We saw, on our weather forecast, for Friday night and possibly Saturday night, temperatures in the low 30’s F. Of course, we usually have temperatures of 5 degrees lower than they forecast, so we’re hauling in everything that would possibly be damaged by another freeze. This especially means tomatoes and peppers. And, as we have 96 different varieties of tomatoes, getting them in, seeded and (hopefully) canned up is, as you can imagine, a bit of a challenge. Then, we’ve had hot temperatures, nearly 90 degrees a couple of days, so those tomatoes tend to rot pretty quickly. No pressure there, huh? I am getting a lot canned up, though. Now, it’s mostly tomato sauce, as it’s fast to get in jars and processed.
We’re having fun with some of our tomatoes, as the new ones are awesome and some of our old timers are especially wonderful this year. It’s so much fun to see those 3-pound Bill Beans, 1-pound Enormous Plum paste tomatoes and tiny, tiny Mexico Midgets. I do miss our old Lab, Spencer, as he was my tomato tester and always sat next to me on the front porch, snacking on all the tomatoes I would give him pieces of. The only one he spit out was a store tomato someone gave me. Why, I’ll never know, for obvious reasons. Spencer forcefully spit it out then gave me a dirty look. What was That?, you could see him say.
We got all our melons in and nearly all of our corn and squash too. Yesterday, our friends Dara and Sheri came and spent the day picking dry beans. Holy buckets, there were a lot of them! I’ve got buckets, crates, and piles of beans everywhere. And they took crates home to shell also. I didn’t think our beans did that well. A few didn’t but most were awesome, despite the weather this summer. It may not freeze, but fall rains are upon us and we really need to get the beans in when they’re dry.
Will finally finished haying — sort of. Now, he has to haul home a couple hundred big round bales and one of our tractors with a bale spear has the throwout bearing going in the clutch. So, he can’t leave one tractor home and use one in the field to load hay. Driving one tractor on the hay transport, on the road, is a very slow process. Top speed is 18 mph, downhill. But the hay is all done and now we can concentrate on getting our firewood in the shed. Whew! — Jackie
Thank you! Isn’t a bountiful harvest a wonderful thing? We are so thankful for all we have, especially this year, as it’s been quite a challenging growing year. Our house, pantry and freezers are plumb full!!
Those are gorgeous tomatoes!
I am so sad about you loosing Spencer. It is so hard.
That Sarge is sure a good looking dog!
You and Will are such go getters!
We really love what we do, even though sometimes it does get hectic..
Delilah is so precious with her big pumpkins and her tomato!! Whew! You are far too busy for those knees. Take care. Hopefully you’ll get it all in sorted, dried or canned! I feel slothful compared to you-One last batch of tomatoes to sauce. Very few peppers this year corn drying on stalks as enjoying a week of high 70- low 80’s here in Pacific Northwest
Wow, I’d love to see 70’s again!! We’re happy to see 47 degrees today. Yeah, the doctor said they wouldn’t hurt so much if I wasn’t tearing around on them. Oh well, you do what you’ve got to do and ice up later on.
My husband went out and picked what tomatoes were there. We had 25 last night. So, toms and peppers are done.
Yep, we hit 27 degrees F last night so the tomatoes in the gardens are finished. Bummer. Oh well, on to canning anyway!
Hi, Jackie: Do David and family live near you, now in their-was it a log cabin? Just wondering. I’ve had a fall garden in since mid-August, here in hot, dry far north California. I have lettuce up, also, black-eyes, onion, carrot, cilantro, and 2 winter squashes. I like getting your newsletter– like getting ‘mail’ from a treasured friend!! I’m always glad to hear your neighbors are taking care to help y’all. Continued prayer for you and Will, God is our caretaker. I don’t know what happen to my tomatoes. I just cut their trunks to get them to die. Didn’t give me any fruit until late September, and that was tiny and very unusual with vines 6 ft. tall. Going to look into a soil test and remedies of minerals at Redmond’s Salt.
Yes, David and his family live on part of our 200 acres, about 1/2 a mile from our house. While he would have like to build with logs, he opted for a stick-built home so he could get it up faster.
I’m sorry to hear about your tomatoes. It WAS a weird year everywhere, though. A soil test wouldn’t hurt. It seems we cure everything with adding lots more rotted manure.
Delilah is beautiful!
I don’t know how you do it all! You never fail to amaze me.
Thank you for the updates.
She is such fun! The things she sometimes says, like she just spotted a dinosaur in the woods. Who knows???? Maybe…..
Sometimes we wake up at night, trying to figure out what we need to do the next day.
I love that picture of Delilah and the tomato. She is such a beauty and so is that tomato! We are forecast a frost for this weekend. I have some peppers to bring in and some dried beans to pick, then my garden is done. It is still so dry. Im thankful your friends are able to come help bring in the crops. They can make all the difference when the pressure is on to beat the weather. Sounds like Wills hay hauling is going to take twice as long until he can get that bearing in the other tractor. Prayers for no further breakdowns until all the hay is in. Then the wood cutting begins, lol. My brother has Dad’s basement filled with wood for him and has been cutting every day for himself and the few customers he has. Always plenty to do around here. Prayers for a blessed week.
I had to share the picture that Karla, Delilah’s other grandma took. Delilah sure loves picking stuff out of the garden. She shucked an ear of corn all the way home in the golf cart, then took a bite raw. She spit it out. Later Will and I had the same idea about that corn. Yuck! It had crossed and become tasteless.
Will got done haying. Now he only has to bring all those round bales home with one functioning tractor!
We have had lows around 19 a couple nights, got all the potatoes up. Trying to keep the green house thawed to get the rest of the tomatoes and peppers plus dry the rest of the onions and get what’s left of the carrots and parsnips washed and dried. Chronic bad back and 74 years aren’t helping. There is still wood to get in the shed but the forecast says rain for the next 24 hours then snow and more low 20’s so lots of challenges here in Copper Basin Alaska!
Yep, I know all about bad backs!! Both Will and I have them, both from arthritis, mine from breaking it when a horse fell on me when I was 17 and like Will, compressed vertebrae from falling off our barn roof about 8 years back. But you do what you have to do, anyway, huh?
We had 26 last night but no snow in the forecast. Yet!
Question for anyone. I live in Pomona Calif between Los Angeles a San Bernardino and can plant year around. Does anyone know when to plant our edible pod peas for the fall? . My granddaughter in San Bernardino planted about three weeks ago and none came up.bummer! Thanks Bev
Can’t help Bev. Hope others can give you some help.
We’ve had a few days of glorious fall weather, actually quite warm, so I’m out like a crazy woman picking all I can in anticipation of the cold front and tons of rain coming through this weekend. Digging potatoes is a lot of work!
Question to all: we grow many kinds of tomatoes for sauce: Amish Paste, Opalka, Jersey Devil, Roma, Italian Heirloom, San Marzano, but the last few years when I make the sauce to can the sauce has a bitter edge to it which is unpleasant. Any ideas why that might be? Soil missing something maybe? I’m at a loss to figure this out. Oh, and I’ve started to pressure can the sauce so there’s no citric acid or lemon juice to interfere with the tomato flavor, so it’s not that. Any suggestions are welcome!
Occasionally when tomatoes are either over-ripe or from frost-killed vines, they will have off flavors upon saucing.
We weren’t quite that hot (mid 80s) and the cold front is coming but no frost warning yet. Planting garlic this weekend as if we’re not two weeks out from ground freezing, close enough. The “record high low” overnight temperature days are over. Leaves are falling already so making use of them in the garden.
While we don’t heat exclusively with wood, we are in really good shape (for us to burn and keep our small circle of friends supplied). Always helps when you don’t have to harvest from your own property!
Bonus that Dara and Sheri not only picked but are shelling. It is somewhat mindless work but it is still work. Good friends don’t keep score as it all evens out in the end.
Been a good year in my area/state for pumpkins – dry weather can have a bit of a plus.
Sarge is big enough for Delilah to ride! And yes, one must watch out for heffalumps, woozles, and jagulars lol. Mittens and Buffy are tigers so they are friends not foes.
Luckily, Buffy and Mittens are getting along quite well. And they both bring in lots of mice and voles, our arch enemies.
We always make sure our helping friends take home lots of veggies as we sure appreciate the help!!
Hot weather for me and soon a nosedive in temperature with possible frost this weekend. My harvest is nearly done except for Brussel sprouts, cabbage and dry shell beans. I’ve got one last tomato plant (of 60) still producing. Garden clean up in process. In years past I’ve given my excess to the local food pantry. What do you do with any excess produce? Haying all done for me. Drought limited hay production. Do you ever flail the beans?
You didn’t ask me, but I’m answering. Can’t you can-up your extra? Difficult times are in our near future and you’re going to need it.
I also can up my extras however, this is my dehydrating year (I dehydrate extras every other or every 2 years depending on harvest). I have the best of both worlds. By the way, I dehydrated a bunch of spinach this year – so yummy crushed & stirred into scrambled eggs, soup, sprinkled into salads, ect… Good luck with everything!
I can up much of our extra harvest. Like yesterday, I seeded out several varieties of tomatoes and peppers and made another batch of salsa from the “left-overs”. Other produce, I give to friends and relatives, who sure appreciate the extra bounty. Our critters also partake in the bounty; cows get the cornstalks and small ears, as well as pumpkins and some squash. At the price of feed, it does help!
We do flail beans, but this year, we had so much rain, some are moldy so we must shell by hand to toss the bad beans.
Our gardens are pretty much done. 35 days of 95+ temps & no rain then TS Ophelia dropped 10″ of rain over 24 hrs a couple of weeks ago. Okra is the only thing hanging on. Pantries are full, freezers are so full that we have a bucket of rocks holding down the lid on one, and I have full flats of stuff stacked under the work table & against the pantry wall, & have taken over half of the bookcase on the enclosed back porch. Enough already!!!. Temps are now in the mid 70s during the day & I’ve been able to turn off the A/C and open up the windows. Glorious!!!. We’re still about 5 weeks from our 1st hard frost. Good luck with the rest of your harvest.
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