Garden Notes: September 2022

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• 4th: 1″
• 5th: *1.3+”
• 7th: 0.05″
• 10th: 1.65″
• 11th: 2″ 
• forecast for the 30th: rain from Ian
• Total (so far): 6+ inches

• winter wheat
• Daikons
• Carrots

• Cosmic Purple
• Purple Dragon

Turnips

• Purple Top
• Tokinashi

Kale

• Siberian
• Tronchuda

Lettuce, Jericho

Collards

Beets, Ruby Queen

Broccoli, Waltham 29

Chinese cabbage

Salsify

Garlic

Multiplier onions

Parsnips, Harris Model

Cabbage, Nero Di Toscana

Mizuna

Mustard, Japanese Giant Red

I think that’s the most ambitious fall garden I’ve ever planted, but it seems prudent in these times to do so. It’s in later than the regional planting guides suggest because I was tied up in the kitchen for all of August. But the soil is still warm for germination, and we hopefully have time before first frost. 

Cornfield pole beans

Late, I know, but the plan was to plant them when the corn was about six inches tall. Then the corn didn’t germinate well. After two unsuccessful plantings of corn, I finally planted a few pole bean seeds under the porch trellis. We won’t get a lot, but fresh steamed green beans with a little butter and salt is a real treat.

Late summer okra, tomatoes, and peppers, both bell and sweet banana type.

Herbs: rosemary, thyme, and oregano

September salad: cherry tomatoes, daikon leaves, turnip thinnings, hard boiled egg, and farmers cheese with my ricotta/kefir dressing.

Late figs, which is unusual for September. They were slow to ripen but sweet.

Fall picking of red raspberries (with more on the canes).

This is the first time I got an autumn crop of red raspberries. I added them to the spring raspberries in the freezer for jelly, but only after juicing some and trying the juice in popsicles.

Raspberry-banana popsicle. A really good flavor combination.

Foraged, wild muscadines

I knew when they first started ripening, and then we had that heavy deluge. The next time I checked on them most of them had been knocked off the vines and there was nothing left but hundreds of empty skins all over the ground. Disappointing, because production isn’t consistent from year to year. The few I got were put into the freezer for a mixed fruit jelly in the future.

First Japanese persimmon

We have about two dozen persimmons on the persimmon tree. A first! This was the first to ripen. It was mild and sweet. I’m not sure what to do with all of them. Anyone have some recipes?

Sweet potato squash. The dimpled one is odd, isn’t it? I’m not sure how well it will keep, so it’s a candidate for preserving.

Dan’s first cushaw.

This year Dan decided to do some gardening. He’s usually busy with projects, but the projects are getting smaller as we get things accomplished, so he picked a spot and planted sunflowers, corn, and cushaw winter squash. I’ve already mentioned that the corn was a fail, but the sunflowers and cushaw did well, and that’s the first one. To celebrate his success, it became a “pumpkin” pie!

I don’t usually top pie with whipped cream, but since this was a special pie it deserved a special topping!

It was really good. And actually, few folks would have known it wasn’t actual pumpkin by the texture and taste.

That cushaw yielded 8 pints of puree, of which one pint was used to make the pie. The remaining six pints were dehydrated to make powder.

Most of the winter squash will go into the pantry for feeding us, chickens, and goats. Sometimes, I freeze pints of puree. Occasionally, I can chunks. This year I’m learning about making fruit and vegetable powders (like tomatoes and pear sauce), so I wanted to try winter squash powder. I made it the same way I made the dried pear sauce: cooked it, pureed it, spread it onto parchment paper, dried until crisp in my dehydrator, and then powdered it in my blender. 

Extra cherry tomatoes (those we don’t eat) have been going into the freezer. Then Nancy, from Little Homestead in Boise, made a comment on my “Experiments in Ketchup Making” post and mentioned preserving cherry tomatoes in olive oil. I thought that was a great idea! Something new to try! I remembered that Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning has a chapter on preserving in oil, where I found a recipe on page 98.

I made two pints to see how it turns out. This promises to be great addition to our winter green salads. The bonus is that the olive oil is flavored too, and so good for cooking or salad dressing.

Buckwheat cover crop in the lower garden for soil building.

I think that covers it for September. Are you still with me? Good, because now it’s your turn. What’s happening in your September garden?