still going

[songbird]

we have a dozen tomatoes on the counter top left from before the frosts came along and we were able to get the rest of the green tomatoes off the plants before they were damaged.

they may not be as good as a sun ripened tomato, but they are perfectly acceptable. we've had sandwiches with them the past week a few times and will finish them off soon.

the other day i was checking some plants out in the north garden and found some decently sized turnips that were planted mid-summer. i was rather surprised at how large they had gotten. since i can't cook them here i ended up picking them to give to someone else the next day and she was very happy to have them along with some garlic to eat and plant.

i'm still finding acceptable dry beans to pick and shell, but most are done and already somewhat sorted. have yet to combine and weigh them. nor have i quite figured out what to do with all of the crosses that have shown up. some rather nicely decorative and worth keeping and seeing if they will breed true or if they will wander into different types yet before settling down. garden plots next year will be interesting to lay out and keep track of what is planted where.

the largest project is at a holding pattern now as i have finished most of the digging of the temporary trench:

180ft of enjoyable exercise, a shovel at a time. the long pile of dirt is over the trench i put in for the drain tubes (down 3-5ft for 110ft), those tubes provide drainage for the fenced gardens and the other low area to the west of the fenced gardens. the long pile of dirt will get added to and reshaped next season to become the berm. until then i hope the trench and berm will be enough to avert any more floods for the winter and spring.

songbird

[Roy]

Where are you gardening? Doesn't look like any garden spot that I would find as ideal.

===

[Billy]

Anybody can garden in an ideal spot. You have to be more creative in marginal terroirs. I have about a week before my direct sun disappears altogether until early Feb. It all works out. Rain expected on Monday. I need to pick the last of the tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. Then I'll need to make a decision on what to do with the green tomatoes.

[songbird]

Roy wrote: ...

songbird

[Roy]

Very nice...but what State or Province or Country? Looks like you have an abundance of sunlight but may lack sufficient natural water resources.

[songbird]

Roy wrote: ...

ah, see, i've posted that here before so i figured you at least knew. i'm in Mid-Michigan, USoA, Saginaw River Valley.

and no, not lacking water, we have two ditches through the property that run year round (the one is obvious on the Way Up picture as it cuts through the property, the other is hidden under the hedge to the north), a high water table and plenty of clay. we are also right in the middle of the watershed flow pattern (from SW to NE). we do have periods of drought, but the well is good to hold us over when that happens for watering the gardens.

at some future point i'd like to collect and hold rain water for garden use and redo some of the rest of the areas to hold and run water in patterns to build up frog and toad habitat, but that is long term tinkering with the site i'm not ready to do yet. when i get the berm finished along that south edge then i can decide what to tackle next.

songbird

[songbird]

Friday i finally finished up the last of the fenced area gardens, seeded them in, hoped for rain. today we've had some and a bit of snow too.

only two gardens left to tackle before winter prep is done. should have them done by this next weekend if the weather warms as predicted in the forecast.

the past few weeks we've spent a lot of any extra time making apple sauce and apple crisps for us, and for others. many gallons worth. and i still don't mind the smell of baking apples.

as it will be cold and windy tomorrow i'll be inside working on various projects. since i could not find a color chart of the sort that i'd like i'll be making one. should be fun to play with some paints, i've not done that in quite some time. the worms could use some new food now that the apples from last week have been digested and i'm still staring at piles of beans, plus i have a few buckets of garlic to clean and sort through.

good thing for rainy days, besides the gardens i planted could use a good shot of moisture.

songbird

[Ecnerwal]

Drying apples fiendishly here. Also made a pie tonight, with a crust not up to marriageable standards (I don't do them often enough to stay in practice) and I adjusted the "juiciness" down a bit by running the peeled/cored/sliced pie apples in the dehydrator for a while as I was (badly) making the crust. Well, most of the pie apples, as it turned out I ran a couple more apples through the peeler/corer/slicer to have a pile I was happy with at filling time. The apples were not dry after such a short time, but it shifted the balance enough that the filling was a bit less sloppy than it tends to be with all-fresh apples. I can see doing the same thing in a different way by mixing fresh with fully dried later on in the year.

Need to find time and energy to plant garlic, pronto. Where from, I have no idea.

[songbird]

pie crust is not a thing we like here much at all, instead we mix flour, sugar and oats in equal proportions and then add cinamon and a little melted butter. starting at the bottom with a thin layer of the mixture, then pile the sliced apples on top, then sprinkle more of the mixture on top and dribble the butter over. bake for an hour to hour and a half with a foil cover, might bubble over a little if you put too many apples in. that is the basic apple crisp we make and eat by the ton when apples are inexpensive.

farmer's markets? co-op? they may not have any but they might know someone who does.

songbird

[Ecnerwal]

Heh. I HAVE the garlic (harvested in August) - I need to FIND the time and energy ;-)

[songbird]

good luck. :) the weather is supposed to get warmer the rest of the week so that may help a bit. i'll have several hundred lbs of shredded wood and leaves and the last few gardens to contemplate. i'm not sure i'll do a thing until i actually do it these days. all of my plans for yesterday went out the window and tomorrow is now scheduled... good thing none of this is critical.

songbird

[songbird]

gardens mostly put up other than weeding one small garden (saving that for tomorrow).

the last two rounds of planting of winter wheat and winter rye are unlikely to amount to much (it's been very cloudy the past few weeks). still i'll keep an eye on those gardens and see what happens. the birds have discovered the grains and are picking at them. enough is planted deeply enough that they aren't going to get all of those seeds. in the gardens i planted earlier they look so nice that Ma is very happy with them, nice green grassy cover. wish i hadn't gotten so bloody sick as then all would be at least up and sprouted and green instead of fairly bare. i guess i will have to mulch them for the winter instead if i get more goodies brought by.

in the realm of very good news, every garden was able to support worms for the entire season (for the first time since i started working on them several years ago). the clay is certainly improving. making sure that there is some organic materials buried down deeply also helps to make sure the worms have a place to be during the hotter and dryer periods of weather.

all of the worm bins inside are chugging along -- right now they are finishing up the last of the apple cores from the two car loads of apples we processed. there was no way i could get all of those through the bins. a half dozen buckets of cores went into the gardens down deep to keep the worms happy, but what i could stuff into the bins here in my room seem to have made the worms very happy. plenty of chompers going at it now. i have a mid-winter snack of chopped dried greens from the green manure patch on hand to mix in with whatever other veggie scraps. they'll also have a good supply of squash innards and peels this winter. i could easily expand to 30 bins with the population of worms now on hand, but i have no place to keep them.

songbird