Stocking Up

Thursday, August 26, 2010

After 33 days of off and on rain, we finally received some nice sunny days. Unfortunately, I was stuck inside last week getting ready for the new school year on a couple of those days. I did get out for a wonderful day in the sun Saturday, however today we are back to the threat of rain and this affords me the opportunity to catch up on the blog.

The garden has been a steady summer producer since my last post. We are at the point where we can barely keep up with the production. Saturday was spent harvesting zucchinis and beans for pickling and canning. I was able to make a wonderful cream of broccoli soup from a recipe out of the Moosewood Cookbook. This allowed us an opportunity to catch-up with the broccoli, for the time being. Next, we will blanche and freeze broccoli for the winter.

I have been harvesting silver salmon and blueberries lately, which is an indication of the season starting to change at our latitude. Last night, while we were out moose hunting the high bush cranberry bushes smelled of musty wine, a memorable indicator for me that fall is here. Much to our surprise this year has a bountiful supply of blueberries in our local forest, an added bonus to moose hunting. We have harvested seven quarts in the last week. Strawberries are starting to turn red, however, we fear that the cold temperatures on the last two clear mornings may cause an early frost. This also would be a hard hit to strawberries and to the shelling peas that are just starting to fatten up. Fall is ever present around the garden, as the pushki leaves are turning yellow. Strangely enough the fireweed in many areas around the garden are turning red, but they never flowered.

All of the fall seedlings have been planted and the starts are getting hardened off outside. It is time to consider which beds will be cover with seasonal extenders or cold frames. Yesterday, the morning was spent moving close to two cubic yards of compost that is ready for next spring to a sunny location, so that it heats up early in the spring and available for use. Next, the secondary compost was transferred to the tertiary compost bin and the primary to the secondary. I added algae, collected from the beach, into each and cover the secondary bed with another layer of grass mulch. Meanwhile, the primary compost bin is teeming with potatoes in the lower portion, so I just transferred the upper portion to the secondary bin and I will continue to add clippings and fall harvested vegetable manner for this compost bin. This may sound tedious and laborious, but this is the foundation of the garden and the key to success to any organic garden. A little hard work for a short amount of time pays off.

The greenhouse is producing tomatoes and cucumbers, yet this does not rival years past. On the other hand, the green beans are outstanding. I installed another fan to circulate air during these cool and humid days. Once the mold from wilting flowers and rotting fruit gets established on beans and cucumber plants you have a real battle at hand. I get rid of as many male flowers on cucumbers as possible and keep the place dry to stay on top of the mold problem – circulate the air. The beans we eat them daily and Nicky is pickling as we speak. The herbs are another summer success; marjoram, thyme, oregano, dill, and parsley are dying on a rack above the wood stove.

In the hoop house, the zucchinis leaves are trimmed back every few days to allow air to circulate. Scallions are being harvested along with beets. The broccoli were pulled, they ended up getting too wet in the hoop house. The late season carrots and cabbage are doing great. I started some claytonia, mache, and a pretty red leaf in the broccoli beds and they are all up. The herbs are doing great and the dill in the hoop house is seven feet tall. We also planted dill out side and we will not see any flowers, but there are plenty of leaves for pickling.

In the hog garden, we have been harvesting scapes from the garlic. Seventy scapes are hard to keep up with, so I placed scapes in the pickled zucchini. We cook scapes in something every night. The parsnips, lettuces, broccoli, beets, and cabbage all look great. The crazy thing going on in the hog garden are all the volunteer potato from last year. They are starting to take over in spots, especially where there is garlic. I though I would have harvested the garlic by now. Last year I harvest garlic August 20th. This year they still have a week or two before I harvest.

In the main garden, the beets and carrots are getting their second thinning. The cabbage is the success story of the year. We have huge tight heads. I bought a 5-gallon crock, so I am looking forward to making sauerkraut. The broccoli and Romanesque’s are being eaten, the broccoli side shoots are as big as the first shoots this year. The peas are slow, but we are eating them when we are in the garden. The radicchio and buttercrunch lettuce salads are delicious these days. One of the pleasant surprises this year is the onions that were planted in fours, with only the roots in the soil, are the best producers. They are well-developed sets that are somewhat flat. The onion sets that were pushed deeper into the soil are not has developed and often go to seed faster. The basil cold frame has the best looking basil still. The temperatures in the cold frame are around 70 degrees even on the coldest days.

I finally built a tool and planting closet attached it too the north side of the greenhouse. No longer is there clutter and tools left out in the rain. All the material is recycled. Recycling materials is one of the greatest things when it comes to gardening. It is a rural and an Alaskan mind set that I never knew as a Midwesterner growing up in the urban setting, where you throw way things that have benefit later.

As fall sets it cool cloak upon us the garden colors are stunning. The mock orange is in bloom and fragrant. Nicky’s poppies are blooming in and around the garden’s borders. The golds and reds are a great contrast to all the green. Next comes the second shoulder of the season.