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Good morning to all! Nice and sunny in west Michigan but it is dang cold and I am just not used to it yet. Thanksgiving is coming up and one thing I am thankful for is this thread. I love reading about what others are doing with their gardens and seeing the pictures, and the thread slides we get off into. Somehow it’s all hard work and production related, whether it be crafts, making cheese, or any other homesteading practice we do. Have a great week everyone!

Very windy here today .... high temps in the 40’s, which isn’t bad ... until the wind blows. The two raised beds with dead tomato plants are all that need cleaning up & I suppose that will happen next week - the forecast for the entire week is sunshine and temps in the 50’s (mild enough I’ll probably start getting Spring fever!). Two fields need mowing & then mowing will be finished for the year - I could let them go, but if I do that, I’ll have to ‘pay the piper’ in the Spring.

The only living plants in the garden are 5 or 6 “dinosaur” kale plants (aka Tuscan kale, lacinato kale, black kale, and cavolo nero which is Italian for “black cabbage”). I had some old seed & planted it the end of August. Only these few plants came up. They’re really attractive - beautiful green with a bumpy texture. On the mornings in the 20’s, they droop, but as soon as temps warm up over freezing, they’re looking perky again. I absolutely do not like curly kale, preferring smoother leaves. Dino kale is also lower in oxalates than curly kale. My great-niece is dinosaur crazy - I’m getting her a package of dino kale to add to her Christmas presents ... she loves helping mommy in the garden & growing a plant that looks like dinosaur skin will intrigue her. :-)

Two jars of jalapeno peppers (two batches of 3/4 lb processed in a cup of vinegar) waiting in the fridge to be turned into jelly. I hate pulling out the big canning pot, but that needs to happen soon ... like this weekend. A relative told me she served a jar of jelly over a Brie wheel and was happy with the combo - very tasty. They also use it as a glaze for grilled salmon & have sent me pics (mouth-watering). These are fairly obvious hints for ‘more’, but that’s ok, I’m glad they enjoy it and that makes the work worthwhile.

My peppers are still producing fruits as of today, not as big as in the summertime but still with a few good-sized stragglers. After this lot is ripe the plants will slow down to next to nothing, excepts for a few bursts of tiny pods during warm spells. It never gets cold enough to bring them indoors but the brutal winter winds toughen them up and thicken the stems for next season.

That plant is called a Death Spiral because of the ridges that go down the pods in a circular fashion.

The fruits will end up in vinegar, softened and made into a type of Sriracha Sauce I call Sriracha of Death because the peppers are about 50 times hotter than the peppers used in traditional Sriracha sauce.

Did I leave anything out? Flaky pie crust, Nutella, caramel, chocolate chip cookie dough.
After baking, while still warm, serve w/ ice cream, hot fudge sauce and caramel sauce.

Million Dollar Cookie Pie

ING 1/2 cup ea butter, sugar 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar, large egg 1 1/4 tsp vanilla 1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp ea salt, b/soda 1/2 cup semi/choc/chips 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips Pastry for a single-crust pie
3/4 cup ea chocolate hazelnut spread, Dulce de Leche

COOKIE DOUGH stand mixer/paddle/cream butter and sugars on med 2 min. Add egg and vanilla; mix a min.
Add whisked/combined flour, salt, b/soda; mix/combine. Stir in choc/chips and set aside.

CRUST Line pie plate w/ rolled-out dough. Trim and flute edges. Saran/chill.

NUTELLA/CARAMEL LAYER:trace outline of the pie plate on parchment; place traced-side town on counter. Scoop Nutella into circle center; spread evenly to fill in the entire shape. Freeze 10 min; remove from freezer, spread Dulce de Leche over the top, and freezer 10 min...then carefully peel off parchment.

ASSEMBLY Lay disc in pie crust. Add cookie dough and gently press in about halfway up, reserving any remaining dough (if any) for cookies. Bake 350 deg 20-30 min (top is golden brown; center almost set. Remove to counter; sprinkle w/ sea salt flakes. Cool 30 min; then slice.

SERVE with scoop of ice cream and chocolate and caramel toppings.

A worker at my house and I were talking about some trees in our yards. We ended up talking about big maple trees. So I looked up some sources on the subject.

One source was:

https://kidsgardening.org/growing-guide-sugar-maples/

Therein it read:

“According to the Champion Trees National Register, the largest known sugar maple in the country is in New London, CT, and measures 123’ tall and 86’ wide. The trunk has a circumference of 219” — that’s a diameter of almost 6'"

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(Who is the “excellent” mathematician who did this math? Public Skoolz? Looks like it should be 6.9’ in diameter ..... nearly 7 feet.)

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Nevertheless, I'd love to see a MAPLE TREE that big!