Not much doing with the garden, but I did get in two nice seed catalogs. Southern Exposure and Baker's Creek. Still eating a handful of cherry tomatoes from the vines I stuck in dirt and brought in before our first freeze.
I really should have put some straw on the garlic and on top of the row covers on the lettuce and greens, but I just didn't want to brave the cold. I did make a quick trip over to do my strength training, but that's the first time I went anywhere this week.
Prayer's up for all. Have a great weekend. God Bless.
It’s really cold here too...and I never finished raking all the leaves.
Oh Well.
Pinging the List.
I’m in the San Fran bay Area (Marin County). We have a lot of Walnut Trees planted here. Many up and down neighborhood streets. Walnut trees tend to grow only so high, then no higher. They have beautiful purple blossoms in the spring. The blossoms look a lot like Wisteria for a few weeks.
The Walnuts will also do a lot of color shifting in late autumn as in right now. I see several Walnut Trees ablaze in scarlet, yellow ochre and tangerine. For a deeper red, there is always one version of the Japanese Maple to rely on. The Maple foliage becomes the color of Merlot wine and stays that way for months.
The cold came in last night ..... pretty nippy around here. There’s a possibility of an ice storm next weekend - ugh, but at least our generator situation is all up to snuff as of Wednesday.
Today, I took hot banana pepper mush I froze toward the end of the growing season & turned it into 8 pints of hot pepper butter for Christmas gifts. It’s the first time I’ve made this recipe & it’s very tasty. I had to use clear gel for thickening - first time I’ve used that, too. The finished product is a solid medium on “heat”, maybe creeping towards the upper end of medium - I like it, but some folks in the family will need something milder.
That leaves me two more projects before Christmas & they’ll likely happen this weekend - apple chutney & wine jelly. I already have salsa, jalapeno pepper jelly & now the hot pepper butter so I can mix and match to suit who is getting what. My nephew, who isn’t into hot/spicy or much of anything else ‘canned’ will be getting a batch of crockpot meatballs ... I’m fairly certain he’ll like them & since he doesn’t cook, it will give him something besides Chik-Fil-A to eat for a day, maybe two.
I love canning. Now that I’ve collected the equipment over the summer, had some success and built a bit of confidence, I can’t wait until next year’s garden when the produce starts coming in. :-)
Such an odd start to winter....2 weeks ago here in NE Ohio it was 60* out and now finally 10 days into December we have signs of snow (after Chicago getting nearly 1/4-1/3 of their annual snow in one day last week).
Wife finally decided that the late Okra she brought in from outside wasn’t going to do anything else despite the buds on top...all the leaves had dropped weeks ago.
I’m thinking we are in for a hard and long winter starting in late January through mid April. Bits about Farmer’s almanac and just the feeling in the bones....Almost feel like a repeat of ‘78 in the midwest to me and I was just 10/11 then....course no one really knows what it’ll be, so just wait and see.
I’m reluctant to start things indoors this year as I’m out of a job and looking...likely will need to move...such a pain when it comes to th green...wife will want to take most of what we’ve planted over the past 10 years if it comes to that....(NOT a selling point...LOL)
I just found this and will post something tomorrow ever if it’s just a photo of the mud...
The Baker Seed catalog arrived this week. It’s the earliest since we started doing business with the Mansfield, MO company in several years.
Check out rare seeds.com
It is 19 degrees this morning with snow on the way Sunday night and Monday. I still have to wrap the hives today, but first, work on the inside of the coop.
Cool here in Florida, according to the natives. Some of the natives look like they are Nanook of the North for the ‘cold’ (low here last night was 50 going to 72 today).
I have two rose bushes I replanted and one seemed to have taken well but the other is questionable as to it making it before winter. I put a milk container over one and a vinegar container over the other. I punched holes in order to place metal spikes to keep it in place through wind and bad weather.
My neighbor came over last month to comment on my blooming Azalea and as she left she said, "Better move it before winter." Well I didn't. I might regret ignoring her last words.
I did go out with 6 tall metal spikes and put them around the plant. I then took bubble wrap and wrapped it all the way around the plant. (going inbetween the spokes of the spikes)I then took leaves and put them at the base of the Azalea up to its first branches. I guess this Spring I'll see if I did the correct thing.
I learned something new this week. If you’re sensitive to certain fabrics, don’t EVER trust a set of earplugs that doesn’t say on the packaging what they’re made from!
I thought wearing earplugs might keep the medicine I put in my ears from dripping out. Woke up the next morning and one ear was swollen shut, the other was almost shut. I had to take a sick day from work because of it. The swelling went down, thank God, but my ears are still ringing a little.
Question for anybody who can help: we moved into a house with some landscaping that’s 20-30 years old, and every year so far it trolls us by producing some unexpected new plant. This year it was a rosebush that suddenly came to life and produced exactly one gorgeous flower. Anybody know what kind of TLC I can give the bush so it’ll grow some more? I’m not generally a flower person, but I adored the smell of this one and would love to give it some encouragement.
(Last year, the yard presented us with surprise mulberry trees. The year before that, it was tulips. I’m kind of scared of next spring at this point.)
The older I get the less I like cold weather.
I’ve got some kale going in the cold frame, but aside from that I’m pretty much in clean-up mode right now.
Still need to tear out the okra, green beans and two 375’ rows of tomato plants/trellis mesh.
Spent a good bit of time over the weekend cleaning up my shop. Need to make some space to work on a couple pieces of tillage equipment over the winter.
I think it was 6 degrees here last night. :(
The weather here is still unpredictable. Warm then colder then warm again. Did get my bulbs planted. Everything is covered up. Pansies blooming non stop.
Just a note to let you know that my first batch of wine jelly appears to have turned out & it is delicious! I was searching for a recipe using blackberry wine & found one at a blog post that uses blackberries & merlot. Here is the link:
Blackberry Merlot Jelly Recipe
http://highlandsranchfoodie.com/2011/11/blackberry-merlot-jelly-recipe-holiday-gifts-from-the-kitchen/
I used the Sure-jell low sugar method because it seems that sets up faster & I had some on hand. Due to the time of year, I figured I’d need frozen blackberries, but could not find them ... got lucky and actually found some ‘fresh’ ones at Food Lion. We have a large patch of wild blackberries in our back field so next year I’ll have to make sure I beat the birds to a couple of cups to freeze for making this jelly.
Thanks for all the tips, recipes, etc. .... once I get a 2nd batch of Blackberry Merlot Jelly done today (6 jars is definitely not going to be enough!), then I’m through with my Christmas canning projects! :-)
PS - Made apple chutney, too. Aside from it taking twice as long (at least) as the recipe stated to cook down, it turned out pretty yummy. Definitely bold flavors - going to be great on pork (ham, loin) & poultry. It would also do well served on a cream cheese brick with crackers. I did not use the recipe in the Ball Blue Book because it was an apple curry recipe & I wasn’t sure if folks would like the curry.
Apple Chutney
http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_06/apple_chutney.html