baby carrots and the beginning of the end of the Fall radishes

The weather here is finally starting to get Wintery and I love it. We had alittle bit of wet snow but it only lasted about an hour.

The garden is still kicking. The kale is big and the lettuce is colorful. The beets are a couple weeks away and I'm down to my last few rows of radishes. Here's this morning's gatherins'...

These radishes are probably gonna go into tonight's stir-fry.

The frost is slowly starting to get at the leaves but theyre not dead yet.

The carrots are big enough, that theyre thinnings are nice garden treats....

Theyre bite size and SOOOOO sweet. I have high hopes for the atomic red, but since some pesky animal decided to dig the day after I put out the cosmic purple I can only hope for a handful of them.

We dehydrated some of the tender young kale which was heavenly!

Theyre perfect chip size and delicious dipped in salsa, or crumbled over soup or pasta.

I just washed them, tore off the tougher stems, soaked them in olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, garlic powder and salt for about 30 minutes. Then threw them on the dehydrator racks and let them do theyre thing for a couple of hours. rotating the racks periodically. So Tasty.

Not keeping up with things

I have been very bad at keeping this thing updated... so here's a quick catch up.

No pictures though. I've been very lazy it seems.

all the Easter egg radishes have been harvested. And the watermelon radishes are about ready. the carrots are slowly starting to get established, and the beets are beginning to form.

The kale is big and begging to be fried in bacon grease. And the lettuce is still thriving. My sad excuse of a row of potatoes was killed by the frost, but getting to eat the fried new potatoes was a treat.

Our thanksgiving was wonderful, the first year it wasnt dozens of hungry people crammed into a small house.... We rented a 3 story cabin. A definite new family tradition.

How was your Thanksgiving?

Oh it's about to be radish time!

All of the Easter egg radishes are about 2-3 days from being ready, and as the name describes it truly is like going on an easter egg hunt out in the garden.
 There's is no better salad topping then sliced garden fresh radish.....well other than bacon bits.

The watermelon radishes will be ready in about 2-3 weeks, along with the beets and kale.
Pickled beets are one thing my salads are missing.

Now if only those carrots would hurry up.....

The very last pumpkin

This season we got 27 pumpkins

And so far I've roasted and pureed about 25 cups of pumpkin for the freezer and still have all these to roast.

I really need to get on this chore because all these pumpkins are taking up quite abit of counter space.
But it was a very successful season.
And I am definitely going to have all the pumpkin puree I'll need for cookies, bread, and pies over the winter.

I'll even get to save the big one for carving a jack-o-lantern.

The First fall radish

The radishes are all about 2 weeks from harvesting. So it was a good surprise when I went out to thin the beets and I find this little guy (an easter egg radish), and at supper time!

He's gonna be good in tonights salad!

What's popping up in the garden

Gourmet lettuce mix

Kale

Beets

Taters

Radishes

The Carrots are slowly peeking up out of the ground. well the atomic red are. There is evidence of digging where the cosmic purple were planted. So if I can get just a handful of them I'll be thrilled.

Time to thin everything.

Getting things done.

My kudzu season is on it's way out. But I was able to get pick 6 half pints worth of flowers last night. And I realized some of ya'll dont really know what kudzu looks like so here ya go.

(Mind you, the flowers are about all gone.)



Now I didnt get a good landscape photo. But imagine this covering a whole field.

So more kudzu jelly will be made tonight. That gives me a total of a pathetic 12 half pints.Which is about half of what I was hoping for. But maybe I can head out again in the next week and really strip the vines clean.

Next, I finally purchased a tiller that actually works. Crazy the tiller troubles I've been having this summer. 

The camera battery needs a charging so I have no pictures of it. But It tilled up the cold weather garden like a champ.

Speaking of cold weather gardens. It's finally in. I was about ready to give up on it. But I finally planted everything. This is what we got.... atomic red and cosmic purple carrots, a gourmet salad mix, watermelon and easter egg radishes, chiogga and detroit red beets,blue curled kale, and a row of potatoes. I'm way way way behind so no onions, cabbage or brussel sprouts.

It's a proper punishment for being about a month behind on everything....

colorwork, sprouts, and a new garden book

An unexpexted change in the weekend schedule caused me to put off making kudzu jam but tonight when the temperature cools alittle I'll gather up a good bunch of blossoms and hopefully have it done and photographed if not tomorrow then the next day but jam will be spread on biscuits by this weekend!

First things first...
So my first reference to knitting in this blog is not anything too exciting not a pattern or even a finished product but I've only been knitting for a short time, so small things are exciting to me and make me kind of proud.

Behold!

My first shot at fair isle! (dont look at the art room mess surrounding the knit piece) This is a panel to a messenger bag/ garden picking bag I'm making. There was one slight mess up there in the middle but not too shabby.

SN: Upon typing this post I just noticed my mutant-looking feet in the picture... strange.

Next! Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and kale are sprouting!

Now if only we can get that blasted tiller up and running then i can prepare the fall bed. Everything in the garden is still kicking and probably will be for atleast another month, which will force me to till up more space. well worth it though.

Last but not least.

While shopping at the local flea market I did something unwise....I went into a book store. Big mistake. My one weakness is books. I cant tell myself no it seems. But this trip into the book store was well worth it. They had a huge gardening section and one book caught my eye...

You can tell from the price tag. I got it for a good price.

And from the book marks I've spent abit of time with my nose stuck in it.

Now I have a few gardening books ( again books are my weakness) But this one is so inspiring. One look through this book and you have a strong urge to fill every square inch of land with garden.

There's a photo everyother page and theyre so pretty!

All the knowledge in the book is kind of basic but I learned a few things. It was worth every penny just to get to gaze longingly at the pretty photos and dream of that "someday dream garden"!

Now time to make some bread and butter pickles!

Fall garden transplants

Well, I feel alittle bit more on schedule with the fall garden. I've got the brussels sprouts, cabbage, and kale started.

Fall Garden

About a week ago I got my seeds in from sustainableseedco.com.

I plan to have the garden in by the beginning of next week. Along with all this goodness. I plan to throw in some potatoes, buying online is so expensive. So I'm gonna play with supermarket potatoes and see what I get. They are developing they're eyes, so I know they'll sprout, so we'll just see.