Sunday, November 1, 2020

Just a Little Catsup. Ketchup? Catch-Up!

 After having unusually cold weather for the past couple/few weeks, we may get temps that climb into the 40s (a real heat wave, no?) this coming week.
 
And I can finally report that the garden is now completely put to bed for the winter.
 

The three long strawberry rows are snuggled under their heavy covering of mulch.
 

No snow yet on the very tall asparagus ferns but rain, wind and frost have bent them down so Papa Pea can no longer claim they are blocking the view of vehicles coming in on the driveway.
 

After our summer of lots of (sweat producing) hot days, I thought my Red Kuri squash would have matured more than it did.  Even though many of them don't have the intense orange-red color I look for, I have prepared two of them for us and they are good; just not as "sweet" as I would like.  No fear that they won't get eaten.
 

Our potato harvest was small.  But what did I expect when I planted only about half as many as usual?
 
A couple of years ago we had trouble with wire worms (ugh) in the potatoes.  The next year (spuds planted in a different spot) the problem was less prolific, but still in evidence.  So last year, I decreed a ban on potatoes in the garden.  We purchased a couple of twenty-five pound bags from an acquaintance who had a great crop.  From those bags, I saved small ones to plant as seed this year.
 
The result was no wire worms (yay!!) but a smaller yield and not the largest spuds we've ever seen.  Our total harvest was eighty-four pounds which will keep us going well into the winter months. 
 
I can't think of potatoes without remembering that my dear grandma immigrated to this country from Scotland with her family when she was fifteen.  She related the family had spent more than one winter living on nothing put potatoes. 
 
That story makes me extremely grateful for our bountiful garden harvest which has filled our freezers and pantry shelves.  We certainly have a plethora of good food to supplement our eighty-four pounds of potatoes. 

14 comments:

Katie C. said...

Do you bring herb plants in or just dry what you harvest? I bought a new basil and thyme plant for inside. The ones outside are spent. I’m debating about digging up one of my rosemary plants. Sometimes they do well, sometimes not. Roasted potatoes with rosemary are great.

Rosalea said...

84 pounds is pretty good! My ancestors as well, told stories of surviving on spuds and turnips. My spuds have scab, but strangely, the 'volunteer' potatoes have none! A gardening guru says to lay pine needles in the planting trench and scab will be gone, so am going to try that next year. May I ask what is roughly the circumference of the Kuri squash? (hard to tell how big they are in the pic.) I am thinking of giving them a try. My Butternut squash are HUGE, and a lot for just the two of us.

Goatldi said...

Well you have done a great job! With my little first year garden I played cheater for provisions. I recently enjoyed living on a stock tank full of fresh radishes. Delish ! I purchased a 1/4 of grass feed grass finished beef from a fifth generation cattle man and his sweet family from church. I bought two flats of yummy peaches and made jam plus froze about five 4 cups each and already used one bag for a cobbler at the home of my now new friends who did the work on my little cabin.

I am making my own kombucha starter courtesy of same folks. I grabbed a large bag of sweet red onions who will spend this week in my Nesco dehydrator. I have beans, peas and kale plus next years garlic in the raised beds. The peas aren't exciting but the beans are doing great as is the kale.

And I still need to dry my lemon balm , marjoram and thyme. So even though I am not the grower of all I will have I am in much better shape than this time last year.

Which is good because even though the Creek fire is still burning the air is mostly decent. But we are looking at rain and low 30's starting the end of this week. Cross fingers for our rain I am sure Cal Fire would like to call it a done deal.

Isn't this the best time of year?

Tigger's Mum said...

Try growing a green mulch crop of mustard where the wire worm problem exists and dig it in before planting main crop potatoes to make the area unpalatable to the worms for a season.

Leigh said...

So nice to read about your winter prep chores being done. Do you cut back the dead fronds from your asparagus? That's very good to know about wireworms! Dan tried container potatoes this year, but the results were disappointing. I do love potatoes though.

SmartAlex said...

I have occasionally grown potatoes in containers, so switching over to all grow bags was a natural progression. Such beautiful, blemish free spuds! Last night I made mashed potatoes and I usually leave the skins on anyway. I so enjoyed polishing those pearly white potatoes! They were beautiful.

P.S. we got an inch of snow last night, after a raw Sunday of cold rain and wind. Supposed to be near 70 this weekend which will be very much appreciated.

Nancy In Boise said...

Yes I think winter is definitely here more or less. We're supposed to have 75 degree weather in the next day and then it's going to plummet back down 30 degrees by Thursday with rain in the forecast. Crazy weather here! Sounds like you did a good job at the potatoes sometimes you just have to figure out different ways to do things. Your squash a really pretty!

Cockeyed Jo said...

I slept in this morning (9am).. It was already 43 degrees. BRRR! Our younger dog whelped 10 pups until 3AM. Two of them died during the night, no fault to her or us. She is still learning how to mother them, but is doing a good job considering.

Retired Knitter said...

ah, yes, the stories of our ancestors. They were much stronger stock that what we have today.

Mama Pea said...

Katie C. - I've never had good luck bringing herbs in for the winter. My daughter is much better at it than I am. All that happens in my house is that I watch them wither and die, so other than the peppermint that is a perennial and winters-over outside, I either start or purchase whatever herbs I want to grow each spring. :o\

Rosalea - Great tip for keeping your potatoes from developing "scab." I'm entering that in my garden book. Re the Red Kuri squash, they are much smaller this year than I usually can grow. If the flavor is good, though, that's not a bad thing because I know they can be individually so big that they're just too big for two people. The two smallest ones I have left now measure 20" and 16" around. The others are a bit bigger than that. When I bake one that is too much squash for us for one meal, I save the remaining meat and either heat it up with a little water for another meal or mix it in with mashed potatoes which is very good. The ones that Michelle grew this year were much smaller than mine so it seems to depend strictly on the weather of the growing season.

Goatldi - No, you can't call yourself a cheater at all this year. You've made a darned good start on your garden plots and have taken advantage of things you didn't grow this year by getting them locally grown which, I think, is a very good thing. And nobody did the canning or preserving for you, did they? You were the one who did that hard, but worthwhile, work. Sure hope all the fire hot spots can be contained soon. Just not a good situation. Our lovely fall weather is gone, the environment is colorless and drab and we're waiting for our first snow cover. Hope we get it soon!

Tigger - One more excellent gardening tip to go in my garden book! Thank you.

Leigh - No, the nursery where our asparagus roots originally came from advises letting the old fronds/ferns just fall down over the bed because that give the soil and roots some protection over the winter months. (Would probably be different in your locale?) Then in the spring, I have to clean off all the dead growth before the new shoots start to appear.

Mama Pea said...

SmartAlex - Good going on your potatoes this year! Snow and then temps in the 70s? No thanks! I really don't like that drastic of a fluctuation. Can't be good for the trees, perennial plants, etc. Besides which, I never know how to dress of a given day!

Nancy - Sounds as though your weather is as fickle as SmartAlex's! It's crazy all over though. The Red Kuri squash isn't as uniformly attractive as it usually is. You really want all of them to be that deep orange-red. But if the flavor is okay, I'll not complain. Much.

Cockeyed Jo - Well, no wonder you "slept in" until 9 a.m.! Ten new puppies from your mama dog. Now that's a good night's work. For the dog . . . and you!

Retired Knitter - You can say that again. At fifteen my grandma started waitressing in a cafe, met my grandpa there and married when she was barely 17. They raised seven children (on practically no money) and supposedly Grandma had so many miscarriages during her child bearing years that she lost count. Can you imagine just the cooking one would have to do for a family of nine? Good thing Grandpa loved to fish and hunt. That was the mainstay of their diet for much of the time. He also kept a huge garden and, of course, Grandma preserved it all. Hardy stock, for sure.

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