Today's harvest

[blissful]

We are overdone on canning beans and corn. Lots of 2 gallon buckets of beans.

Tonight we finished up canning 12 qts of thick tomato sauce w/lemon juice, no salt. That brings us to 72 and 1/2 qts of sauce. We still want to do another 28, plus salsa, and ketchup. Husband wants ketchup first before salsa.


Larry, We are growing the delicata, it is very nice, sweet, the skin is soft and it won't hold over winter well, the skin is edible, so roast it on parchment in slices with skin, to munch on. Maybe a little onion garlic and paprika powder on them.



We collect green bell peppers in a box and ripen them, then I chop and freeze, I just have 10 cups of red diced bell pepper so far.

We are also growing hatch peppers, haven't picked any so far.


We grew orange carrots and an uzbec golden carrot, much milder, less carroty taste, and sweeter. I'll grow these again.

Our downstairs pantry, we vacuumed out, reorganized relabeled everything, is over flowing, so my husband built a shelf outside the pantry for my over flow spices, chemicals, teas, herbs, dried veg, and now that is over filled too.

We put in some very small raised beds, one for spearmint, and we put peppermint in with our asparagus (much of it grown from seed which was cool). I still need to move lemon balm into an area of the yard to have it take over. I put in some medicinal herb mullein.


We grew 200+ garlic, russian red, large cloves, love the stuff. 250 onions, keepers most of them are in mesh bags hung in the basement.



We started our seeds differently this year. We use so much square footage from feb-may, in the house, (we are in WI) but learned winter sown seeds do just as well, so we planted 70 containers of seeds and stuck them in the snow and they were seedling ready to put in the garden when we planted.



This is my indoor onion from seed (keeper long day onions), in trays, and winter sown in a milk carton. You can see they ran head to head.

I will probably not waste my time growing most of our seedlings inside, except green peppers, or hatch peppers. But everything else can be winter sown and save us the time, and square footage in the house for those months.


It's been a super great year and super busy fall, canning and dehydrating and freezing stuff for winter.
Glad to see you all.

 

[larry_stewart]

Hey Bliss, Looking great!!!

When we redid our kitchen, our contractor kinda talked us out of a big pantry ( we basically downsized from a large pantry to using multiple cupboards ( not the end of the world, but not ideal). Anyway, wee have a decent sized room in our garage with a freezer and fridge and a bunch of those crappy snap together plastic shelves that look like they are about to fall over. Winter project is to make some nice sturdy wooden shelves to take advantage of as much space as possible.

I have mint growing freely next too the driveway. A variety of spearmint and peppermint. I dry a bunch in the boiler room for tea during the winter months. As far as lemon balm goes, when we moved here, my dad brought me over one plant. I now have numerous plants scattered throughout the yard. Its amazing how that plant gets around. The bees love it ( and the mints) too. I also set up a mini tea garden, with multiple mints, chamomile and a Korean tea plant. Dried a lot of that too, just waiting for things to cool up a bit so I can enjoy some home made / home grown tea.

Bliss, Im real curious about the winter sowing seed process. Can you go into a little more detail ( maybe which crops do well with this, when you et them outside ...). Sounds like something Id like to try.

Thanks , and great to see your post

 

[dragnlaw]

Please explain "winter sowing".
Do you mean you sow your seeds in your containers and/or beds in the late fall, early winter befor ethe ground freezes?

 

[blissful]

There are two reasons we took up winter sown seeds and even ran them head to head with seeds grown in the house.
1. To keep our activity level up and ongoing during the coldest part of winter. This keeps us working on garden planning and sowing seeds during feb-may when we may be stuck inside due to cold and snow. So activity level. I think we put in 10 winter sown jugs per week, starting in early february and kept at it for weeks.

2. Why use up square footage in the house, we were tripping over all the trays in our south windows in 4 rooms?


Essentially, milk cartons (any plastic cartons, de-icer, vinegar, bleach, antifreeze, well washed), cut across the middle except for the handle area, put in 2 inches of dirt, wet it down, make sure to have holes in the bottom and then put in seeds, take off the cap for air flow, tape the container shut. (make sure to label inside the container) These are placed out in the snow outside in Jan-May. The only upkeep is checking once a month during the cold months to make sure they are wet enough, or weekly for the last month for watering if needed. They act like a terrarium and sprout when the weather allows.


Tools: scissors, cartons, dirt, seeds, water, tape, labeling.

I have a friend in Tennessee and she walked me through it and gave me resources for learning more. Everything can be started in buckets outside, except I'm still going to grow peppers indoors because I know they are sensitive to the cold temperatures (but I might be wrong).


https://www.facebook.com/groups/wintersown/about


There are very successful winter sown seeds, all over canada and the US, so colder and warmer than Wisconsin. There are hundreds of websites about 'winter sown', if you check that out, you'll find them.



We hung up our plastic jugs to use again next year. We'll be doing tomatoes in them too this next year. We started onions, flowers, herbs, asparagus from seed(!), really anything you want to have seedlings for. I didn't start any beans, peas, carrots, beets, radishes, anything that I want directly from seed in the ground.


We'll probably put in 150 jugs this year, because we'll put in tomatoes in them this next spring. Collecting jugs (we don't drink milk) is a side hobby, lol.



Our biggest worry this past spring, was when the weather warmed, snow was gone, nice temperatures, then we'd get a cold front and cold temperatures w/snow, but they did just fine in the snow, nothing was frozen off. It was an act of faith.

 

[larry_stewart]

Thanks for the explanation and hints. Ill defoniley look into it, and take a shot. I agree about keeping busy during the cold months and tying in tune with the garden and garden planning . I got my aquaponics system for the inter ( and ill often grow mushrooms too). but once set up ( both) theres not all that much to do other than wait.

I've definitely noticed many times how some rogue seed that self planted itself from the previous years overripe / fallen fruit does better than the ones I intentionally planted. And many do come up sooner ( when the time is right) and seem to be more hardy. Kind of a mother nature/ Darwin thing going on.

I figure I have nothing to loose by taking a shot at it .

Thanks again.

 

[blissful]

Larry, I thought the germination on the onions, and the vigorous growth was much better in the winter sown onions, using the same seed. That really sold us. We did put some tomatoes in the jugs, late spring, and they were coming out the top by planting time, the extra heat in the terrarium like jug really promoted fast growth compared to our indoor transplants.


It seemed like the herbs which often take 3 weeks to germinate, did better in the winter sown because they had a stable humidity in the jugs, where, if they are in the house, we have to be very concerned about watering consistently, or we get squat. Dill and thyme did exceptional in winter sown.



For people new to winter sown, it's such a small expense and effort and it produces very well. I'm all for frugal methods.

 

[taxlady]

Winter sowing sounds really interesting and appealing. I don't really get enough light to do it indoors. I think I'll give it a shot.

 

[dragnlaw]

Wow! So you plant them in jugs, which you can put a lid on, and then they are outside. Against the house? in a shed? I live in a snow zone (although with climate change... who knows what we'll get next year!) (edit - and you can't tell me Wisconsin doesn't get cold and snow! I lived several years in Minn.!)

I can get 3 ft of snow piled up against the house, north, east, south or west. All dependent on the wind/storm. Temps, again, depends on the year. I consider I live in a little pocket of temperate conditions but I don't think a plastic bottle would survive outside without freezing solid here. Even my unheated front porch can and often does, freeze an 18 litre jug of water. And sometimes even the 20 gallon fish tank with moving water and a light above. Gold fish get a little sluggish then LOL. I don't turn the heater on til I see ice crusting the surface, poor things!

 

[GotGarlic]

Wow! So you plant them in jugs, which you can put a lid on, and then they are outside. Against the house? in a shed? I live in a snow zone (although with climate change... who knows what we'll get next year!) (edit - and you can't tell me Wisconsin doesn't get cold and snow! I lived several years in Minn.!)

Having grown up in Michigan, I can tell you Wisconsin most definitely gets a lot of snow!

I can get 3 ft of snow piled up against the house, north, east, south or west. All dependent on the wind/storm. Temps, again, depends on the year. I consider I live in a little pocket of temperate conditions but I don't think a plastic bottle would survive outside without freezing solid here. Even my unheated front porch can and often does, freeze an 18 litre jug of water. And sometimes even the 20 gallon fish tank with moving water and a light above. Gold fish get a little sluggish then LOL. I don't turn the heater on til I see ice crusting the surface, poor things!

I live in an actual temperate climate. We might get snow every two or three years. If it snows even a couple of inches, we close the schools because it isn't cost-effective to have salt trucks that aren't needed every year.

 

[dragnlaw]

I hear yuh GG!

When we moved to Minn. they didn't believe we lived further south in Canada than where we were then. (kids that is, don't know about the adults) So although southern Ontario didn't get the cold - we certainly got the snow! (Except Toronto -at that time mostly fog off the lake)

Back to White Bear Lake in Minn. - They would use bulldozers and big farm tractors to clear the snow off the lake for us to skate - 'fraid I was too chicken to go out too far, even knowing the weight of those machines on the ice - LOL

 

[Kathleen]

Winter sowing sounds really interesting and appealing. I don't really get enough light to do it indoors. I think I'll give it a shot.

I was thinking the same thing!

 

[Vinylhanger]

I ahve been neglecting the garden lately, so decided to see what was out there.

The are a bit on the too big side, but it doesn't seem to affect them too much.

Some of this will go to a good friend tomorrow. The big ones are perfect for zuchinni bread. One is all it takes.

The other ones are great baked as steaks or stir fried.

Tomatoes are starting to worry me. Seems like they are ready to take off, but I've been thinking that for weeks.

 

[dragnlaw]

My tomatoes are getting huge! But the ground is so soft, plant fell over and I'm afraid of breaking too many branches to upright it.

Trouble is - as big as they are - they are rock hard, totally green and show no sign of turning. I've picked a couple with just the tiniest bit of going to a paler green, brought in for the window sill. Worked for the first two, just brought in a 3rd.
Brought them in 'cause I thought they looked like they would split.

Green beans, which I planted just a little while ago, are showing flowers, expecting a bit of heat so hopefully will get some before too long. Enough for the winter? doubt it, .. but hey! ... never say never!

 

[larry_stewart]

My tomatoes have slowed significantly. Hoping the green ones start to turn, so I can ripen them off the vine as it gets colder.

I got carried away with string beans this year. Ive already cooked, eaten and froze as many as I need. Going to rethink next year as far as amount of plants.

 

[pepperhead212]

My beans are starting to produce a lot...finally. I had trouble with the early plants, so I eventually re-replanted them, and I'm getting some in the freezer now. I'm not crazy about frozen beans, but there are some things that I don't need those crispy beans in.

Today I harvested a bunch of squash blossoms, on those winter squash out there - over 4 quarts, after I washed and spun them dry. I'm going to make some simple tacos with them tomorrow.
Squash blossoms, washed and spun dry, just over 12 ounces. 9-4 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[blissful]

Winter sown, outside, all the time, not in a shed. Freezing, snow, thaw, cold, hot, amazingly, they did just fine. It was an act of faith to believe in them but they worked out fine.

 

[blissful]

My tomatoes have slowed significantly. Hoping the green ones start to turn, so I can ripen them off the vine as it gets colder.

I got carried away with string beans this year. Ive already cooked, eaten and froze as many as I need. Going to rethink next year as far as amount of plants.

I looked back at 2 years ago, and last year and we over canned green beans and cucumbers with hopes of not growing any this year. This year came and we planted green beans. What were we thinking?



Someone finally shared that it really does help to keep a garden/canning spirol notebook, from year to year, so that stuff doesn't happen. We documented 2019 and canning totals, then in planning drew maps of the gardens, what to plant where, tore them out started over 3 times, and finally got them done, as they were planted. We used the spirol for buying seeds, where we got them, the kinds we wanted and had. We did germination tests on our saved seeds before the season started so we knew if the seeds would sprout.


We'll be a little bit better prepared next year and we'll only plant enough beans and cucumbers to eat, not for canning, giving us more space for other things, like squash or tomatoes or potatoes.

 

[bethzaring]

Parts of the Southwest will be skipping the first Fall frost and having the first hard freeze instead, this coming Tuesday night. Estimates of the low range from 26*F to 29*F. So I am starting an earlier than expected gathering of the produce. Today I started with the white onions.

 

[blissful]

Oh Beth, ouch a hard freeze already. Your onions look great! Our onions weren't a big harvest, we've had better, but some onions are better than no onions. Stay warm.

 

[larry_stewart]

Those onions look terrific!. We had a good ( for us) onion year, but not one worth bragging about. It was a step in the right direction, so hopefully with a few tweaks , next year will be better.