Monday, October 24, 2011

Still Harvesting Beans and Eggplants Monday

This is the year when frost did not want to come though I suspect in a few days, my faith in winter will be renewed.

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Beans! Beans? Really still beans? Kid steals unexpected late beans before dinner.

The tomatoes are fruiting again, the peppers and eggplants never stopped and the pumpkin vines that had been ravished by powdery mildew have resprouted leaves and have begun to flower anew. I had been waiting for the icy leveller to end this extended bounty so I could pull up the remains and plant my garlic but yesterday I said, "enough is enough" and yanked them all anyhow. Pulling up vigorous green plants is difficult but as a gardener, you have to be tough. The back suntrap garden looks tidy now with grass and leaf clippings on top of the bare soil. Garlic is in the ground and my sights have turned to the reamining gardens for clean up.

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Lazy gardener still hasn't put away all the pumpkins and gourds. I have about as many in the cold storage room. These are hanging out in my garage at the moment.

As of today, I am still harvesting:

Beans
Peas - second planting
Volunteer Tomatoes
Litchi Tomatoes
Tomatillos
Ground Cherry - annual
The odd summer squash
Lettuce
Pak choi
Chicory
Mustards - second generation of self seeded
Arugula
Kales
Cardoon
Leeks
Chard
Parsnips
Beets
Carrots
Cabbage
Broccoli - secondary heads
Salsify & Scorzonera
Horseradish soon
Green onions, mostly perennials
Grains: Amaranth, sorghum
Apples - lots of apples
Herbs: Coriander, sage, oregano, thyme, rosemary, bay laurel, parsley, anise hyssop and so on
Flowers: Nasturtiums, mallows, calendula, borage etc...

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Seven apples trees = Lots of apple pie! (and apple fritters, and apple sauce and apple randomly thrown into various unexpected dishes - going to get myself an evaporator).

This is all I can remember right now. The squash is in cold storage with the root crops soon to follow. I have about a month before the snow starts to fall thick and heavy frost makes working the ground literally hard. This has been one beautiful fall.

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Bumblebee is appreciative of late fall flowers on this litchi tomato.

4 comments:

Liz said...

Those pumpkins and gourds are fabulously asthetic, perhaps they could be garage art?!?! Your beans look perfect!

CallieK said...

I did the same thing yesterday and it feels so wrong to rip out plants that still have small fruit and flowers! It's been chilly and bleak for days but no frost yet inToronto either- I suspect we'll see one this weekend tho.

kitsapFG said...

You got a great harvest out of those squash vines but I know what you mean about not having the heart to pull up things that are still thriving and growing.

That apple tree is beautiful! Lucky you have so many at your disposal.

Dan Owen said...

I'm really blown away as to the sheer variety of crops you are able ti grow so far north.