Today was a blustery cold day, the kind of day that makes you realize fall is not far off. It was motivation enough to do the second fall planting this year. Today's planting should have been done around Aug 15th. I think I should still harvest something from my planting though so all is not lost. The coldframe was planted this evening with Tatsoi, Red Pac Choi & Claytonia (
seed shared by Thomas). Tomorrow I am hoping to get the
cedar polytunnel planted up. With that done everything will be planted for the fall & winter garden.
With September upon use it is now time to start picking apples. This past long weekend we visited
Orchard Home Farm which has turned into an annual visit for use. It is still early in the season so only a few varieties were ready. We picked 23lbs of Mcintosh apples, half will be eaten fresh and the other half I will make apple sauce with. Bartlet pears were also ready so 16lbs of them were picked. The pears I will use to make spiced pear jam & canned pears.
The farm also had a huge earthen mounted that pumpkins were growing over. It was just packed with pumpkins. I wish my butternut squash were as far along as these pumpkins. The skins are still green on them!
Today was a blustery cold day, the kind of day that makes you realize fall is not far off. It was motivation enough to do the second fall planting this year. Today's planting should have been done around Aug 15th. I think I should still harvest something from my planting though so all is not lost. The coldframe was planted this evening with Tatsoi, Red Pac Choi & Claytonia (seed shared by Thomas). Tomorrow I am hoping to get the cedar polytunnel planted up. With that done everything will be planted for the fall & winter garden.
With September upon use it is now time to start picking apples. This past long weekend we visited Orchard Home Farm which has turned into an annual visit for use. It is still early in the season so only a few varieties were ready. We picked 23lbs of Mcintosh apples, half will be eaten fresh and the other half I will make apple sauce with. Bartlet pears were also ready so 16lbs of them were picked. The pears I will use to make spiced pear jam & canned pears.
The farm also had a huge earthen mounted that pumpkins were growing over. It was just packed with pumpkins. I wish my butternut squash were as far along as these pumpkins. The skins are still green on them!
The color of that pumpkin is fantastic, you're right. I'm so ready for these fall crops! Actually, I just think I'm ready to pick something...anything again.
ReplyDeleteVisiting an apple orchard is on my list of things to do this fall because I want to try to make some applesauce as well. What recipe do you use?
ReplyDeleteYour cold frame looks fantastic. What does the handle on the side do?
ReplyDeleteI'm growing some tatsoi and pak choi for the first time this fall. I didn't know there was a red pak choi variety! I love red versions of these "greens." I have ruby lettuce, red romaine, red russian kale, ruby red chard... you get the idea. :-)
I'm going apple and pear picking this weekend. I do hope you post your pear jam recipe. Yum.
ReplyDeleteI hope my fall planted crops got planted early enough. I have so few of them. I didn't go apple picking, but did get two 10lbs bags of apples from the farmers market yesterday. I plan on making applesauce too.
ReplyDeleteYour cold frame really is a beauty. I need to do some seed trays this coming weekend of more asian greens to go in the greenhouse once the greenhouse tomatoes expire.
ReplyDeleteThe orchard visit looks like it was very productive and the pumpkin patch immediately made me think of Linus and the Great Pumpkin from the Charlie Brown Halloween special. :D
I planted some claytonia last weekend. It was relatively quick to germinate. I'll be doing a second sowing this weekend. From my understanding, it is very hardy so it should continue to grow during the dead of winter.
ReplyDeleteHi Dan I have five semi dwarf apple trees in the backyard and this is the second year with no apples thanks to the deer. I could tie the dog outside for a deterrent but Butch is afraid of the dark. So I will be buying apples again. John
ReplyDeleteI remember buying Mckintosh apples in the farmers market in Quebec. Such an amazing colour and the shiniest apple I have ever seen!
ReplyDeleteApple picking! That sounds like fun! I haven't been able to get out to all the farms I wanted to so far this fall. I'm running out of time as we will being on a boat going through the Panama Canal in under 2 weeks (akkk!) so no fall crops for me this year. I am envious of your awesome cold frame. Next year, next year ;)
ReplyDeleteI have sowed my Claytonia seeds 3 times without success. maybe it was too warm for them??
ReplyDeleteI love your cold frame- My next one may be modeled after it I think. :)