I woke up to frost this morning as expected. We’ll see if it killed everything.
| YEAR | FIRST TOMATO | END OF GARDEN |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | July 01 | October 24 |
| 2024 | June 22 | November 15 |
| 2023 | June 27 | October 30 |
| 2022 | June 18 | October 14 |
| 2021 | June 24 | October 31 |
| 2020 | June 23 | October 31 |
| 2019 | July 04 | October 22 |
| 2018 | June 27 | October 21 |
Frost was predicted for Thursday night, so I picked everything I could. I had picked all of the ripe and semi-ripe tomatoes a few days ago and have been trying to use them up. I found three or four when I was picking today. I forgot to pick the serrano peppers and didn’t get to pick the Tomatillos as I ran out of time. (The Serranos and Tomatillos survived the frost so I picked them on Saturday.)
The Poblano and Green Peppers had much of damage and spoiled peppers as the tops of the peppers were being eaten. I’ve seen some droppings on the peppers, so I assume it is mice or voles. I won’t try to salvage those peppers because of the possibility of Hanta Virus.
I found that I can freeze the Serrano Peppers whole. I set a bag of Peppers and Tomatillos aside for Fr. Rodolfo, took some over to Steve and Jeff, and the rest will get frozen over the weekend. And that’s it for the garden.
It’s time to start putting away food for the winter. Last week I picked a colander full of small Early Girl II tomatoes and made tomato sauce. I used it on Stuffed Eggplant Parmesan with three beautiful eggplants from the garden. We used the remainder to make spaghetti. It passed the “Annabelle Test.” She was with us this past weekend and loved it.
I cleaned and packed four freezer bags of red Jalapeños over the weekend. There are still lots of Jalapeños in the garden and I will keep sharing and using them until the first frost when the remainder will go in the freezer.
Today I finished the second tray of chives for the freezer. A week ago, I chopped and froze chives, parsley, and basil in olive oil in and stored ice cube trays. That should supply us with fresh herbs throughout the winter. The rosemary and sage usually last until almost February in the garden.
I have a large amount of poblano peppers that I will start freezing. There are lots of smaller green peppers that I hope will grow a bit before I need to pick them. The zucchini is near the end, and the tomato plants are dying off, but we’ll have tomatoes until the first frost. At this point no frost is predicted through the end of October. Global warming isn’t all bad.