The Cool Season Cometh...

Finally! I have tomatoes!!! Not a whole lot, mind you, but enough to give some to Matt and put on the dehydrator for winter. My cherries are really starting to come on, but the romas are badly lagging behind. I've put off canning salsa twice in the vain hopes that I would be able to use my own tomatoes, but I've just run out of time this year. I'm going to implement plan B and buy a crate of tomatoes from Wilco this weekend instead. Local tomatoes are the next best thing to my own, so I won't feel too bad. As long as I have salsa to put on my grits, everything will be ok :-)

Last weekend was spent in the garden, transitioning to cool-season crops. I dug up all my potatoes and I have to admit, they were very underwhelming. I think the raised beds with the automatic spray nozzles kept the soil too wet for them. And, I think they needed more sun. So...potatoes will be going on the other side of the fence next year where the sunflowers are now. There's more room, the soil has more sand, and it gets more sun hours than the rest of the backyard. Hopefully, I'll get a much better yield next fall. Meanwhile, here is what I got out of the plants this year: Yukon Golds, Norland Reds, and Russet Burbanks! There may not be many, but I'll bet they taste great!

Another little chore I finished up was an experimental greenhouse for the raised beds. If you remember, a few years ago, me and my friend Bill made a pretty decent one out of PVC, chicken wire, and plastic. It was good, but it had some drawbacks. It was difficult to store, since it didn't fold up and it was very difficult to reach the middle of the beds, since only the ends were open. So, I came up with another plan with the help of Matt and we put it together after a trip to Ace Hardware.
The plastic just covers the PVC and attaches with Velcro. That way, when we want to take it down, we just fold up the plastic and stack the frames. Easy!

Even during the development of this frame, Matt and I came up with even more ideas on how to improve the next one we build. I've got some custom PVC connectors on order...

Here's the prototype all finished: The end pieces are also attached with Velcro so I can flip them up for ventilation.

I also brought my broccoli out of the greenhouse and put it where the shallots used to be. I started them in June and they've got a good head start.

I put in more carrots, radishes, and onion seeds in where the potatoes used to be. All these are supposed to grow pretty well in cool weather, so it's all a big experiment. I'll build a hothouse for this bed as well as soon as I get all the supplies.

I planted Swiss chard rainbow starts and seeds as well as some turnip seeds in this bed. I have two more Brussels Sprouts and Cauliflower that I grew from seed as well in here.

And here's an updated shot of the strawberry pyramid. The plants are really liking it here and have gone to town, sending out new starts. I've potted up a couple in an attempt to fill some hanging baskets and give out as gifts. Strawberry plants are so accommodating...

I also potted up the other two carnivorous plants I had in the kitchen. These little terrariums are so nice to look at while washing dishes!


A quick pic of dessert last week: cottage cheese with strawberries and honey from the farmer's market. The basil was out of my garden- it was fantastic!

And drunken plums! Finally found some light rum and got all my sugar weighed out. We'll be spooning this onto ice cream right around Thanksgiving!