Frost Time 2020

 

Hearty Fall fare from our garden

Hello again all,

Frost Time has now come to an end. It's the time of year when we might get all sorts of weather.  And, we did. There's been cold rain and snow that stuck to the ground. We also enjoyed about a week of "second summer" in the midst of that. The days were sunny and balmy - nearly 70 degrees.

The beautiful stretch of weather allowed us to finish our outside chores. The leaves are all picked up and piled for use in next year's garden.

Bob at the splitter

  

We finished splitting and stacking firewood the day after Thanksgiving. Now we have enough to see us through this winter and into next.

The garden at rest

The garden is emptied and ready to rest. The only remaining task is to put mulch on the garlic and strawberries after the ground freezes.

Bob digging horseradish

On the 28th we processed our year's supply of horseradish: 6 quarts...

Horseradish nearly done!

Bob and Lunette dig the sunchokes

... and on the 29th, we packed our 15 liter fermenting crock with Sunchokes (aka Jerusalem Artichokes).

Spices used for Sunchokes

Because of the fair weather, we spent our efforts on outside work instead of the pantry. Now we have to return our attention to that project.

Bob touches up his mudding job

Bob has finished the drywall work...

Walls all primed and ready

... and I primed the walls today. I'll be painting all of this week. Walls and ceiling should all be done by the weekend.

Bob will be making all of the new trim work while I'm doing the painting.

Lunette with her new aide

Lunette is aging quickly now. Her hips no longer function dependably and stairs have become an impossibility. Since I'm not keen on carrying a 63# dog up and down stairs, Bob has made her a ramp to get in and out of the house. She doesn't like to go up it, so we have to grab her collar and lead her up. She gets a treat for that. Now that (the treat), she likes. And don't you dare to forget about that treat! She lets you know in no uncertain terms!

As you may remember, we see winter as a valuable time to rest, relax, rebuild and reconsider. Rather than dread the season, we look forward to it eagerly.

Some of the activities ahead

Here are some of the things we'll be doing: reading, playing games, and observing nature. I'll also be working with my harp and doing needlework.

Work to be finished

There are also a few things I need to finish off: Bob's annual sweater and a mini rug for my large doll house.

And there will still be some chores to do: finish off the pantry and I need to thresh out this year's bean harvest.

We're never bored! Or if we are, it's our own fault, for there's plenty to be doing.

That's about all of the news for now. Be safe, smart and considerate of others: stranger, friend or foe. Learn to savor solitude. It's very good for the soul.

Till next time,

Kathleen, Bob and Lunette

Fallen tree blocks her path. Bad hips impede jumping.

Seed Fall 2020

 

After the Harvest soup

The moon is nearly full, and Seed Fall is once again nearly in the past.

Grey, wet and cold. I think those are the words that most accurately describe this passing month. The weather has impeded the progress on our usual autumn chores, but we're doing our best.

All of the produce is finally out of the garden.

Carrots have been pulled and stowed in the root cellar...

Harvesting carrots

....as have potatoes.

French Fingerling Potatoes

These jobs have gotten done, despite extensive help from Lunette!

Such a helper!

When we got to the beets, we found that some critter (my guess is a raccoon or opossum) had been dining freely on them. As last month, I had to deal with a lot of damaged produce.. After storing away the intact roots, I set out to salvage the damaged ones.

Once again, my dehydrator came to the rescue. I shredded the roots...

Shredded beets

... and dried the shreds.

These can either be thrown into soup as they are, or I can pulverize them in the blender to make beet powder. That is useful in soups, casseroles or beverages.

The early cold (and late warmth) kept my Dester tomatoes from ripening outside. So, I picked 56 mature green fruits and brought them inside to ripen.

Tomatoes ripening in the cellar

We use them as they ripen. (We've eaten a lot of soup and spaghetti lately.) 

I was fortunate to get almost all of the dry beans harvested in between rains and before the freezing temperatures came. 

Sauerkraut time again

Today I put 4 Kg of red cabbage into the smaller (7.5 l) fermentation crock. We'll be preparing horseradish and sunchokes in the month ahead.

We've been trying to clean out the garden, but the rain has been problematic. We hope to get more done this weekend.

Twelve bean trellises need to be cleaned off

Preparing firewood has also been a little difficult. Bob felled three dying trees. Two have been split and stacked. The third still waits for it's turn.

Bob's a lumberjack (and he's ok?)

Inside to the pantry. The taping and mudding continues.

Taping and mudding nearly done

 Flooring, paint and trim materials have all been purchased. 

These supplies mean we're getting closer

We hope to really get this done quickly now.

On October 5th, we drove to the county seat and handed in our absentee ballots to the election official in person.

Bob makes it official!

No mail delays and very limited COVID exposure.

On the 31st is our Festival of Remembrance. We'll remember those who've gone beyond, and their impact on our lives. It's also a good time to consider the impact we're having. Someday we'll be the ones being remembered. That's something to think about.

Now we actively head into the season of rest and reflection. We hope you will join us, especially in this overwhelming time. It's time to shed our leaves and pull our strength back into our roots for rebuilding.

Till next time, be at peace,

Kathleen, Bob and Lunette

Our example for restfulness

Song Time/ Falling Leaves Time 2020

 

A sample of Autumn treasures

The full moon occurred here just three hours ago, and so ended our month of Song Time/Falling Leaves Time. 

It has been a busy time here, so we've got a lot of material to cover in this update.

Our weather has been very dry and definitely getting cooler. We had light patchy frost here on the mornings of Sept 21 and 22. Our average first frost date here is generally 10/11-10/20, so you can see that we're headed into cool weather early.

Fall raspberries

Our fall raspberries are doing very well. Much better than our summer berries did.

Picking snap beans

Our snap beans have been doing very well also, especially after the slow and spotty germination this spring. Our Lima beans out did themselves. I've frozen 15 quarts! I pulled the plants this past weekend, so that's the last of them.

Laying out potatoes to dry

We've begun to harvest the potatoes. We plan to finish this harvest on Saturday.

The tomatoes have done well. I've frozen 48 pints, and dehydrated nearly 8 quarts so far.

Lunette inspects the sweet potato bed

Lunette insisted that it was past time to harvest the sweet potatoes. She apparently had inside information, thanks to that terrier nose!

As we began to dig, we found extensive rodent damage!

Rodents gnawed nearly every potato!

We've never had this kind of damage before. Only two hills out of 24 were untouched! Fully 2/3 of our harvest was affected! I had to work  hard to salvage all of the damaged ones. I froze sweet potato puree and also dehydrated both puree and slices. We also ate quite a few meals of sweet potatoes for a couple of weeks. I was able to salvage all of them by cutting away the gnawed areas and cooking them.

Look carefully at the left side. You'll see my helper.

On Labor Day weekend, we renovated the strawberry bed.

Bed before renovation

As you can see, it was an overcrowded mess! We dug up 54 good plants and threw all of the rest out.

(I did save some leaves to dry for tea. It's very good with a little almond extract added.)

Some of the plants were very nice

We removed the plastic mulch and found all kinds of mole tunnels under there.

Lunette inspects a mole run

After pulling everything out, Bob tilled in some rotting wood chips and mushroom compost. We then reset the plants in three orderly rows. Lunette was a great help, as you can see.

Inspection is needed at every step

We finished that job in one day, and we were all worn out.

Hard work takes its toll!

Now we are working on garden clean up. As plants complete their usefulness we take them down.

Cleaning off one of the bean trellises

 This year we're trying trench composting. Bob digs a nice trench in the bed and we fill it with the garden debris, along with the household vegetative matter.

One of Bob's trenches

When filled, he covers the trench with soil and then will top the bed with partially decayed straw.

We still have plenty of work to do in the garden.

On to the pantry. Bob got the drywall hung on two walls and had just finished the insulation work, when we received word that our windows were going to be put in ahead of schedule! Fortunately, we were ready for them.

We now have two wonderful south facing windows in that room.

Back wall before windows

Back wall after windows

View from inside the pantry

We had them replace the two front sidelights at the same time. Now we can open and close those windows and the house has a more finished look.

Front sidelights before

Front sidelights after

Bob begins his two week vacation from Cornell on Monday. He hopes to finish hanging all of the dry wall (among other things) during that time.

Well, as you can see, we've been busy and continue to be so. We did take a day of rest and refreshment on the Equinox. One of the things we did was to take a walk to Teeter Pond in the nearby Finger Lakes National Forest. It was a very lovely time.

Teeter Pond on Sept 22, 2020

By the next update we should be further along in putting the garden to bed. We'll be plenty busy till that time.

We wish all of you a happy, healthy and safe autumn.

Till next time,

Kathleen, Bob and Lunette

Lunette sitting in the sweet potato bed

Harvest/Ingathering 2020

 

A bounty of vegetables

This month of Harvest/Ingathering has passed quickly here at Thistledown Gardens. I've been plenty busy picking produce and stashing it away for winter use. One freezer is full, the second is on its way there. 

Red cabbage ready for the freezer. That's a lot of borscht!

I've gotten the cabbage all frozen- fifty pint boxes all together. Kale and chard, green beans, limas and herbs are being put away, too.

Freezing corn

I have frozen some corn, but still have more to do. There are also more limas and green beans to be done. I've just begun freezing tomatoes and eggplant sauce.

Just some of our vegetables

We're enjoying patty pan squash and tomatoes currently. We did enjoy cucumbers, but are glad that they're all gone now. We've had a few of our potatoes, but most are still underground, as are the sweet potatoes.

Wax and green beans with French fingerling potatoes

New potatoes and green beans mean that it's time for Grandma Neill's green bean soup. There's comfort food! It was delicious.

I've begun picking my dried Aduki beans. They are always the first to be ready. They don't all ripen at once, so you have to pick over each bed three or four times. If you wait too long, the little stinkers split open and you lose all your beans on the ground. The other varieties don't tend to do that. Thankfully. The other dried beans are not ready to harvest yet.

Removing dried seeds

I have also harvested spinach seeds for next year. Noble Giant. A good variety.

While I've been busy with food production and preservation, Bob's been at work in the pantry.

Applying spray foam

The foaming is all done on the two walls that can be done now.

Future closet in the pantry

The closet is all framed in and he's begun hanging the drywall. (Hurray!) 

Drywall begins

Once the drywall is up, he'll shift to cutting firewood. Taping and mudding of the drywall will be done on rainy days. And of course, the fourth wall can't be done until the new windows have been installed later this fall.

It's been dry here this month, with some moderate to warm temperatures. Just in the last few days it has cooled down a fair amount. The seasonal change is certainly close at hand.

I checked my journal, and I'd say that we're at least two weeks behind last year at this time. I hope the weather holds off for those extra two weeks, so we can catch up. But, we get what we get and life rolls on.

Over the Labor Day weekend, we plan to refurbish the strawberry bed. It's not a job that I look forward to, but I am looking forward to it's being done and crossed off of the "to do" list.

We hope you enjoy the rest of this season. Tend your gardens, and don't forget to prepare your inner garden for the season to come.

Till next time,

Kathleen, Bob and Lunette