Apple dumplings

I fear this garden blog is going to turn into a cooking blog. It's apple season and my husband is really into apple dumplings. Had to share.

Herbed salt

My latest favorite way to store summer flavor...herbed salt. This batch has thyme and sage, the last was rosemary and sage. Think veggies tossed with olive oil and herbed salt and roasted, or patting a chicken with the tasty salt, or on scrambled eggs, or, popcorn?

I followed a recipe from the Splendid Kitchen: http://www.publicradio.org/columns/splendid-table/recipes/homemade_tuscan_or_other_herb_salt.html

You wish you could put your nose over this bowl right now. And I wish I'd thought of this before my herbs' last days.

Here's the hoop house. Karl came over and helped me throw it together while Doug was working on our addition. The hoop house consists of 6 10 ft lengths of 3/4 inch PVC. The two end arches were cut in half and a T-connector was cemented between the two halves. The ridgepole was cut to length, and inserted into the two T-connectors. (Not cemented so that it's easier to take it down later. We'll see if that's a problem.) 5 4 ft long rebars were cut in half to make 10 2ft pegs. Pounded into the ground with 4 inches above, these rebars are the posts that anchor the ends of the PVC arches. An old paint tarp was laid over the top. (I still haven't gotten around to sizing it correctly.) Rocks and wood anchor it around the sides and right now snow does too. An old hose was cut in foot long lengths and slit on the inside of the curve to clamp the plastic to the PVC arches. These work OK, but the weight of the snow on top, and sometimes the wind can cause the hose to pop off.

Inside, everything is doing well except the zucchini. The 29 degree temps seem to have caused some of the leaves to droop. I pulled the plant today, because without pollinators nothing else will come on it anyway and as you'll see below, the last zuchini was ready for harvest.

And check out the daikon!!! It really didn't need to be in the hoop house. It was started August 11th, and just now, when the frosts could start to top kill it, it is supremely ready for harvest. So maybe next year, I'll do some later plantings in the hoop house and earlier out and around the garden.

Scarlet Runner Beans

This is what I got off the 5 ft row of scarlet runner beans I planted.

I just read a little more about them and found out that I could have eaten them as fresh string beans if I picked them young enough. Also that the gorgeous red flowers are edible and so is the root! The beans can be eaten fresh like lima beans, or dried as I was planning. But they are HUGE so I'm thinking it'll take forever for them to dry and even longer to rehydrate for soup, so this was probably not the best idea I ever had. Maybe I'll freeze them.

Furthermore, this bean is PERENNIAL!!! It can live and regrow for 7 YEARS! The Indians called it a magic bean.

Anyway. I'm completely sold and will probably grow more of this next year and maybe less bush bean - or maybe both. Who knows.

Lessons Learned: Roots

I was pleased and surprised with the success of beet and carrot crops this year. It's all I attempted. I haven't exactly run the numbers, but I suspect these crops are the highest $/square foot crop I grew.

I'd like to try rutabega next year. (Friends recommend it.) I'd also like to do a greater variety of beets, and a lot more carrots. I'd also like to try celeriac next fall.

Carrots were impressive in the spring, but taste better in the fall, so I really want to plant more next fall.

I should also plant these fall seeds a little earlier than I did. But I planted them July 31! How much earlier can I go? Maybe this year was just so gray and rainy that they didn't grow well.

Lessons Learned: Beans and Peas

Bunny problems cut the pea harvest way back this year. I also had some trouble with germination. Next year, I'll plant fresh seed a little later. Peas came up this year on April 17th, Growing Degree Day 38. I figure I'll wait until this point next year - whenever that is - and then put the peas in the ground, pre-soaked.

I want the shelling peas for the sake of the sweet surprise inside, but the truth is, you have to grow a lot to get a dinner's worth. So we'll plant more snow peas and sugar snaps.

As far as string beans go, I'm pretty happy with a row of about 10 ft total. I'd like to try limas again, but they have to be planted as early as you can. I only got a handful this year.

I might try more pole beans next year. I had a good run with the scarlet runner beans, but they weren't good fresh, and I only had 5 ft. Maybe I'll try another variety in addition to the scarlet runner beans, one that would be good as fresh string beans or just fresh beans.

Getting ready for snow

My garden is SO not ready for snow. But I was just out shoring up the hoop house and I ducked under and thought this carrot might be respectable, so I pulled it! It's short, but respectable breadth. Wish I'd planted more. There are only 15 or so.

Stephen Hopp (of Animal Vegetable Miracle authorship) told us that carrots were better after the first frost. The cool weather convinces them to convert something to sugar... or something. I don't know, but this one was AMAZINGLY sweet. Much sweeter than the ones I grew in the spring.