Seed Fall 2023

Autumn at home

The month of Seed Fall has come and gone. Most of this month's activity was concerned with preparing for the season ahead.

The garden claimed the Lion's share of the time. When last I wrote, I mentioned the warm, dry weather we were expecting. Well, it came and was a real catalyst for our maturing bean crop. Almost the entire crop came to maturity on the vine and was gathered without any trouble from rainy weather. I have ten bushel boxes of bean pods in the cellar awaiting threshing next month.

Nice looking carrots

The carrots and beets have been harvested and are packed away in the root cellar.

Parsley Worm

I left one carrot in the ground because I found a Parsley Worm on it. This is the caterpillar of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly, one of my personal favorites. I'd rather lose a carrot than to deprive it of its needed safe haven.

Wrapping sweet potatoes 

 

The sweet potatoes we harvested last month have been cured, wrapped and are in the cellar with bags of garlic and shallots hanging above them.

Bob harvested the Spitzenburg apples. We're eating tons of apples.

Making applesauce

I've frozen 14 pints of applesauce - all I have room for.

Apple slices to be dried.

We're also drying apple slices. We've dried four loads so far, yielding 15 quarts of dried slices. Bob enjoys munching on these while reading by the fire during the winter.

The winecap mushrooms are still producing and we're enjoying our late, "free", self seeded lettuce again this year.

Late lettuce

As the harvests have been winding down, we've worked on garden clean up.

All of the trellises have been cleaned off.

Pulling off bean vines

Everything is out except the kale, flowers and our cover crops. We're just waiting for a frost now to finish it up.

I planted the garlic and shallots on the 27th. So, technically next year's garden is already begun.

Planting garlic among the cover crop

Another way in which we have prepared for the season ahead was to get ready for the woodstove season. 

Bob loading wood into his cart

Bob has filled our cellar wood bin with an assortment of wood types and sizes.

Preparing kindling

I gathered kindling and refilled our very large kindling box in the cellar.

In the last update I mentioned our red sauerkraut. This raised a few questions from folks. Red kraut is a Bavarian style. Typically it is fermented along with some combination of apples, onions, bay leaves, caraway seeds and juniper berries. We prefer ours plain, so we don't include these things. Ours tastes like "white" kraut, but it looks nicer and is loaded with anthocyanins.

Our red sauerkraut

The final way in which we prepared for winter was to go to the Friends of Tompkins County Library book sale. We went on $1.50 a book and $.10 a book days. We got some good reading material for winter.

Some of our good finds at the book sale

On Tuesday we will mark the halfway point between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice. Since the weather is supposed to be less than pleasant, we plan to rest and relax at home with games, reading, and Grandma Neill's apple pie.

Because of our preparations, our bellies will be full, our bodies warm and our minds and souls nourished. Bring it on!

There's still time to get yourselves ready for a restful and rich winter season. It's so much more settling to embrace what the season has to offer than to despise it. Just a thought to consider.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Time to enjoy the simple things

Song Time/ Falling Leaves Time 2022

An interesting fungus

The moon is full and we say, "farewell" to Song Time/Falling Leaves Time. It's been a busy month here.

Our weather became abruptly autumnal right on Labor Day. Quite cool (to very cool) and rainy. 

At Sapsucker Woods in Ithaca

Before the weather changed we attended the Migration Celebration hosted at Sapsucker Woods by the Cornell Ornithology Lab. It was a lovely day. We went on a two hour guided bird walk and then got to see some birds of prey up close and personal: a golden eagle, a peregrine falcon, a great horned owl, a broad winged hawk and a red tailed hawk.

Peregrine Falcon

After eating a picnic lunch we walked another two hours on our own. We didn't see many birds, but did see many interesting fungi. It was a very nice break from our work.

Last of the summer produce

Because of the quick shift in the weather, I've gotten a good bit of garden clean up done. All of the tender crops are out. Only the cool weather enthusiasts remain: kale, chard, parsley, beets and carrots. I also have two varieties of dry beans still standing. I'm hoping more of the pods will mature soon. All of the other beans have been harvested and their trellises stripped.

Last month a reader asked me about tomato leathers. I thought perhaps others would be interested, too. Tomato leathers are similar to those "fruit roll ups" that you find in the grocery store, except they are made out of tomato. I use them to add to soup, make spaghetti sauce or by adding just a little water, tomato paste. Here's the process:

Opalka Tomatoes

I use a good paste type of tomato (less juice, more pulp). Mine are an heirloom variety from Poland.

Blending the tomatoes

I remove the skins (this is optional, but I have texture issues and prefer no skins). Then I puree the pulp in my blender.

Blended puree

I pour about 1 1/2c of puree onto a special sheet that comes with my dehydrator. This tray is then put into my dehydrator (my machine will hold nine trays all together) and dried until no longer tacky to the touch.

Dried leathers

Once dry, the trays are removed and leathers allowed to cool. After this I roll the leathers and store them in an airtight jar. In this state they will keep for a very long time.

My dehydrator

My dehydrator is a good quality one with a fan and thermostatic control. It has nine trays and when full will accommodate 12.25 square feet of produce. That's like 25# of vegetables. It can hold a lot! I've been using mine several times a year for 17 years now. It's been a worthwhile investment for me.

We observed the Autumnal Equinox this month. The weather was unpleasant so we stayed indoors: had a nice meal, played a game and read together. For our meal I made a kale and apple sauté and a wild rice and wild mushroom pilaf topped with fresh parsley, craisins and roasted almonds. For dessert we had black and blue pie.

Our Equinox meal

The wild mushrooms that I used in the meal were from our neighbors. They had several puffballs growing in their lawn and offered them to us. We enjoyed a few meals and the remainder were sautéed and frozen for use this winter. It was a greatly appreciated gift.

One of our puffballs

 

We are very pleased to announce that the east porch is now finished!

The new and improved porch

Bob finished just yesterday. We're both very pleased with the results. We plan to build the third, and final porch on the west side next summer. Then we'll dismantle the existing deck behind the house.

A man proud of his work

The outside of the house is beginning to look as good as the inside.

That's about all of the news from here for now. We're both looking forward to winding up the garden chores and settling in for a nice rest. 

Enjoy your autumn.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

First fire of the season