I'm almost ready for dinner. Making progress anyway.
Beef stew is all made and simmering in the crock pot.
Dough for the rolls is mixed.
Just gotta form, rise & bake.
Jello with fruit is made.
Dinner is at 5:30.
Almost there.
Posted on 10/01/2022 6:40:39 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
I'm almost ready for dinner. Making progress anyway.
Beef stew is all made and simmering in the crock pot.
Dough for the rolls is mixed.
Just gotta form, rise & bake.
Jello with fruit is made.
Dinner is at 5:30.
Almost there.
My dad used that on his azaleas and rhododendron for decades.
Worked extremely well.
Ellendra.... Since I am pretty certain coffee arrived first in Turkey I would certainly not disagree with you!
Wish we were not dependent on other countries for our Coffee, or, our Chocolate!
How did your garden grow this year?
You aren't that far from Herrman MO are you?
Herrman MO Oktoberfest OK. Sliding back to coffee!
Scything is a lot of hard work! I am not much of a potato grower...no space here...but I do see youtubes of people who till , put down their potatoes, and cover them with hay or straw which makes work easier! I remember you talking about the scatter sowing method. Here, unless I do transplants of strong young plants, the sowbugs and pill bug destroy the seedlings.
Just saw this ....
** ALERT ** FIRST WIDESPREAD FROST OF THE SEASON POSSIBLE OCT 8-12 IN MID ATLANTIC (east of the mountains)
I am not in a panic over this because I only have one small patch of zinnias to cover & I’ll likely throw something over my Tithonia, which is busy with bees & anything else nectar-loving that’s still around. Being a ‘volunteer’, it’s not as large as the ones I had last year.
Ian remnants are coming back (can you believe it?) tomorrow - rain starting late morning & a bit windy, but not like we had Friday night. I am headed to Tractor Supply tomorrow morning to get my garden fencing & I’ll stash it until I can get the freezer project done.
I missed the explanation ..... I knew this was a really early frost, just didn’t realize how early ....
++++++++++++++++++++++++
From weather met:
Be advised that there is a high probability of a significant early-season Frost throughout most of the Middle Atlantic area even in the areas east of the mountains on October 7th and October 8th and perhaps OCT 11-12. To the casual observer this may not seem like a big deal but having a FROST in central and eastern portions of VA NC MD during the first week of October IS unusual and significant from an agricultural perspective.
Which is why I’m talking about it NOW . Over the past 10 years or perhaps longer the number of frost that the Mid-Atlantic region has had in the areas east of the mountains during the month of October can be counting on one hand. Most of the time the FIRST FROST does not occur in these areas until mid November.
(WxRisk LOVES farmers fruit farms and Vineyards)
The model continues to indicate another major trough developing in the Eastern US which is going to pull down a new shot of impressively Colder air OCT 7-10. This air mass will easily be the coldest air mass of the season so far. This image shows what some of the model data is depicting for Min temperatures on October 8th.
I was just thinking that in my little corner of SW Wisconsin, we are having one of the nicest, driest Fall seasons that I can remember. Usually it’s cold and rainy and I’m stuck inside early, which makes me cranky, LOL!
They’re looking at our first FROST this coming Friday night (Oct 7th) but we usually don’t have a hard FREEZE until mid-October.
That said, there were years when we’ve taken the boys out Trick or Treating - in the snow. Ugh!
So funny!
The rain is about 60 miles away now. We got over an inch and a half on the Ian remnants first pass through. The “dry” state we were in has been ‘relieved’ to a great extent so I’m not real happy about more rain at this point.
Now that I CAN’T get out & do projects (freezer & fence re-do) because ‘weather’, there’s a fire lit under my you-know-what to work on them!! LOL - that’s how it goes!
The only thing that is a ‘relief’ with some pretty cold weather coming is that I do not have much to protect this time around so no “scramble” to find coverings, rig frames for tarps, etc.
I told my niece about the Sunflower House & Roots Shoots Buckets & Boots books - told her to set aside some garden space for the girls in the spring. I’m looking through the books & sending “questions” to the girls ... like what is the difference between damselflies and dragonflies? I also sent my niece the alphabet in flowers ... she’ll go through that with them & the flowers they don’t know (heck, there were about 4-5 I didn’t know!) they’ll look up. So MANY good ideas in both books! The girls are being home schooled so she can incorporate most of the garden projects into their schooling. Thanks again for the recommendations .... I have a “reputation” for giving really good presents, not junk - educational stuff but things the girls love such as their egg aprons, Sugar Free Kids cookbook & dinosaur aprons to go with them ... the horses weren’t educational, but they love horses & the “price was right” LOL!
PS - the two female pigs are ‘expecting’ again ... one for sure, the other was just AI’d yesterday. Piglets are SO cute & this seems to be working out from a regenerative farm perspective for my niece & her family. One thing I love about The Heirloom Gardener is that he’s into regenerative farming, field to table food, etc. I love things that are ‘passed down’ ... knowledge, items from my relatives, etc. & the book definitely ‘presses that button’ for me.
PSS - You know what?? 💡! Looking for a “not junk” present for my little great-nephew who will be 19 mos at Christmas. He LOVES the outdoors, wants to be “out” all the time. The chickens are his friends ... he is with mommy when she does her gardens ... veggie & flowers & he mows with daddy. I think I might get him the Roots Shoots book for Christmas ... his mom can get a little garden going for him & as he gets bigger, they can do more ... she would love that book for herself, too. Thanks again ... you are ‘saving me’ with those books as present ideas!! :-)
The Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries (Yaupon)
"Cassina, or black drink, the caffeinated beverage of choice for indigenous North Americans, was brewed from a species of holly native to coastal areas from the Tidewater region of Virginia to the Gulf Coast of Texas. It was a valuable pre-Columbian commodity and widely trade"
Upon export to Europe, cassina was marketed in England under the names “Carolina tea” and “South Sea tea,” and in France as “appalachina,” likely a reference to the Appalachee people. This confusing array of names emphasizes the practicality of the Linnaean classification system, which was still in its infancy when Europeans learned of cassina. William Aiton, an eminent British botanist and horticulturist, director of Kew Gardens, and “Gardener to His Majesty,” is credited with giving cassina the scientific name it bears to this day: Ilex vomitoria. Ilex is the genus commonly known as holly. Vomitoria roughly translates to “makes you vomit.”
Cassina does not make you vomit. Both modern scientific analysis and centuries of regular use by Southerners confirms this. But several early European accounts of cassina mention vomiting. Cassina seems to have been used in elaborate purification rituals where men sat in a circle, sung or chanted, and took turns chugging and then throwing up hot cassina. ...snip...
As the royal gardener, Aiton knew some of the richest and most powerful people in the British Empire. One of the most profitable and influential forces in that empire was the East India Company, which held a virtual monopoly on the tea trade. Its officers may well have worried that cassina represented a potential replacement for a lucrative British commodity, especially as it grew abundantly within regions then under the control of Spain and France.
In his entry on Ilex vomitoria, Aiton listed “South-Sea Tea” as a common name for cassina, suggesting he was aware of its use as a beverage amongst the English. Further, Aiton chose the name vomitoria even though Carl Linnaeus, the founder of the modern taxonomic system, referenced cassina under the name Ilex Cassine vera Floridanorum in 1753. (Ilex cassine is now the name for a close relative of cassina, the dahoon holly, which has significantly less caffeine.) ...snip...
Most things grew well, but were less productive than I’d hoped. Except the beans, which are absolutely covered in pods.
I’ll post a final summary when harvest season is done.
I use the straw method for potatoes too, although I have to lay mesh fencing over the straw to keep it from blowing away. The potatoes still managed to bury themselves just deep enough that my heavy clay soil made them hard to get to.
I’m hoping that eventually I’ll get enough organic matter and biochar worked into the soil that it won’t solidify as much. We’ll see. My biochar-making system is being expanded this year, so I should have some decent amounts of it soon.
Shared experiences are a good way to learn what has worked and what has not.
A pain. Still, Hard to dig beats no potatoes which is what I had. I can see the bio char breaking up the surface. Maybe till in some spoiled hay or straw first? Diana uses No Till Ruth Stout methods I think? Are you using that?
Spent Friday resting up from the trip then got down to business yesterday. Spent a couple hours cleaning up in the victory garden. Most of the okra had toppled over from the weight of unpicked seed pods, so I got after it with the loppers and hauled it off to the compost heap. The pepper plants are loaded like I've never seen and I have no idea what, if anything, I'm going to do with all those peppers. Probably chop them down and toss em on the compost with the okra.
I found a nest of eastern yellowjackets out there while I was cleaning up. One of the evil things nailed me on the back of my left hand when I disturbed the nest. Yellowjacket venom doesn't affect me as bad as red wasp venom, but it's bad enough. My hand is still quite swollen today. But of course I got my full measure of revenge. I went out there this morning with six foot of garden hose, a funnel, and a quart of gasoline. They were just waking up when I arrived with their nice petrocarbon breakefast. I stuck the end of the hose down entrance to their burrow and glub glub glub gave them a nice drink.
The Peaches-N-Cream sweet corn is coming along nicely. It's not in full tassle yet, but it won't be long. I did the last top-dressing with urea and watered it in. I've got my fingers crossed for good weather and a bumper crop.
I had my own used book store at Amazon for 15 years, so I know what sells. :)
Also made a point of always having great books on hand for all ages and skill levels at the garden center.
I till in more than enough organic matter every spring, so much so that it sometimes bogs down the tiller. And it’s an industrial-strength tiller, so that is saying a lot! But it breaks down fast enough there isn’t much left by the time harvest season rolls around.
My land isn’t suitable for no-till methods. That may change in the future, but for now, this is what I’ve got.
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