As Summer Turns into Blustery Autumn...

The last of the beautiful weather has come and gone. The rain and blustery Autumn winds have started. Here's some of our latest photos and projects as the late summer turns into fall....

"Oh, you beautiful squash, you great big beautiful squash!" Finally, a year with an acorn squash harvest! We just love sprinkling it with curry and baking it with cheese!  These are some of the many squashes our garden produced this year. We are happy to know we will be well supplied with garden goodies over the winter:)

So many cucumbers!  A great year for 0 mile diet Greek salads and Tzatziki dip! And cucumber slices in Jason's lunch pack!

We planted our winter greens in August. Here they are in September growing beautifully. They are much bigger now and we are enjoying some fresh baby greens even now as the cold has crept in.

Our first batch of carrots (planted back in the early spring, ~March) didn't grow very well. We wonder if the seed rotted due to the wet and cold weather we had. So we planted a second batch after we harvested the garlic in July - and what do you know...there were carrots!

Love this picture! Carrot love! That's for sure. Carrot love our bellies :)

So we had all this elephant garlic to use up - we left it in the ground far past harvest date - the skins had weathered away and they needed to be eaten or processed right away. So I made roasted garlic soup and learned that even though mild in taste (as elephant garlic is not true garlic, it is a leek), too many cloves equal a deadly concoction!  More like sulphur soup! Sadly, we had to compost it:(

Jason and our friend Grant had a couple days in September to give the root cellar some much overdue love.

They managed to get the walls done to the height planned for! Yeah! No landslides this wet season over the walls this year!

PARSNIPS! So creamy, so tasty. I think I'm in love!

 Our grapes were unreal this year - so we motivated ourselves to do something with them - as last year we left them for the birds. (We just didn't have the time to process them). 

This is one of two harvest baskets full, I collected.

A friend lent me her juicer. It worked like a charm, and in no time at all...must get me one! The grapes made over 7 liters of grape juice - gave some away, froze some, drank the rest.

So many peppers this year! This bowl of peppers is from one plant alone. We've made several batches of very spicy salsa this year...now to figure out what to do with the rest...? 

The bees were 'put to bed' for the winter, in a manner of speaking...because they don't sleep, they huddle.

Added some insulation to the super lid (fit nicely in). And cut insulation (styrofoam) to fit around the super itself. Then added a tarp to keep them dry. P.S. Added a couple popsicle sticks to lift the lid up slightly for air ventilation.... and the ladies can get in and out no problem through the bottom entrance only. Good night beautiful ladies, hope to see much of you in the spring!  (Probably sooner than that though, as a varroa mite winter oxylic acid treatment is probably in order).

A bunch of bees shaken (in front of the hive) from the top super (to take it down to just the one for winter, for warmth and a better survival chance).  Come on girls, wake up and get back into your hive. (They did of course:)

September Garden Gab

The weather has been exceptionally beautiful late August and early September!  The garden is loving it!

Some of our tomato plants got blight early on, so we harvested all the green tomatoes before the blight got them too!  Most of these green tomatoes (above) have already turned red and been processed. The rest of our tomatoes remain on the plants, all ripening one by one each day!  To help ripen them, we cut off the leaves so only the stems and tomatoes remain. This helps to expose them to more sunshine!

I just had to get a kiddie pool this year... for those times when guest's kids come over...and well, for us too! Enjoying a relaxing evening with each other after a hard day's work in the garden :) Love it!

Sunflowers once again! This year I hope to actually harvest some seeds before they start getting moldy - I'll fill you in later.  I grow sunflowers merely for their beauty, and well, because the bees love them too!

Echinacea! Beautiful flowers! Now to figure out how to harvest them and what to do with them next. Last year I just sprinkled their seeds back into the ground where they were growing. If I run out of time, I might just do the same this year. 

Holy Strawberry runners! Crazy how the strawberries have expanded and are rich in foliage at this time of year. I'm going to have to spend some time trimming them back and transplanting the new shoots!

A view of the garden... so pretty!

So many spiders in the garden lately....and very interesting webs here and there. Check out this spider web (Can you see the hole?) at the base of one of our blueberry shrubs:

We wondered which would win in growth this year... the Jerusalem Artichoke or the Empress Tree?  We can't believe the height of both... and incredibly the Jerusalem Artichoke wins! This plant has been growing back in the same place for three years now... it's getting a good root system growing!

So many apples this year to harvest!

Now what to do with them?

Mmmmmmm... there's nothing like fresh basil from the garden!

Peppers, peppers, peppers!  Ouch! My tongue is burning thinking about them all!

Looks like we'll be making Tomatillo (HOT) salsa!

I think this is the first year we actually harvested corn! Not a lot, but enough for a couple meals! Yum!

So many strange squashes growing in our garden...more like Squizzinis...a mix between a squash and zucchini...cross-pollinated once upon a time. They taste delicious all the same!

Kale!  Love throwing this super vegetable in about anything and everything! So good for us!  Kale in spaghetti sauce, omelettes, stir fries, quiches....

Oooooo.... Patty pans! (a.k.a. star ship squash) So happy to have so many grow in our garden this year - - - from ONE plant to bout! We've already harvested about 25 this year... and they are still growing!  My favorite thing to do with them this year has been grilling them up for breakfast!   

Delicious home-grown tomatoes!  Can't get any sweeter! I've cleaned, cut up, bagged and frozen some... Also made up a tomato sauce with our garden's kale, onions, garlic and basil; and preserved. 

So many cukes this year too!  Enjoying our 0 mile diet Greek salads (minus the feta and olive oil...), Tzatziki, and just plain 'ol cukes to nibble on! Ever tried them with fresh dill?

So many we've been giving them away!  We even tried some pickling cukes this year and have preserved a batch or two!

Well that's some of the fun that's been happening in our garden thus far! It's kept us busy harvesting and preserving... We've also started collecting our seeds: carrots, Japanese mustard, red cabbage, parsley, celery, onions, leeks, chard, calendula and much more.  We'll be attending some seed swaps here in the near future, but will also have seeds available for sale at upcoming markets. 

Now is also the time to dry one last batch of what's still around in the way of TEAS or HERBS. Just harvested hops, calendula, thyme, rosemary, & lady's mantle, for example, this week.  

Finally, there's still much to do to get ready for the winter, including planting the winter crops and spring bulbs. 

Garden GAB with you later!

The Strange & Wonderful!

Our garden is full of strange & wonderful things. Isn't it interesting how things grow so differently? Almost like snowflakes, each unique in its own way. Here are some veggies that totally stood out this year!

Looks like these guys just got of a horse!

Is three a crowd?

I'm confused!

Heart-shaped potato! Love it!

Ooooo a little loving going on in the garden too!

Where's waldo? There's always one in the bunch, huh!?

August Harvesting

We've gotten a little behind on our blog as the garden has kept us busy!  Here are some of our AUGUST harvests and feasts:

Red Clover! Not only do the bees go crazy for this delicious flower, but it's got so many wonderful health benefits for us, human beings!  I dry it for tea. I know it as having a high concentration of phytoestrogens (it mimics hormones in the body), thus, great for premenstrual cramps and good for preparing the body for pregnancy!  It's also good for blood flow, bone nutrition, and the reduction of inflammation and infection. It can also be made into a topical cream good for skin infections. I have used the latter and have LOVED it, just need to learn how to make it now :) 

P.S. I use a couple window screens to dry my teas :)

Dried fava beans... (in pod, above; shucked, below) Now ready for chili or soups!

Blueberry harvest!  What we didn't eat, we preserved for those 'winter time' smoothies, muffins, desserts, pancakes and more...

We had so many plums we didn't know what to do with them all. We ate some, sold some, gave some away and made three batches of jam with 'em! Here's one:

Below is my favorite soup: summer borscht! Fresh from the garden: potatoes, onions, beets, carrots, and dill! Cooked in a little chicken stock.  And the leftovers are packaged in portions and frozen for later!  

Snack time! Homemade salsa below with tomatoes, garlic, and hot peppers!