Friday, September 28, 2012

Harvesting and canning

I harvested another pumpkin and set it out to cure.  The biggest pumpkin is almost ready to harvest but not quite yet. It's supposed to be warm & sunny this weekend (temps in the 80s) so it should help ripen that one.  There were more wax beans and lima beans to harvest so I picked those as well as a bunch of arugula.  The sunflower is developing nicely. 

I blanched, peeled and canned 3 quarts of tomatoes.  Kaitlyn helped me put the lemon juice & tomatoes into the jars - her first canning experience.  She also helped by spinning the salad spinner after I washed the arugula and she helped me shell the lima beans.  I froze a quart of wax beans and some lima beans.
another harvested pumpkin

lima beans

wax beans & lima beans harvested

big pumpkin almost ready

sunflower

lima beans in the shell

Sunday, September 23, 2012

First pumpkin harvest and deer

I harvested our first pumpkin today.  I was going to harvest another one but the bees decided it was time to pollinate in that area so I left it alone.  It looks like a deer visited our garden last night.  There are hoof prints in one of the raised beds.  If it ate anything it wasn't much because I didn't notice any significant plant damage.
The first harvested pumpkin

sunflower

deer tracks

Friday, September 21, 2012

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Lots of harvesting today

tomato harvest

cucumber blossoms


sunflower

broccoli

sage


Funny looking carrot

buttercup squash

Freezing carrots

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Harvest and pumpkin issue

I harvested more tomatoes and some carrots today.  Hopefully the pumpkins will be ok.  Many of the leaves have developed what I think is powdery mildew.  The pumpkins themselves look ok but the leaves have a powder on them.
Carrots

Pumpkin plants

Friday, September 7, 2012

Lots of canning

I've been busy canning the last few days.  I made two batches of mild salsa, a batch of taco sauce, pickled banana peppers, to quarts of cured cukes, nine quarts of kosher dill pickles, a batch of sweet pickles, a batch of Apple Kiwi Strawberry Jam, a batch of Cranberry Raspberry Jam, and two batches of sweet pickle relish.  I have enough cucumbers to make another batch of relish but that's going to have to wait until another day.  I did find a time-saver for the dill pickles.  In the canning aisle at Walmart they had a kosher dill pickle mix that you just have to add to vinegar and water and it's supposed to make brine for 7 quarts of pickles (I got 9 quarts out of it).  Hopefully it tastes as good as I think it will.
Cucumbers salted for Cured Cukes

Mix for dill pickles

LOTS of canning

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Fall garden progress

The one sunflower that sprouted

Parsley between tomato plants

Lots of blossoms on the cucumbers

One of the new rhubarb plants


Purple petunias


A pumpkin almost ready

Monday, September 3, 2012

Labor Day

We just got back from a relaxing weekend with the family in Northern Minnesota.  Kaitlyn and I went out to the garden to check on everything and ended up harvesting our first two buttercup squash, two broccoli plants, some large banana peppers, some arugula, and a whole big bowlful of tomatoes.  One of the smaller pumpkins is almost completely orange, one of the larger pumpkins is about half orange, and the biggest pumpkin is starting to turn orange.  While we were harvesting the tomatoes Jayne came out and commented on how healthy the largest pumpkin looks.  There are more wax beans ready to harvest but I was too sore after harvesting the rest to pick them.  I'll go out after I pick Kaitlyn up from school tomorrow to pick those.
This hosta has pretty purple flowers

Kaitlyn harvested our 1st buttercup squash

Lots of ripe tomatoes

Banana peppers

This pumpkin is almost all orange

Our biggest pumpkin starting to turn orange

Rosemary

Thyme