Fall Report

I picked the last of the cucumbers this weekend as the vines are pretty much dead. With the drought continuing, I just couldn’t keep enough water on them. Tha area along the fence needs to be built up as it is too wet in the Spring and needs a lot more organic matter in the soil as it is too dry in the summer. I probably wouldn’t be a good idea  to plant cucumbers there again. as I’ve done it there for 5 or 6 years.

We picked lots of hot Hungarian peppers, sliced and pickled them for Jared and Jeff — they each got a 1 qt. jar. The plants still look good. The tomatoes are bearing in full force, I probably need to skin and freeze some next weekend.

I got a few Patty Pan squash this weekend and the new crop of beans is ready for picking. the fall zucchini have some small ones. Everything is suffering from lack of water, so I put the sprinkler on for about 5 hours which produced over an inch on the rain gauge.

We had a couple of near frosts this week with night time temperatures in the mid-thirties, but no damage. I made Calabacitas <karneyfamilyrecipes.com> from the last couple of zucchini from the summer plants. I also roasted a bunch of the sweet Hungarian peppers for it and they were wonderful.

Roma Tomatoes

New crop of Roma Tomatoes ready to be oven dried.

I picked another large bunch of Roma Tomatoes today which I will oven roast and dehydrate. I will try freezing them which I am told works very well.

The Roma plants are small and bear very well. I think that they can be planted closer together next year. Probably three across the bed like the peppers and closer together, maybe two feet or less.

Fall Crops

New Garden Bed – One month after planting.

The plantings that I put in at the end of July are about ready to go. My spring planted Zucchini is on it’s last leg, but not to worry, the new plants are blooming and have some tiny fruit on them. We’ll see how quickly they mature.

The Patty Pan squash should have edible fruit later this week. The beans are flowering and the Kale and chard could be a little further along. The butternut squash was probably planted way too late, and the location behind the barn was probably too dry and maybe not enough sun.

Everything probably could have gone in a week or so earlier, other than the butternut squash, which probably have been planted around the 4th of July. We’ll know definitely when the season is over.