What have you done today in the Garden?

There's no hope Sjoerd

 

Picked a bunch of green bush beans. These were planted mid July, after digging the garlic from that raised bed.



This was under the plants, a snake skin.



This is a genetic dwarf peach tree / bush. I *think* the variety is "Garden Gold". The contraption over it holds a plastic cover during the winter, to keep winter rains out. That is about 100% effective at preventing Peach Leaf Curl Disease, which around here often destroys the crop and eventually, the tree.



With the cool, rainy weather, peaches started dropping from the tree. I set aside 11 pounds of the nicest to can. Here are a few.



(Sjoerd is hiding his colander from me now, so I had to use the steamer base). After processing them...


Those are freestone, which is nice for processing them.

These yellow apples are "Porter", a variety discovered in the year 1800 in New England (Massachusetts) and were used in the original "Fanny Farmer Cookbook" for apple pie.



Ten years ago, I had obtained the scion for these from Fedco, a co-op in Maine. I grafted that onto a Jonathan Apple tree, and the Porter was much more vigorous than the Jonathan. They are kind of bland, but this was also the first producing year for Otterson apples, also a graft I obtained from Fedco...



Nice looking, but nothing special. But! The inside...



Wowza! Is that an apple? Yes it is! Otterson is being developed to make red ciders. These are mostly kind of sour, not a lot of sweetness, and not a great texture for a fresh apple. So I chopped two of them, and mixed with the Porter apples.



And baked a pie. Here's a slice.



It's actually quite a tasty pie, too.

While that was baking, I checked the fig trees. I recently had a conversation with them about how it's a bit of work taking care of them, so if they don't start producing, it's time to go...



Apparently they listened! That variety is Celeste, an old Southeastern US / East Texas variety. The figs are small, but sweet (In the aluminum pan). I also picked some LSU Tiger, a modern variety from Louisiana (on the plate) Much bigger, and also starting to ripen now.



Those are all halved now, drying in the food dehydrator.

It's raining like crazy at the moment. So no more time in the garden today.

 

Finished planting the wallflowers and polyanthus along the path in the front garden, still got a lot left of both.

 

Well Daniel, it’s another attention-getter of a posting, isn’t it, mate.

Great how you finished off the garlics and then planted in the beans. Well done. Curious that snakeskin, do you think it could have been a garter snake? Whatever kind it was, i was nice to know it was using your raised bed to change clothes in. I wonder if he ate a slug or two in there.

Sorry to be so selfish with the colander. I had to sharpen -up my security here. Your last you helped yourself to some coffee and chocolate bikkies….leaving crumbs all over the breakfast bar. Daniel….there was a banana missing from the fruit bowl. Such audacity !

The peaches looked so good. You managed to can quite a few. I really like peaches and am fond of eating them with cottage cheese. Mmmmmm.

Then the apples and figs. Wowzer is right! The through n through red apple was something to see. The pie really got me going, why, I almost stood up to go and fetch the whipped cream. It really did look delicious. The crust looked just right to me.

The plentiful fig harvest gave you enough to make some newtons. Did you finish all the paste you made and froze last year?

I enjoyed your posting.

Loggie— good you gat that finished. Where will the leftovers go then? You can’t just bin them.

 

Out shopping this morning and I bought a roll of turf on the spur of the moment as it prompted me to do a job I hadn't got round to doing, thinking I'd do it next year.

The grass in the area under this acer palmatums always struggles, more so since the acer has increased in size.





I've tried re-seeding it but it still struggled. So I returfed it. I know it's a bit late in the year, but it's still warm and if weeds can thrive at the moment the grass should stand a chance.




Hardly notices from here.

 

Thanks Sjoerd, i will find some space for the leftovers, just got to wait for the rest of the bulbs and the cosmos to finish.

 

Planted up 3 tubs with tulip and hyacinth bulbs, wallflowers and polyanthus.

 

Loggie—Wow, that is a container full of goodness, innit.
It looks like I see some Verbena bonariensis there to the right. I do like that plant so much.

 

Yes thanks Sjoerd and yes it's verbena Bonariensis, it grows so fast.

 

@Sjoerd, thanks for the comments.

I think that was probably a garter snake. I see them from time to time. Better that, than a python... They can certainly eat all the slugs they want!

So sorry about the crumbs on the breakfast bar. Must have been caffeine withdrawal. I'll try to do better next time.

I'll have to bring some peaches to replace that banana. My bad.

Lady year's fig puree was good, but didn't taste very figgy. Strangely, it reminded me of pecan pie. I am hoping that by dehydrating them, the figginess will be more concentrated.

Didn't do garden stuff today. Maybe tomorrow.

 

Daniel—Ha ha . Oh dear me.
I laugh, but peaches …..goodness gracious me. You know if the climate continues to change here, why, I may be able to grow a tree myself. There is already one type of dwarf apricot that does well here. ¿Quien sabe?

 

Sjoerd, if you can grow apricots, that's pretty nice. Here, the tree survives until a frost happens at bloom time. Then the whole tree dies. That has happened to me, many times.

Today I pulled out the sauce tomatoes. Their job is done. A little more work is needed to clean up that raised bed, and add soil to bring the level up to what I want. Then I will plant garlic there. About two weeks, so I better get hopping.

The chestnuts are beginning to produce nuts.



Ow ow ow ow ow! But the nuts themselves look pretty good this year.



Good green bean harvest. More work for me LOL. I washed, cut, blanched, froze about 1/3 of them today.



There were also more figs and the remaining sauce tomatoes which needed some clean up. I washed and sliced the figs, and they are in the dehydrator. These were all LSU Tiger variety, big and sweet.



I made envelopes for saved seeds, which have been drying in my home office. Now they are safe in the envelopes until Spring.

 

I picked some drying beans. They'll stay in their pods while they dry even more, then shelled and put into canning jars for storage. I believe that canning jars aren't just for canning. I would post a picture but my tablet is acting up (They're creamish colored and look like beans). I'll be picking these beans every two or three days for the next three or four weeks.
We're going apple picking tomorrow. We've made it a tradition with my granddaughter. I started it before we moved from Tacoma. And it was continued here in Wisconsin. This year I'll bag and freeze some for apple pie filling. I tried canning apple pie filling in Washington, but it was a mess. I guess you need special corn starch (I think it was). So I called around and finally found one place that carried it. I drove to Puyallup to get it. I think I canned five or six jars. They all sealed great! I left them on the towel on the counter to cool that night. I got up the next morning and went to work. I got home expecting to put them away. Two of the jar contents had somehow expanded, unsealed, and oozed down the jar onto the towel and counter. It was a mess. Needless to say I never did that again! I through all of them out, my reasoning was that if two didn't seal properly I wasn't going to take a chance with any of them.

 

@Willowisp0801 that apple pie filling was too bad, after so much work.

I was thinking about making some and freezing it too. I have a lot of apples left to pick.

 

Daniel— Mate, I do not grow apricots, but the little specialist trees are available. They must be brought inside in the winter though.

it is good to see the last of your toms. My last Romas I will also process in a few days. I am waiting for rain. Did you get enough seeds for next season’s crop?

…and the beans, the beans. Aren’t they lovely.

What plans do you have for your chestnuts?

Thanks for this impressive posting.