I’ve got a bhut jolokia that’s about 3” tall in a giant pot sitting in the (relatively warm) 70+ degree sunshine in my driveway. When it turns cold for good i’ve got a grow light system all ready for it in my garage. Plan on starting peppers and tomatoes sometime in the week after Christmas or so this year so they’re all big and ready to go when it’s warm enough. I’ll be able to add another 30X100 area to one of my gardens as well so I’m psyched. I’m using HPS for bulk seed for a few varieties of stuff this year including mariachi peppers, zavory peppers and flavorburst peppers. All family favorites.
Totally Tomatoes for most everything else and i’m currently loading up a cart on Jungseed’s sale page. Next up is Sandhill for heirloom species of ‘c. moschata’ winter squashes and pumpkins. That particular variety is pretty good wrt squash vine borer resistance as long as you let it run and root as it wants to...smallish order from baker creek too. Mainly some short day onions and upland rice seed. RH Shumway for some milo and millet to grow for my chickens. There are some ‘winter melon’ selections from baker creek too i’m thinking of growing later in the season and storing for the chickens to have treats in the fall/winter.
Chickens have been feasting on scallop squash for the past month. I deliberately let the last bunch of them set and get that shell exterior. They’ve been sitting in buckets on my back porch out of the sun for a couple months now. Every day or two I cut 2-3 of them up (they’re about 10-12” across) and throw them in the run. The girls love the seeds and the squash too. Next day all that will be left is small hulled out shell pieces. I managed to get 8-10 from each squash plant this way, not counting the squashes we’d gotten from the plants all summr. Definitely plant more scallop squashes for this next summer late.
Enjoying my tomato powder and garlic powder. Made my own garlic powder with my dehydrator and blender. There’s just no comparison with store bought. None. Neither with fresh onion powder. Hubby got a 50lb bag of onions at SAMS last week that’s next up in the queue. Going to give a pint jar of onion powder as Christmas gifts to family. That’ll be a bunch of onions!
The best use of the tomato powder so far was in some pulled pork. Added the powder in with a pork picnic in the crock pot when I started it. Then some onion powder and some fresh mushrooms and some jalapeno powder. Shredded the pork as it cooked and used that on sandwiches. Yum doesn’t even come close. The powder takes up way less space than the tomato paste I was using.
Have a bag of USA garlic waiting to plant out this weekend to overwinter. Going to start a couple flats of onions too.
it’s all good...
How cold does it get during winter where you are?
I have been brainstorming how to have a lean-to green house on by lower patio next to the house. We have an all brick home, and the back faces southwest. The bricks absorb a lot of heat during the day.
However, I think I would still need a little heat during cloudy or extra cold winter days, and that has me a little stumped.