Winter is Coming! (tomorrow nite-October 10)

As they kept saying in Game of Thrones, “Winter is coming” and it is coming here tomorrow night. Low temperatures tomorrow (Wednesday) will be 24°F and Thursday night will be 27°F. I’ve been harvesting everything I can before the cold hits. Afterwards is too late.

Most of my garden is done but here are some crops that may still need harvesting. I will pick my winter squash now and put it in the house. While winter squash likes it cold, it does not like the temperatures below freezing and can be ruined if they freeze–they should last months in the house.

Pick any green tomatoes of decent size and put them 2 layers deep in paper bags. The bags will keep the tomatoes in the dark. Then put a slice of apple in the bag (it releases ethylene gas, a natural ripening agent) and close up the bag to speed up the ripening process. Check the bag several times a week and you can move them to your kitchen table once they turn color. They are never quite as good as sun-ripened tomatoes but still 200% better than store bought and you may have home grown tomatoes into November.

Harvest all other warm season crops like beans, peppers, eggplants, corn, cucumbers, summer squash and melons-if they are not already picked.

Harvest onions if you still have any.

Cool season crops like broccoli, kale, cabbage, arugula and other leafy greens may survive but will need winter weight row cover over them to protect them from the below freezing nights. Take off in the day and recover at night when freezing. You can get row cover (winter weight) at some of the local nurseries. Just call around.

Beets and carrots should be ok but should be harvested before the ground freezes rock hard in December.

If you have lettuce, I would pick it as it will freeze. You may be able to save it with row cover over it, but it is chancy.

Herbs can be cut and dried in your house.

Of course if you have a cold frame, your season could still be extended if you cover the plants inside with row cover.

So pick everything you can today and tomorrow and don’t forget to disconnect your drip systems so they don’t freeze either. Get busy!

2019–A lousy year for tomatoes

This year was a lousy year for tomatoes for me. Other gardeners have said as much too. Except for one raised bed with 8 tomato plants that are my salvation, the other 17 tomato plants in a different section have not produced well.

Why I asked? A couple of things come to mind for me.

First, we got a late snow on May 20th. The first frost free date is suppose to be May 15th here, but not this year. Plus our spring was cold. That caused me to to put the transplant in the ground on May 25th in wall of waters. I could have transplanted them earlier in the wall of waters but I didn’t have the heart to put them out earlier. It’s hard to do when you’ve started them from seeds 6 weeks earlier and it’s cold or freezing outside. I didn’t want them to stress or even die in the cold nights.

The previous year was we had a very warm spring and I was able to get out the tomato transplants in the ground on May 6th-quite a difference 3 weeks can make in a short growing season.

The second thing that comes to mind was we had a hot June where the temperatures were above 92°F for much of the month. Any temperatures over 92°F will cause tomato blossom drop during the pollination process. The plants did flower and then dropped their blossoms. Pollination temperatures are critical for setting tomato fruit-we want the temps to be below 92°F. After they set their fruit, temperature is not a big factor and the fruit will grow.

The third thing is the monsoons were late. They normally come at the end of the first week in July but didn’t materialize until the end of July and then only for a short period of time. The monsoons stopped and it got too hot again for tomato pollination-hence more blossom drop in July.

Lastly, the soil in the beds were not as good where the 17 tomato plants are in. They are in a newer section where the soil is not as rich. This pointed out to me (again) the need to improve the soil with more compost.

Now the temps are beautiful but basically our season has slowed down and will end for tomatoes whenever we get that first freeze which is between now and October 15th. So before that night comes, when I hear a freeze is eminent, I will pick those few green tomatoes and bring them inside to ripen. For tips on ripening tomatoes inside, go to my post here.

It was a disappointing season for tomatoes here in my garden. How about the rest of you? How did your tomato plants do this year?

Mother nature is sometimes not so generous to gardeners!

 

Snake in the chicken coop!

Well, well, well, look what I found this week in the chicken coop! A bull snake trying to eat an egg but I got it before he did! Now I check a few times a day if I’m home to make sure it doesn’t get an egg. I like the snake around the coop as it keeps the mice population down but I guess this egg was an easier meal to catch!

Peaches galore!

This was the a great year for peach harvests. A friend called me and told me they picked over 200 lbs of peaches off of their two peach trees! The tree variety is called Contender, and she bought them from Tooley’s Trees up in Truchas. She invited me to come and get some and I took about 15 lbs of peaches.

I made two wonderful galettes with peaches and raspberries. I used Deborah Madison’s recipe for the galette crust from her Seasonal Fruit Desserts book. Really simple to do and the best crust ever-light and flaky!

I also made 24 jars of peach-raspberry jam with honey–Delicious!

The rest of the fresh peaches were eaten within the week! What a treat!

2019 Garden pics!

Here are some pics of my garden this year. Now that we are in September, I wanted to capture it in all it’s glory before it’s gone. I’ve worked hard tweaking out the infrastructure with new framed beds and weed barriers and wood chips in the paths this year. Having retired from the Santa Fe Farmers Market two seasons ago has allowed me to do more in the garden. I also added some perennial fruit like raspberries and blackberries since I don’t need space for 125 tomato plants anymore! By mid-October or sooner, it will be toast with the first frost so might as well enjoy it while I have it. I have an abundance of flowers this year that I grew for my edible flower class and besides being beautiful and edible, they attract many beneficial insects and pollinators. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Polana raspberries
Rosso de Lucca dry beans
Nasturiums
Entrance into the garden
Lemon Gem marigolds-edible!
Edible cosmos-sulphureus variety
Santorini tomatoes
Waltham butternuts
More edible flowers
Kalibos cabbage-Eastern European heirloom
Rugosa Friulana summer squash from Italy
Borage flowers in strawberry patch
Polana raspberries
Flowers by entrance
me-The Tomato Lady with harvest
harvest time
Dutch shallots
Large Barred Boar-seeds from Wild Boar Farms
Jimmy Nardello sweet pepper
Chiogga beets
Leek flower
June bearing strawberries
morning glories gone wild
beets-chiogga on left/Cylindra on right
Dutch shallots curing
Black cherry tomatoes and Santorini tomatoes
Mystery yellow tomato with Purple Cherokee tomatoes
Goliath tomatoes
Himrod grapes
Pollinator flowers
tomato harvest

Garlic Chives

Garlic chives are different than regular chives.  In Chinese cuisine, they are considered a delicacy where they are used as garnish on soups, in salads and stirred fried dishes. You use them as you would regular chives chopping the leaves up for these dishes. They taste like mild garlic vs regular chives, which have an oniony taste. This year they are producing beautiful flowers as well.

I recently tried the flowers instead of the leaves in my Flowers Good Enough to Eat class I had out here at the farm. I tried them with other herbs in a sherry vinaigrette for tomatoes and the subtle nuance in flavor was wonderful. A big plus is how beautiful they are when flowering in my herb garden and they are fairly drought tolerant.

The recipe comes from the late Amy Hetager who was one of the founders of Home Grown New Mexico here in Santa Fe. Here is the recipe for the vingarette and salad: AMY’s TOMATO SALAD

Shallots harvested

I have always planted both garlic and shallots in October and I got the garlic planted in the ground last year in late October of 2018 but not the shallots. I ran out of time and then all the shallot bulbs were sold out. I know we can get bigger garlic bulbs if we plant in the previous fall (which I already harvested) and thought the shallots would be bigger too if planted in the fall. But I decided to plant some dutch shallots this spring to see how they would do as I really love shallots. I just found out I should plant french shallots in the fall and can plant the dutch shallots in either the fall or spring! They have a more delicate flavor than onions. I harvested them about a week ago and they are magnificent!

They are huge and I got many of them from about 10 bulbs. I picked them when the stalks fell down and started dying. They are now curing on the bench in a protected shady area on my portal. Curing means letting the stalks dry out completely before I take them off. The skins should be dry and be sure not to wash the dirt off. You can just rub off the dirt after curing. What a pleasant surprise for me!

Tomatoes just starting to come in!

I live for my tomatoes out of my garden each year!

Most of my tomatoes are just starting to ripen. There are many more on the vine in various stages of green! So every few days I get a few ripe tomatoes. Just enough for a Caprese salad every few nites. I’m in heaven!

I have many standard tomatoes but a couple of new ones that are suppose to take 70-80 days are already ripening at 60 days. I love them all so far. They may make my all-star tomato list at the end of the season which is really hard to do as I am really, really picky-they must be VERY flavorful. Here are some new varieties that have ripened so far..

New to me is Large Barred Boar (from Wild Boar Farms) which is much larger than their regular Barred Boar with the same great flavor. It is burgundy color with green stripes. It has a really rich complex flavor.

 

Another new tomato is Grosse Verte Rose (from Secret Seed Cartel seed company) which is a dusky pink color and sweet, sweet, sweet and about 12-14 oz big. A winner for sure.

 

 

Tonite I got the first two Cherokee Carbon tomatoes and they look beautiful. No cracks, smooth skin and a cross between a Purple Cherokee and the Carbon tomato. I normally grow heirlooms or open-pollinated varieties but I’m not against hybrids if they taste great. This one is a hybrid and I’ll let you know later how the taste is. They are about 14-16 oz and look beautiful.

Also new to me is a tomato named Santorini from the Greek Island of Santorini. (duh). They were one of the first to ripen and are a smaller bright red tomato with the flavor of an old-fashion tomato. I like them and the fact that they were so early is good too. Sorry I don’t have a pic-I ate them all.

So that’s the report so far on the NEW varieties of tomatoes that have started to ripen. There are many different varieties that are still green and for those of you waiting, don’t despair. With this heat I’m sure they will be ripening soon.

If you don’t recognize these varieties it’s because I try tomatoes from many different places and like to turn people on to new varieties that are awesome! If your local nurseries doesn’t carry them next year, you’ll have to start them from seed.

I’ll post later as I have more to report on. Let’s hope for a long warm fall where all of them will ripen!

 

 

Jimmy Nardello peppers

A lot of people have been asking if they can pick the Jimmy Nardello pepper while it is green or wait for it to turn red. Answer: WAIT TILL IT’S RED.

This is one of my favorite peppers to grow and it isn’t hot at all but is a very sweet, red pepper. The Jimmy Nardello pepper is a fairly long, skinny, thin-walled pepper that is sweeter than a lot of other ‘sweet’ peppers. It’s an heirloom that “came to Seed Savers Exchange by Jimmy Nardello, whose mother brought the seeds to the United States when she emigrated with her husband, Guiseppe, from the Basilicata region of Italy in 1887.” It is a frying pepper but I like it on the BBQ as well. It is easy to grow here in Santa Fe and is prolific. But you let them turn bright red before picking them and eating them.

Monsoons are here for real-take off row covers!

Monsoons are here! Last nite we got just under 2 inches of rain at the farm here in Santa Fe! And more to come today and the weekend. I was waiting for the rain to hit us and boy did it! I’m taking off the tomato row covers this weekend!

Yay! Finally we can enjoy looking at them!

Cylindra and Chiogga beet harvest

Chiogga beets on the left and Cylindra beets on the right

I just harvested my beets I planted in the spring and got 13 lbs! I grew two heirloom varieties- Cylindra and Chiogga.

The Cylindra beet is originally from Denmark although the seeds are available in the states as well. They are a rather long, sweet buttery beet which is great when sliced. It is a dark red and actually grows a little out of the soil so they are easy to see when they are ready for harvest. One of my favorite varieties of beets.

CHiogga beets are striped insideThe Chiogga (pronounced kee-OH-gee-uh) is an Italian heirloom that was establish in the 1840s. It is a round beet that has beautiful pink and white concentric stripes inside and the flavor is sweet as well-another favorite of mine.

I’m going to start more from seed for a fall harvest. Anybody got some great recipes for beets?

When can we take off the row covers!?

Wait a few more days before removing row covers

I don’t know about you but I’m anxious about taking off the row covers from our tomatoes. I’m tired of waiting! I’ve been waiting, waiting, waiting for this HOT HOT weather to leave and even though we’ve had some rain, it is not coming from Mexico and hence it is NOT the monsoons so we get some rain and then the heat comes on again. Today is still hot and then the temperatures are suppose to drop off dramatically over the next week. Could this be the beginning of a late monsoon season? I hope so. Meanwhile I had decided to take them off on this coming Monday and was sitting on the picnic table in the garden and saw the dreaded leafhopper jump on my computer (thank god it can’t give my computer a virus)! So now I am still waiting a few more days till the rain is consistent and the intense heat leaves us (which is what the leafhopper loves). So if you haven’t taken them off (and I hope not yet) then leave them on a few more days till these monsoons really come in. BLAH! I will post when I take off the covers-just not yet… WAAA!

Salmonberries

If you live in the Northwest, you probably heard of Salmonberries but I have not heard of them here in Santa Fe. My neighbor has a Salmonberry bush that produced heavily this year and I got some.

At first I thought it was a gold raspberry but it is not.  It’s a beautiful berry similar to a raspberry but more delicate in flavor and is gold-salmon-pinkish color.

The salmonberry, Rubus spectabilis is native to the US Northwest moist coastal regions and some parts of Europe. I wouldn’t think they would thrive in our drier conditions and yet here is one and it is not in a wet area. Traditionally, the berries were eaten by Native Americans with salmon or salmon roe, hence the name. It is sometimes called the Joffelberry as well. What a wonderful treat! They don’t freeze well so we just gobbled them all up!

leeks gone wild!

I grew leeks for the first time last fall and didn’t harvest them before the seed heads formed about a month ago. I read they are too woody at that stage and I can leave them to flower.  If I do this, I’ll have many volunteers next year. Well that sounded good so I let them go.

The flower is gorgeous and attracts many beneficial bugs. Glad I left them in…

Apricots galore!

It’s apricot season and I’ve been picking lots! It’s unusual to get apricots here in Santa Fe (about every 7 years for me) as usually a late freeze comes in spring and freezes all the blossoms, but not this year!

I have a wonderful apricot jam recipe that has St. Germain’s liquor in it. St Germain’s is a liquor made out of elderberries and is delicious by itself but when added to apricot jam while cooking, it gives a wonderful floral nuance to the jam that is delicious. So I am excited to make more this year as I’m down to my last jar of apricot jam. The recipe can be found here.

Wow, what a fruit season it’s been so far-first mega strawberries, then thousands of cherries, now apricots and my neighbor has salmonberries now and coming up right behind will be raspberries and blackberries in another month and then apples in the fall.

AND we haven’t even gotten to the veggies being produced right now but that’s for another post!