Wahsega Valley Farm

Veggie garden structures for support

This might be boring for you non-gardeners, but I want to put in one place the garden structures we're using this year in our vegetable garden. These can be taken down and used again and again and they are super strong and support all the veggies well. 

For the tomatoes and cucumbers, we're using trellises like last year.

Cucumbers:

Tomatoes:

For the beans (I know this is a repeat), we decided a tunnel would be nice so I can walk underneath the beans as they vine up and over. Last year the structure was like the trellises above and not easy to get underneath to gather the beans that hung on the inside. 

And, to keep the deer away from the sweet potatoes, Mike got some wire mesh (like what was used for the trellises above) and some metal poles and just "sliced" the pole to hold the mesh wire. It's kinda hard to see, but the mesh sections fit into the poles and everything can be adjusted or enlarged very easily (as the plants spread out and grow). Maybe the sweet potatoes will have a chance this year!

Close-up of one corner:

And, speaking of chances, I'm doing a quadruple whammy attack on the squash bugs, vine borers and cucumber beetles this year with my zucchini.

I'm surrounding them with marigolds, spraying them with neem, dusting them with DE and check out the aluminum foil mulch. The brightness of it is supposed to confuse the vine borer moth from depositing her eggs at the root of the plant and also make it harder to get to. It looks a little crazy, but I'm willing to howl at the moon if it helps. 

Veggie Garden

I've had a couple of requests to see my veggie garden, so thought I'd post a few pictures of it from yesterday. It's just starting out so isn't too exciting yet. I've already found two squash bugs and several cucumber beetles, but I've got a plan this year and have already begun spraying with neem and dusting with DE. With my zucchini I've even mulched it with aluminum foil! Sounds weird, but some say it helps keep the vine borers from getting a foothold (the moths get confused by the shiny foil and can't get to the stalk to lay eggs as well). We'll see how it goes. I'm also planting marigolds here and there and if they don't scare off the bugs with their scent, they at least look pretty, right?

But enough jabbering for now; here are some pictures. This is shot from behind the chicken coop and shows the whole garden area. The bushy plant at the right bottom of the garden is a huge lemon balm I planted last year. Today I planted four types of mint near it 'cause I love mint tea (mixed with a little lemon balm). 

Here are about half my tomatoes - a few temporarily staked until Mike can help me build the trellis this weekend like we had last year. These were all from seed and did great. My peppers were a big fail this year though for some reason and I had to buy most of them.

Here is macho Dusty with the sun-setting light shining. He must have seen Sophie and was on his way to wrestle with her.

Here is one of the bean tunnels Mike designed for me and we put up last weekend. We're putting up two of them. It is easily taken apart to be used again and again. It will be so cool when the beans are growing all over it and it really becomes a tunnel. I love it. The beans should be poking up real soon.

Here are my baby sweet potatoes. I'm covering them every night to keep the deer away, but might devise a low fence/wire thingie that covers the whole area. I'm sure Mike will come up with a stellar idea.

And here is my garden buddy, Sophie. She's so nice and quiet and calm while Dusty is such a goober. He runs all over the place, pees where I just planted a veggie, keeps getting in my lap and cries a funny kind of wail when he gets bored and wants me to go back up to the cabin. Is that the difference between men and women? Ha! Naw, just kidding.

And, for the cat people, here are the two of them "dancing".

 
I've just about finished planting but have some weed clean-up to take care of around the edge of the garden and then can shift into maintenance... and stay on top of the pest problems. I'm going to get them this year before they unpack their little suitcases and move in.

Oh yeah, I started a little herb garden behind the cabin and will take pictures of that soon and post.

A spring veggie garden...

I've never had a spring vegetable garden before... only summer ones and one autumn one. But I'm thinking, "Hey, the bugs won't be out yet," and that floats my boat. So if Mike can till up the garden in time for me to plant next month, I'm going to give it a run for the money. 

I got my seeds yesterday from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and need to do some quick research on how to sow and grow the spring veggies since I'm not used to their likes and dislikes other than cooler weather: kale, carrots, lettuce, onions, leeks, spinach and potatoes. I'm ordering onion and leek sets and some seed potatoes to arrive next month. I like the look of the purple bunch onions, one type I'm going to give a try:

And, for my summer garden I've decided to forgo planting any squashes or sweet potatoes this year because of the deer and squash bug problem last summer. I'm going to grow cucumbers, but I think I can control the squash bugs on them alone. Last year was too much work leaning over and picking off those blasted pests for hours at a time from the squash plants. Plus, the winter squash take up so much room and Mike isn't crazy about them anyway. So the plan is to plant more green beans, okra and eggplant and about the same amount of tomatoes and peppers. And more herbs too, along with some sunflowers. It'll be fun growing different varieties though. Not sure which herbs yet, but will figure it all out very soon. I want more culinary ones and bug-repelling ones for now. Medicinal will come in time...

And, speaking of time, it's so much more difficult writing now than when I was in an office in front of a computer eight hours a day. Now I am spending my days doing what I used to dream about doing. And when one is doing, one isn't writing. It's a bit of a conundrum, but maybe I'll get into a comfortable rhythm eventually.

Fried green tomatoes?

Since it's getting down into the 30's tonight, yesterday I brought in most of the tomatoes that were still on the vine. The plants are like the Energizer Rabbit - they just kept going! There were still blooms coming out on them too - and I didn't bring in most of the smaller ones. I guess if it stayed warm here year-round, I'd be in constant supply of tomatoes. As it is, I have boxes of green tomatoes:

I'll let most of them ripen around the kitchen like I've been doing this summer since I couldn't let them totally ripen on the vine due to bugs and other tomato destroyers. But I might give some fried green tomatoes a try. Though... it seems I tried them once years ago and didn't like 'em much. Now, the movie Fried Green Tomatoes is one of my favorites.

The day before, I brought in most of the remaining peppers and am in the process of drying them. They are like the tomatoes though - extremely prolific and still sending out flowers. Fortunately, drying them reduces their size to the point that they barely take up any room at all. And they look cool in jars. They are in plastic bags because I wanted to dry them per type and some are hot, some are mild and some are sweet.

The only plant I have left to get out of the garden is my big lemon grass plant. I've read that it's better to freeze than dehydrate, but since it's quite large, I'll try both methods.

I forgot to mention that we dug up the sweet potatoes about three weeks ago and all was not lost due to the deer eating the foliage - as I'd feared. But I do think it made a difference. The harvest was reduced by maybe 1/3 from last year. We still got quite a big haul though and I was thrilled after the challenges I had this summer. Though... a few of the potatoes turned out looking like space aliens...

It actually looks like it just didn't have room to grow so it wrapped itself around itself, but the ground wasn't hard at all and they had plenty of room depth and width-wise. I didn't have any like that last year. Of course, I didn't have moles tunneling all through the garden last year and deer eating the vines and all the bugs that moved in for the summer. This specimen above was also attacked by something underground, as you can see in the tell-tale holes.

But... tomorrow is another day and I've got my list of seeds ready to order for next year's garden. In fact, I think I'll order them today.   

Yep, winter's on the way and though I love the change of the seasons, I dislike being cold. So, it's back to dressing in layers. And I'm going to make some fingerless gloves for myself and those legwarmers that I didn't get around to last year. And maybe a matching hat... I'll look like a clown! :) Ah well, the chickens won't care and I'll be warm.

There are still wildflowers blooming all over the place here...

... and the leaves have peaked in color and are now raining down. Here is a view from our cabin door showing a little of the color.

Though it will be cold outside soon, I'll still have tomatoes all over my kitchen for at least a little while longer and that will be super nice. I'll miss seeing them sitting on my windowsills once they're all gone, but it will be nice to be doing non-garden things for a change of pace.

Goodbye summer

I've been busy bidding summer farewell these past few weeks... cleaning up the garden (and weeding still!) where veggies are but a memory, and picking lots of peppers and tomatoes and a few beans and okra. But the leaves are really starting to turn now and it won't be long before all the plants in the garden are gone. This year I'm prepping the ground a lot for next spring and adding the chicken poop and shavings directly to the top. Come spring it'll be nicely decomposed and we'll dig it all in. It'll help keep the weeds down and the ground from crusting over in the meantime. 

I've dehydrated trays and trays of hot peppers and tested some tomatoes yesterday. I think I'll dehydrate the rest of the tomatoes I get this season that I don't give to the chickens (they love 'em). They take up so little room once dry and I can use them when I make harrissa.

And my big lemon balm plant dehydrated down to a little jar-full once I crushed the leaves. I need to grow way more herbs next year! My brain is racing now that I have a dehydrator; it was really too humid to dry much here in the summer by just hanging them in the kitchen, so with my new toy the options are much greater.

I'm going to miss certain rituals I had going this summer with the chickens. Every other day I'd change out all their water containers and let the water run from the hose into their outside area. They loved walking through and pecking at it and it cooled them off. But now as the weather is turning cooler, I've stopped getting their area wet. I can tell they miss the fun of running water on their feets. Changing the water in the winter won't be nearly as much fun - and I think I'd better get some warm, waterproof gloves very soon.

I haven't mentioned it, but I lost six of my guineas. Awhile back, when it was time to let them out at long last, they wandered away and only three came back. I was heart-broken. But a neighbor thinks my missing ones have joined up with his. I hope so! The three I have - Larry, Moe and Curly - never leave now. They just hang with the chickens all the time. Well, they hang with Andy mainly, the brahma rooster. Where he goes, they go; it's so funny. They are like his shadow - and biggest fans - and he is so patient with them. They sleep with the chickens and I feel relieved that they are locked up at night with everyone else. Here is Andy with the silly guineas.

This is the perfect weather - no heat or air conditioning needed... just perfectly comfortable temperatures and humidity. But I have to move all my houseplants inside soon since cold is right around the corner - and that will be a challenge again. We did it last year, but some of the plants have gotten bigger. Where on earth are they going to go? 

We've adopted a new kitty! It (we don't know the gender yet) is only four weeks old so we won't be picking him/her up until the end of this month. We just stumbled upon the kitten and fell in love. Someone put it and its sibling in a dumpster and a kind soul heard them crying and rescued them, taking them to the no kill Humane Society here. I'd like to put the person who put them in the dumpster into one where they couldn't get out. What is wrong with people? 

It's a windy, cool, cloudy day... and seems as though winter is introducing itself, saying "How do you do?". The changing of the seasons... it really affects my activities and soon I'll be crocheting up a storm, making body butter and soap (I'm almost out of both) and toting wood once again into the cabin for day-long fires. I hope the chickens like winter; they're certainly dressed for it.

I can can!

Yep, I canned five quarts of tomato sauce a few days ago and it wasn't difficult at all. One just has to follow a few rules and not be crazy with veering too far off from safe recipes. It was a hot water bath canning session, not one using pressure though my canner can do both. I'm not afraid of pressure canning like some since I've used a pressure cooker on and off most of my life, but this recipe didn't call for it. In fact, most of the things I want to can (actually, I'm bottling them, not canning them, but that's just semantics) don't require pressure canning. Not yet anyway.

See? Here are my very first jars of roasted tomato sauce:

Note to self: Fill bottles a little higher next time.

I'd like to make nicer labels, but these Ball bottles are so bumpy with measurement points, decoration and the word "Ball" on them that there is really no place flat and smooth to put a bigger label than the ones I used. I like the bottles a lot though, so I'll just make small labels I guess.

I aspire to be super canners like JenW - or Lori! They are my canning idols. :)

Today I am making more sauce or ketchup or salsa... not sure which yet - and will can some more! Now that the weather has cooled down, the tomatoes aren't ripening up as quickly so I'll have a bit of a reprieve until the final load on the vines turn red. I've had a lot of success with my tomatoes even with all the woes I had with worms boring into them and other creatures eating them. My tallest tomatoes - Amish Paste - are nine feet tall and still growing!

And, as the weather cools down - it's in the 50's now at night - my mind has turned to soap making and crochet, among other things. I'm not going to have a winter garden this year, but have a lot to do to prep it for next spring. But having no garden will allow me time for other things and I'm looking forward to a roaring fire and being all cozy inside. I guess I'd better start on those leg warmers that I never got around to last year - and decide what seeds to buy for next year's garden... the list is growing!

I love winter squash

Take a look at these purty things:

Aren't they cool?

The two big'uns in the back are Blue Hubbard squashes, my favorite from last year. When cut up and roasted in chunks, they are heavenly. And cooked into a puree, they are super nice in pancakes and waffles or any quick-bread. I have maybe six more growing in the garden. 

The two orange squashes are new to me so I don't know how good they'll taste, but they got rave reviews at Park Seeds, where I got the seeds. They're called Sunshine Hybrid. But they weren't very prolific. I planted two and each vine produced one squash. Though... it might not have been their fault, what with the bug infestation this year.

And the others are called Bonbon Hybrid. They've produced really well, even with all the bugs. There are still quite a few in the garden. The description on Park Seed's site says they are "space saving" and only grow 8 feet! Ha! Mine have grown at least 20 feet! Which is good because they keep producing another squash every few feet and they took over the corn patch that failed miserably due to cut worms and squirrels (not the deer, who I had accused unjustly - though they are not innocent, having chowed down on my sweet potato plants at least twice). I really hope these guys are tasty, because I have a lot of 'em.

I really love growing winter squash; they can last for a long time and they look cool and taste awesomely good. The squash bugs and cucumber beetles did a real number on mine this year and I actually had to pick these a little early, but I think they're okay. I lugged them up the hill and gave them a bath to wash off the diatomaceous earth I'd sprinkled on them and they were drying in the picture.

I've started planning next year's garden and am eyeballing Southern Exposure Seed Exchange's catalog since they carry a lot of interesting seeds. I'm hoping to try some new veggies next year... onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic and shallots to name a few... along with the old stand-bys and different varieties of "regulars".

That's it for now; I have more tomatoes calling my name! :)

Fun with tomatoes

Yeah, it doesn't take a whole lot for me to have fun, huh? Messing around figuring out ways to preserve tomatoes is actually a good time for me. I'm sure some people would rather poke a stick in their eye, but for me... growing the tomatoes and then eating and processing them is just an enjoyable thing. 

I ordered an Oxo Food Mill and it works so well at removing the seeds from the tomatoes - and is very easy to use. It will also separate the pulp from the skin, but I didn't need it for that purpose in this process. This was my first attempt at processing tomatoes for freezing (or canning when I do bigger batches), so I just tested some of my paste tomatoes from the garden to make sure I liked the outcome - Amish Paste and Roma - both of which I love. And later I processed a bunch of the other types of tomatoes in the same way.

Instead of cutting everything up and cooking it in a pot and/or boiling the tomatoes for a few seconds to be able to remove the skins, I cut the tomatoes in half, removed the little bit of a core they had and tossed them into a big bowl.

I then splashed some olive oil on them and put them cut side down onto a jelly roll pan into a 400 degree oven - and roasted them. I also roasted some peppers from the garden and some garlic and onions at the same time to add to the finished product.

I have a convection oven and it didn't take very long for the tomatoes to get soft and the skin to wrinkle - and I was able to do other things while they were cooking. I could have let them get more charred and might do that next time.

Once they cooled, the skins just slipped right off; it was so easy...

... leaving the roasted tomatoes in all their mushy glory. I know some people don't mind skins in their sauces, so you can keep them or toss 'em. Same with the seeds.

I then dumped the tomatoes (along with all the juice that came out during the roasting because it was super tasty) into the Oxo food mill to remove the seeds. 

It was fun (and quick!) to use. Yes, I guess I am a nerd if something like this floats my boat, but it did just that. Floats my boat!

Here are the seeds and fibrous parts of the tomato that the food mill extracted... a treat the chickens loved!

Cool, huh?

And here is the end-result that I can use for the sauces I want to make; it was quite thick.

I really like this process and have roasted all different kinds of tomatoes since trying it with the paste tomatoes. I have so many tomatoes ripening in my kitchen, pantry and outside that I will be quite busy for the next few weeks. I might can some, but so far have just been freezing them. I want to use my canner though, so might do the next big batch; I've never canned before!

*****

I've been super busy and not had time to post here, but when things settle down in the garden, I'm hoping to have more time for writing. Emails too... I know I'm late again on a whole new batch of emails. The hours and days are just flying by and leaves are already starting to change a bit here. Autumn is right around the corner!

Pickle people

Are you a pickle person? Mike and I aren't. To me, most of the pickles I've eaten were either way too salty or extremely sweet. The only ones I ever liked at all were called Bread & Butter pickles, but even they are too sweet for me. But I had ten cucumbers I needed to do something with lest they go bad, so decided to make some pickles since I never had.

(I might add here that the word "pickle" is really a very silly sounding word and I keep hearing in my head Arlo Guthrie singing a ridiculous song... "I don't want a pickle, I just want to ride on my motorsickle"...).

I didn't have enough to bother with canning the pickles, so I opted for the "refrigerator" version. I now have three quart jars of Bread & Butter pickles. For what they are, they taste pretty dang good! But I will never eat that many pickles.

Conclusion: I love cucumbers, not pickles. I'll just grow enough to eat raw and fresh and give away what extra we have - like last year.

I did make some very nice marinara sauce though that I'm enjoying... even though my tomato picking experience has been rather frustrating this year. They are growing like gangbusters, but I've lost quite a few to worms and someone eating them outright. So I've had to pick them before they are fully ripe and vulnerable, like these I brought in from the garden last night.

I have tomatoes ripening on four windowsills in the kitchen and one benefit to ripening inside is visual - I love seeing them scattered about the room. Here are the ones I used in the sauce that ripened up fine in the windowsills.

Included are Mortgage Lifter, Pink Brandywine, Amish Paste, Roma and Better Boy. The mix turned out very well because the marinara sauce tasted superb! It was only enough for the meal I wanted to cook, which was good since it was a test run, but here is my first tomato sauce made from my own tomatoes - that I will definitely make again.

All those tomatoes = a one quart jar of sauce. That's because you toss the skin, seeds and any chunky greenish parts of any tomato. And a few of the tomatoes just weren't "beefy" enough... were mostly seeds and schlop (that I ate). I definitely need a good food mill though - to separate the skins and seeds from the tomato pulp. Although I know how to peel a tomato easily after dunking it in boiling water for a short time, etc., getting out the seeds was a pain in the behind and time consuming. I've done some research, but if anyone has a good suggestion for a good food mill, I'm all ears.

I ended up making a kindof eggplant parmesan (without the parmesan) with the sauce and these cute little eggplants from the garden:

And I'm getting ready to freeze a bunch of my peppers so I can have some in the winter! It's hard finding organic peppers around here and when you do they are so expensive. They are listed in the Dirty Dozen List of veggies to buy only if organic since they are otherwise laden with pesticides. So freezing is the way to go with my bounty of peppers.

My garden is hanging in there and producing - even after the onslaught. And guess what? The weather the past couple of days has been downright... dare I say... perfect. It's noon now and 77 degrees with a nice breeze outside. Simply perfect. This morning when I was in the garden, I could have used a sweater! In August! 

Peppers and feathers

... and a few squash too...

I thought the mix of some of my peppers were so pretty yesterday that I took their portrait. 

Included above are Jalapeno, Sahuaro, Flavorburst, Mexibell, Sweet Banana, New Mexico Big Jim and Black Hungarian.

And I've been collecting some chicken and guinea feathers that are mighty pretty too.

When I was getting ready to make a squash casserole the other night, I decided to take a picture of the squash from my garden I was using because of the two that grew as one. If you look closely, you can see the two right up front are "fused" together. They grew that way, but were full individuals when I cut them up, each having their own seeds and "completeness" if you know what I mean. Summer squash freaks of nature is what they are.

Oh, and here is the latest picture of my corn:

That's an ear ravaged by deer. All the ears were gnawed on like that!

Aaaarrgghhhhh!

Obviously, our fence is not tall enough and they are jumping over and laughing their heads off as they leap. We have plans to make it 10 feet tall for next season and that should keep them out at last! They can cause so much trouble in the garden. So, along with them, crows getting my ripening tomatoes and the 2,473 different bugs that invaded the garden this year, it's been a real challenge. Challenge I say! But as Mike said, it just teaches us what to do differently next year. And I'm already planning what seeds to order. And what supplies to have ready to keep the creatures outta there!