But one of the plants in the flower garden there has turned out to be a stubborn invasive plant. It stowed away in a daylily undetected. Now it has become very obnoxious. It's called Chameleon Plant.

Chameleon plant (Houttuynia cordata)

It spreads if any little bit of root or stem is in the soil. We have had to resort to an herbicide to get rid of it, and it will take more than one application. Due to it's aggressiveness, we will have to get rid of the other flowers in the garden. But, that's fine. It gives me a chance to start again with some different flowers.

Bob's been building the border for the new seating area and will build boxes for the flower beds, hopefully excluding any possibility of this plant sneaking in.

Equinox in Finger Lakes Nat Forest

We took time to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox with a nice meal and a walk in the Finger Lakes National Forest. The walk began in sunny weather, but it started to rain halfway through the walk. Luckily the tree canopy kept us a bit drier.

As you can see, we're still busy here, but rest time is in sight. We use October 31 as our target date to be done (mostly) with the garden and begin the shift toward rest and introspection.

We bid you strength and peace as you bring this season to a close and walk into the next.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Wintergreen and Southern Running Pine