Pumpkin Pie

... or in reality it's a winter squash pie since I used one of the smaller squashes for it, cut up and roasted first in the oven, and then pureed with heavy cream, honey and brown sugar and spices like nutmeg and cinnamon.

 The squash I picked was Golden Nugget, and it's a very sweet tasting, dry flesh and not stringy like some others so I really prefer its taste and texture to many other varieties that we have on the farm. 

And the pie came out very good, though I think next time I won't use cookie crust and will make a regular pie dough instead. This way I can cut down on sweetness a little bit. Not that my hubby complains about sweet taste - he took this one to his office.

Last harvest of the year

I can honestly say "brrr, it's cold outside" this morning. We got "balmy" 23 degrees at 6 am. Obviously with the freeze on the way this weekend, we had to harvest as much as we could so I took Friday off and just picked and picked and picked. Many green peppers and some baby eggplants. Remaining squash and few green tomatoes - thankfully not many as we got hit with late blight and most plants succumbed within a week and even green fruit showed brown splotches. 

And of course I've been using peppers in most of my cooking on daily basis. Thankfully my hubby loves cooked peppers so he's not complaining.. or at least not too much..

Most of the green peppers were crated and delivered to the CSA folks so they'll enjoy it. I did keep few large bell peppers so I can chop them up for winter. And I did make a batch of hot and sweet pepper jelly - not too much though as we don't use it all that often. I'll keep couple of jars but the rest will be shipped to CA to a friend.

And since it's been so chilly, I thought it was a good time to start baking and since I had plenty of picked apples I thought having an apple pie is a good thing. Hubby didn't complain :)

 So how are you doing with your harvest this week? Come and see it at Dave's page how others are doing.

Huge Yellow Pumpkin

Mother Nature has been very good to me this year with the harvests, but she likes to throw a curve-ball once in a while.  This year it happened to be with regards to my winter squashes and pumpkins. It was very dry in May and the plants didn't grow well at first, then once they started to set fruit the groundhog and deer have demolished most of my winter squash varieties. I did harvest several Blue Banana, but it looks like my pumpkin year was a bust. My first large carving pumpkin became a nice meal for the groundhog in August.

Then the same vine re-bloomed and created second small pumpkin. I thought that being proactive was necessary so I wrapped it in the nylon netting to keep it growing. And grow it did. The only issue, it appears to have cross pollinated with the Yellow Squash that I had nearby. So instead of a very nice orange round ball, I got a huge yellow pumpkin. I asked my hubby to hold it for me so I could take a good picture of it. And it was heavy!

Now I have no idea if this one will be the eating type since it pollinated with edible squash or just an interesting visual carving type. Either way, the Halloween week will be interesting.

Natural Harvest and Fall Colors

This weekend was a perfect "fall" day with chilly nights and crisp and sunny day, so instead of boring everyone with loads of peppers and winter squash, I thought that I'll share my "harvest" from walking around the lake.

Leaves are changing colors and starting to fall down so when you walk all you hear is rustling under your feet and a bubbling brook on the side.

We were lucky to spot few mushrooms that were edible and I picked them for winter. Maitake or Grifola Frodoza as official name, and Scaber Stalk aka Leccinum aurantiacum are my favorites for fall harvest.

Normally I cut them cleanly just above the ground, but will try to do something different this time around - save the roots and spread them in the back yard and hope they'll grow next year. Would be great if I had home grown instead of hunting in forest.

For now it satisfied my "nature" whimsy, but will have to find time next weekend to venture out once again.

Harvest first weekend of October

You'd think now that it's cold outside and we're officially in "fall" mode that the farm would really slow down, but I think my plants are on strike and refuse to accept colder temperature. Or maybe it's just my perception and it just seems like veggies are everywhere and on every surface of my home. Car is loaded once again, and all counters are full of canning supplies and finished jars are waiting for their labels - I usually wait 3-4 weeks before labeling and storing everything just to make sure that none of them blow their caps. And fresh kale has been sitting in jars waiting to be crisped or juiced.

But in reality, the veggies are slowing down. At least not as much tomatoes as we used to have and the crate that I picked has a lot of green tomatoes because someone in my area asked if I had any - their restaurant has "fried green tomato" on the menu so they'll use some of my beefsteaks that have little chance of ripening up. There are few remaining sauce tomatoes that I'll use for salsa this week.

Squash is finally slowed down, and I've picked couple of more winter Blue Banana and left to cure on the floor in the addition - there are a LOT of veggies on that floor that must be cleared out this week.  They will be chopped and frozen for winter.  The new batch of peppers in the crate will be dropped off tomorrow at the harvest house.

Of course my nemesis Mr Groundhog is having grand time at the field destroying veggies at a fast clip and not showing any signs of slowing down. Both winter squash and peppers have a lot of damage to them. Oh well, have to share with nature.

On the home front I'm still planting more things around new patio - this was one of the batches bought for the left side of the patio wall. I just hope it's not too late in season and that they'll actually grow and make it through winter. They are all perennial of course.

Also this is the season for fruit, so I've obtained some PawPaw fruit and have been enjoying it during the evening hours as my sweet treat. Not many people know about it, even if it does grow in many areas of east coast and inland.

So what are you doing in your garden this week? Come and share your stories.

End of September harvest

Fall is definitely in the air and we've now closed off both small and large garden for winter and going to let soil rest and prepare it for spring planting. But at the farm I'm still picking car loads of veggies - tomatoes are slowing down (which is great because I'm done with winter canning), but peppers have picked up and have been picked in massive quantities. Some got chopped and frozen for winter, but most are a give away.  Plenty left to eat of course every day. At which point do you say "I'm overrun with veggies?". I honestly think I'm past that point.

 And I found a creative way of giving presents - fill baskets of veggies and give away :)

And first few winter squash have been picked, even if some got chewed up by groundhog. Looking forward to trying Blue Banana - it's a Guatemalan Blue Squash from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed

 

One of the critters completely destroyed my best pumpkin so I'm bummed out.  Was looking forward to carving it this year. Oh well, have plenty of other squashes still coming.

How are your gardens doing and what are you harvesting? Stop by Daphne's page to see other gardens and their bounty of the week.

Mid-Sept harvest

The harvest season is in full swing and I'm enjoying it immensely. It just makes me so happy to pile up baskets of veggies and deliver them to people. Between the farm and the home I'm one happy camper. At home we've been picking grapes from one of our older vine - it's now 8 yrs old. That's on top of the bucket we picked couple of weeks back. Two baskets filled.

This is the large bucket of all grapes striped from the vines and ready for jelly - as you can it set it was a very large pile! Very happy with this year harvest, but I'd better learn how to make vine in next couple of years as all 9 grapevines will start producing in these quantities. Some will be eaten of course, but most will be jellied and wine.

From the farm we've been bringing crates of squash, and starting to bring loads of sweet peppers that I'm chopping and putting into the freezer for winter. There is still plenty on the farm green so they're just peaking in harvests.

And of course tomatoes - carloads every 3 days. At this point I just give it all away. My jars are full of pureed tomatoes and some sauce for winter so I'm pretty much set. Let others have the rest.

So what are you harvesting this week? Stop by at Daphne's page to see what others are doing in their gardens.