Apples (lots of them!)

Fall finally seems to be here, my own colorful backyard proving that despite the continual warm sunny days, the gardening season is winding down.

Although I've never seen such a beautiful October here in Colorado, one of the best parts (in my opinion) of the season is the hundreds of apple trees in town that are producing bushels and bushels of wonderful apples!

I've been lucky enough to score quite a few bags of apples from co-workers, neighbors and friends who are eager to share their harvest.

So even though I don't technically have apple trees in my garden, I just had to share these lovely photos from apple-sauce making (apple pie came later on!).

Super-easy no-peel applesauce:

8 lbs apples (about 25 medium), cored and quartered (no need to peel!); I just cut around the worm holes and/or bad spots

2 cups filtered water

cinnamon to taste

nutmeg to taste

sugar (optional, depending on how sweet your apples are)

Place apples and water in a large pot, bring to a boil. Cook for 30-35 minutes until apples are soft.

Throw everything into the food processor and pulse until creamy.

Put mixture back into pot, add spices and sugar if necessary, cook through until heated. Easy!

Preparing for frost

Finally, we had our first cloudy, chilly, fallish day here in northern Colorado yesterday after a long stretch of hot and very dry weather. The trees here are turning orange and red and my hot-weather plants are beginning to fade.

Last night we were supposed to get our first frost so I went and picked everything that's prone to frost damage. I picked an entire bowlful of green tomatoes - I'm hoping they'll ripen indoors.

There were a few sad looking zucchini left so I picked them as well (not that I need more zucchini)...

I also got one green onion that popped out of the ground in late august - way after all of the others came and went. Random.

I got a total of two jalapeno peppers, which will be used in chili making this week!

Swiss chard can stand light frosts, but I went ahead and picked some of the bigger leaves (and chopped and froze them), just in case.

To my surprise, I found several short, fat, pudgy carrots. The squirrels made a habit of pulling them up and stealing them right as they were ready for picking. One day I will get my revenge...

This is the largest quantity of green beans I've gotten at once (which isn't saying much).

It ended up not freezing last night and it's supposed to jump back up to near 80 this weekend. I am, however, thankful for the rain we got. This summer has been one of the driest in a long time - we had less than an inch and a half of rain from August through the beginning of October and wildfires were breaking out left and right. 

So I'm thankful for the cool, wet days, even if that means my garden is coming to an end.

Squash update!

Remember those little oval-shaped mystery squashes? Well, they turned into big fat mystery squashes pretty quickly. My best guess is an acorn squash-pumpkin hybrid.
 

 The one on the right looks more like a pumpkin

Judging from the squirrel nibbles, it's the same color inside as an acorn squash. I'm making soup with it tonight, so we'll see what it actually tastes like.

 Before...

After.
 

I ended up with two small Butternut squashes (actually, just one after the squirrels ate one).

The Cocozelle Zucchini squash is producing like crazy, here's a nice U-shaped one.

Or maybe bone-shaped 
 
We'll be eating lots of squash over the next few weeks! 

The lone pepper

For some reason I only got one pepper from my yellow bell pepper plant (it turned out more orange). I picked it, moved the plant to a sunnier spot, and ta-da! I have lots of baby bell peppers growing now. Only problem is we're going to get our first frost in a week or two...

After months and months of doing absolutely nothing, the jalapeno plant is finally producing. I've got... wait for it... one pepper

I've heard jalapenos like dry conditions, which is a bummer because I've been so faithfully watering it all summer. Oh well. Such is gardening... such is life...

Time for tomatoes!

I have two heirloom tomato plants growing in the garden - an Early Girl and a Cherokee Purple (yes, purple).

Now, I know what you're thinking - purple tomatoes?! But hey, that's part of the fun of growing your own food, you get to experience varieties you wouldn't normally find at the grocery store. 

These little beauties are the sweetest tomatoes I've ever tasted.

They're more purple in real life...

I also have a Cherry 100 growing in the Topsy Turvy. I practically killed this one early in the season (it went through several snowstorms and freezes) but it's amazing how well it's doing. There's nothing better than a hot, ripe, juicy tomato right off the vine....

One big problem I've encountered is tomato blight.. aka slow, painful death. They're still pumping out lots of tomatoes though (if not a little on the small side)...

I did also spot blossom end rot on one of my early girls. Just one, thankfully.

After more than three months of waiting, I now get to savor these amazing fruits. I'm also finding creative ways to use them every day - like tomato and goat cheese appetizers on crusty italian bread. 

 This one looks more purple than in the previous picture

Digging for buried treasure

Or potatoes rather.

It's strangely satisfying, plowing into the dirt with a large shovel, uncovering these little jewels. I've dug up the area a couple of times and I keep finding more of them!

 I just have to point out the peanut-shaped one on the end

Although I wish many of them had grown bigger, the quarter-sized ones will work perfectly in soups and stews (no slicing required). A couple of factors I think contributed to the overall smaller size:

*not enough consistent sunlight

*soil wasn't deep/loose enough

*probably would have been good to add some phosphorous since my soil is very nitrogen-heavy

Considering all my folly, the harvest wasn't too bad. Potato soup anyone?

Windowsill herb garden

After many (failed) attempts at growing herbs in the front window boxes (not enough sunlight out there), I finally found a better home for them inside on a sunny windowsill in the kitchen.

First up we have rosemary. This is the most low-maintenance plant ever. Loves dry and sunny places and looks and smells like a miniature Christmas tree. I use it in most baked dishes (like chicken pot pie, pork roast... yum).

Next comes oregano, great for all things Italian. Isn't this the most beautiful oregano you've ever seen?? The leaves are soft and fuzzy.

German thyme - great for fall cooking. It kind of looks like an afro right now...

I love using peppermint in smoothies, desserts, coffee and homemade tea. It has a wonderful soothing effect on your tummy and digestive tract...

And finally the basil... it's been a battle to keep these little guys alive. I planted THREE rounds of basil outside, only to discover three times some animal had eaten all of my baby seedlings overnight. Finally, I wised up and started them inside...

I've also got lavender randomly growing out by the garden. Not sure why it didn't make it in the house... but the lavender is doing a great job at attracting beneficial bees to my veggies. I'm going to try a lavender tea cookie recipe... can't wait.

Fun with Squash: The guessing game

I currently have five (i think) types of squash plants growing in the garden. They are all currently growing like weeds and bursting through the garden fence and into the rest of the yard.

 

Three of the plants I'm sure are zucchini squash - "Cocozelle" to be precise. They're a different variety of zucchini and have beautiful light green stripes on the fruit.

I'm pretty sure one of the plants is a butternut squash. This one has been growing horizontally, latching on to other plants with it's tentacle like feelers and taking half of the garden hostage. But I do love butternut squash soup...

Teeny Tiny Butternut

This is the mystery squash. I think this one came from my coworker, Sherri, and I originally thought it was an acorn squash. It grows more vertical, like the zucchini. But there's a cylinder-shaped squash that appeared overnight - looks nothing like an acorn squash. Sherri said it might even turn out to be a canteloupe or watermelon. We shall see... what fun!

Leftovers

I've been wondering what to do with all of my spinach, now that's it's ready to bolt and go to seed any day now. What does one do with daily handfuls of spinach?

Enter the Green Smoothie! Now, this concoction may look disgusting (I was tempted to throw it away after I blended it up for the first time), but not only is it super nutritious, it actually tastes great! Plus it's a great, frugal way to use up any extra greens you have in the garden or laying around in the fridge.

Ingredients:

1-2 cups of fresh greens - spinach, chard, lettuce, or any combination

1/4 cup juice (o.j. works great)

*Blend together greens with juice until well blended. Warning: at this point it will look gross. Just forget your instincts and keep going.

2 or more cups of frozen fruit (I use a combination of bananas, berries, and/or nectarine slices I have collected in my freezer)

2 T yogurt or milk

*Blend together with greens

I also add in:

1-2 tablespoons of honey

1/4 cup freshly ground flax seeds

Peppermint sprigs

Ta-da! A delicious snack that's a also powerhouse of nutrients.

Infection

My garden is infected. I'm pretty sure I've got powdery mildew on the butternut squash leaves, probably cause by overhead watering since I'm too cheap to buy a soaker hose system. I cut off the infected plants which hopefully solved the problem. If it continues to spread I'll have to take some serious action.

Note the white splotches...

I also pulled out a few potato plants because of suspected potato blight. Apparently this is a very, very bad year for potato and tomato blight. I'm not taking any chances - at the first sign of possible infection I'm ripping those suckers out of the ground.

On the upside, I did a little digging around and found a whole pile of potatoes! Hooray!!

 

I also spotted some zucchini growing the other day... 

Fun Fact #3 - Onions

Did you know "green onions" (aka scallions) are just the top part of an onion plant? Scallions are the part that grow above the ground while the onion bulb grows at the root. I've left most of the onions underground to get bigger but I'll take few scallions here and there when I need them. It's an amazing two-for-one veggie!

Using some of this fun fact in dinner tonight...

A big thanks to Cathay for donating all her onion "leftovers" to my garden!

Garden successes

Two months into the garden, things have really started to take off. The broccoli plants have given me the most this season so far, with a supply of around 10 or so small heads per week. Some sort of insect creature is attacking it, though, so I may have to replant.

It's harvest time for the romaine lettuce...

Zucchini squash has only been growing a few weeks and it's huge! It's competing with the potatoes for the fastest growing plant award.

The first tiny tomato - I believe this one is the Early Girl heirloom I got from a local nursery.

My daily Oregon Snow Pea harvest - which is becoming smaller and smaller every day. I've been freezing them for a continuous summer supply.

The spinach is starting to bolt because of the heat, so I'm going to harvest it all and put in some Ruby Swiss Chard instead.

Front to back - lettuce, spinach, 1/2 row of bush bean starts, and dying snow pea vines

My most recent problematic encounters have been the bugs feeding on the foliage (they sure are hungry) and the weeds which, mercilessly, seem to sprout back up a day after I pull them out. It's been really really hot (100 degrees last week!) and dry (your typical Colorado summer), so daily watering is a must. Can't wait to see what the water bill looks like this month! :)

Pea Time

I didn't think our snow pea vines were going to make it through the early season heat, but they proved me wrong. All of a sudden we got a bunch of little white flowers, which turned to pea pods practically overnight (pretty cool to watch how fast they grow).

 You pick snow pea pods before the peas actually develop inside the pod - while they are still nice and flat. They taste great right off the vine but I'm going to throw some in our thai pasta dish this week.

Overall I'm very impressed with this vegetable - it produced despite the unfavorable weather conditions. I'm going to plant a second round in mid-July for a second (and hopefully larger) Fall harvest. 

Fun Fact #2 - Potatoes

Here's something I bet you didn't know about potatoes: as potato plants grow, you're supposed to pile up soil on the plant, a process called "hilling." You do this right after the plant emerges and continually throughout the season.

Since potatoes grown beneath the soil, hilling gives them more room to produce larger tubers and keeps them from popping up out of the soil, which can turn them green and toxic (no poisonous spuds for me, thank you). 

Now that my potato plants are waist high, my only question is where can I get more dirt?

I've also noticed that the Yukon gold potato plants are producing white flowers, and the red potatoes have purple flowers. Although they seem to be doing great, I realized potatoes require a bit of faith - there's no way to know if there are any spuds actually growing down there. I'll have to dig around in a few weeks and see...

Yukon gold potato flower

 Red potato flower

You can also grow potatoes in garbage cans and old tires, check it out:

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/potato2.html