Fresh Salsa and the clean up

It's been a quiet week here after the freeze - most of the veggies that remained in the garden were frozen and destroyed. So we've been cleaning things up, removed all tomato cages, little flags that marked the spots and tags of different varieties. They'll be all reused next year. Now just need to add some sulfa to the soil to raise the acidity - my soil tests showed that Ph is 7.5 and that's way too high for vegetables in the main garden so I need to bring it down to 5.5-6.5 range. And add some gypsum to the beds that will have tomatoes next year to make sure I have enough calcium and won't get Blosom End Rot (BER) that will spoil my harvest. Need to add bone/blood meal to the areas where I plant onions and other stuff. In other words, just your average upkeep. And since it's now getting dark early, I get to cook more at home - and stocking up on lots of salsa for winter. These are pint-sized jars and I've also cooked up over two dozen half-pints as well - my hubby loves to just open one small jar and eat it all in one sitting, so it made sense to make them in smaller size for him.
And of course took a walk looking for Maitake - Grifola Frondoza aka Hen of the Woods mushroom .

It's one of my favorite in taste and I try to pick some as soon as the season starts. I did share my haul with someone else who I know, and she loves them. It's always better to share the experience :)

6 comments:

  1. Boy would I love to stroll in your secret mushroom woods. Delicious-looking salsa!

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    1. trust me it's no secret at all - you can find these now under large oaks/beech all over the North East!

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  2. We are not big salsa eaters but would like a little jar or two!! Interesting what you are adding to the soil for different plants. I need to learn from you! Nancy

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    1. Well it depends on what i'm planting - tubers, roots, flowers or fruiting (tomato/pepper) and add what is important to each type of plant. It wouldn't make sense to add nitrogen if you want roots but it does if you want a lot of greens. That's why when you get fertilizers you have to look at N-P-K ratio to see which ones you can use for plants.

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  3. Those are beautiful mushrooms! The salsa sure looks pretty too. I just sent of my soil samples so I should know soon what I need to add to my soil.

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  4. I'm almost done my cleanup as well, although there are a still few beds going with brassicas, carrots and lettuce. Our soil is alkaline too. I've actually purchased some elemental sulfur to help with the blueberry bushes that I planted this year, and am thinking I may add some to my beds as well, depending on the veg.

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