The Garden is done for 2010

Everything has now been harvested for this gardening season except a few leeks that have now been mulched and can be pulled as needed. There aren't enough left to worry about beyond the holiday season but certainly enough for some good pots of potato-leek soup!  The garden beds are mulched with chopped leaves or straw for the winter. The strawberry and asparagus deserve the special straw treatment.

It was quite a garden year in 2010...the best ever. The larder is full with canned, frozen, dried or fresh stored items in a cool corner of the basement.  It was a bit tramatic for me to now visit the supermarket produce department and not just smile and only buy bananas as was the case since July. If I want lettuce, cucumbers or tomatoes I need to buy them now. The seed catalogues are arriving for my winter enjoyment but I am not thinking about or planning for the next season yet.

I am due for some down time finally and some resting for my weary bones after many vigorous months of garden and yard labors. The only outdoor work now involves carring wood to the house for the wood stove and some cutting and splitting of logs and branches already gathered this year in anticipation of next winter's use. I need about three cords of wood each year for my stove and would like to have most of next winter's wood all cut, split and stacked for seasoning now before a lot of snow falls. I do have most of that amount in various piles awaiting that processing. It is sure satisfying to see the small amount of oil added to the tank each time the truck arrives each month, for the price is steadily jumping with each delivery. I end up saving nearly $1,000 per year by using my own wood. I manage to gather the wood for no cost from my neighbor's acerage or other opportunities that present themselves. So the only cost for wood gathering is a lot of sweat labor.

After a great trip to NewYork and Richmond VA for Thanksgiving I now look forward to playing host for Christmas here for my family. The tree is up and will be decorated this weekend. Some friends have decided to purchase many jars of my canned goods this year for some of their gift giving. I also had a few sucessful public sales events thorugh my social groups at Union Church and the Saco Bay Garden Club so can report a good year of sales as well. I made a donation of a portion of my sales to the local food bank and am kept busy with my envolvement with the Mission Committee of Union Church that does a lot of great charitable work on the local as well as international level. I am now the treasurer of the Garden Club so have some new duties with that organization as well There is plenty of jam, salsa, pickles and tomato sauce though to get me through the long winter and spring.

The winter will not be boring for me at all with my local activities and much desired down time to rest, read and enjoy the fruits of my harvest. I now want to send my best wishes to all my blog readers that their holiday season and winter months are also filled with rest, good company and hopeful thoughts for the new year.

The Last Rose of Summer.

The last rose of summer is now blooming. The main colors left on the farm are the fall colors of leaves and some berries as on the bittersweet vines that are plentiful around here and fun to use as decoration by the front door as well as inside the house.  The ordeal of gathering all the leaves, mulching them for compost, adding a winter cover for garden beds and the mulching of perennials is a major annual task but now about done.  We have had some windy rain storms the last few weeks and it has hastened the fall of leaves.   At this point I can report that most of the garden chores are now done, everything needing a protective cover for winter has it now, especially the strawberry and asparagus beds.

My final tally of canned products has hit 400 jars!  Nearly one third has been sold and the shelves in the basement are buldging with the rest. I have my wood stash for the winter all covered and in place in a few accessible locations and the snow blower is now in position in the garage. I am ready! A few veggies are still in the garden: Brussels sprouts; leeks; kale; some carrots; Swiss chard and turnip greens.

I want to share a fun video with you, faithful readers of the blog. In late October Cotton and his parents visited and he had a chance to help make apple cider in the old cider press and also enjoy the Saco Fall Festival downtown.  I think the video speaks for itself as to how much fun Cotton had as well as his parents and I. Enjoy!   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fFPCpSOA9Q

Apple Cider Making and Other Fall Activities

 The harvest continues on well into the month of October.  No killing frost has occurred yet so I can still pick flowers, harvest lettuce, herbs, tomatoes and other crops that the frost could harm. I have harvested all my potatoes and am thrilled with the sweet potato crop especially.

My neighbor, Paul B. has lent me his antique family apple press and in these photos is assisting me in the old fashion fall ritual of turning dropped apples into fresh cider. In this first session the yield for three hours of work on a Sunday afternoon was five gallons of cider. We have since done it again and ended up with six gallons!  Some of it has been processed in the canner and now there are twenty-two quarts of cider on the shelves along with the other jars of things. The fresh cider can last nearly three weeks though and is delicious. I am sure the compost pile will benefit from the mash left after the pressing and bees love it  too.


                           

It is definitely fall now and the nights are cool even if no serious frost yet. The wood stove is in use each night and a wood pile has been stacked on the deck for easy access.

I recently noticed many, many small asparagus shoots growing the the garden paths surrounding the original asparagus bed in the Raised Bed Garden and decided to make a new bed in the Field Garden from them.  To my great surprise I suddenly had 110 new plants to contend with! I made a new bed but could only use about 70 of the plants so am trying to find a home for the remaining plants. 

The harvested items on the front porch give you a sampling of the bounty this year. I am still serving any dinner guests many fresh salads, cooked veggies and fresh fruit as well as enjoying it all myself.  The canning jar total now stands at 370 with the addition of the apple cider and also the first batches of canned pear halves and pear jam from the pear tree. Pears take a few weeks to complete the ripening process after picking so there is more canning action to come.  The pear tree is the first of the six dwarf fruit trees to produce a crop.   I also plan to use some of the nicest dropped apples to make some apple butter. I make it in my crock pot and cook it all night.  (All the apples I used for the cider and will use for apple butter come from the neighbor's old apple trees as my apple trees have not produced a crop yet.)      
I am sure I will set a record of over 400 jars of items this spectacular gardening year. I have done well selling some of it to Union Church friends and Saco Bay Garden Club members in addition to giving many jars to family and friends. I look forward to the trips to the basement all winter long to grab a jar of jam, salsa, pickles, juice and pasta sauce.

The only other fall planting to be done is the mid-October planting of garlic.  The task was accomplished yesterday and I put in 187 individual cloves of the stuff. I decided to increase my annual supply. My yield for this year was 116 heads of garlic. Since it was such a productive year of canning of salsa, a lot of garlic was used in that process. This led my to determine I needed a bigger yield in the future, hence the increased planting for 2011.

 There are still the following crops in the ground and are safe from cold weather harm: Brussels sprouts; carrots; beets; Swiss chard, and turnips. My  tomatoes are all but done finally and I could harvest more tomatillos but really can't use them all. I even have some nice Indian corn for decorative use and have been adding the corn stalks to my lamp posts for a fall display. When the frost finally hits I will start digging the gladiola and dahlia tubers for winter storage in the basement. I am now starting to take in the various benches, deck furniture and garden decorations for the winter.

My only pet, a female rabbit that was named Clarence before her sex was determine, has moved from her outdoor rabbit hutch to her winter quarters inside. This image shows her via the web camera. If you go to this web location you may be able to watch her in real time during the daylight hours. I occasionally have the camera on the Field Garden view though, instead of turned toward her hutch:  http://saco.schlaver.com:90/javaimage.html

It's October and I am still Harvesting Daily!

 The weather is holding nicely…cooler and some rain but no frost. I may be able to harvest some late peas,turnips, snow peas and radishes that were planted in hopes of a fall crop. My fall crop of green beans produced nicely. There are still tomatoes in the garden and I am cooking everything RED imaginable: chili, pasta sauce, soups and stew with tomatoes in them…and still canning tomato-based products.

The sweet corn was a big success and just harvested in September. Soon I will have decorative Indian corn as well. Acorn squash was the success story in the squash family and I have about two dozen in storage. The leeks are huge and I am due to start using them. They join Brussels sprouts and kale as the frost safe crops so there is no harvest pressure for them.

Anyone visiting me these days leaves with a bouquet of gladiolas and or dahlias as well as tomatoes, tomatillos, Swiss chard and yes, some of the endless zucchini crop! Many green peppers, various hot peppers, okra and eggplant are still growing and are part of the daily harvest as well.

Sales have begun of some of my canned goods, namely various jams, pickles and salsa. I look forward to more sales in October and some customers plan to buy extra for gifts for family and friends for the holidays. After all I have over 300 jars of products so can easily sell off many of them.

My crop of dried beans is now all “shucked” for storage: pinto, cannellini and kidney beans as one of the pictures show. I still have to finish digging the potatoes and pulling the onions and am very curious about the size of the sweet potatoes remaining underground. All should be harvested in the next week or so.

Harvest Time Is In Full Swing -- and Fall Approaches

The bounty from a good garden season continues to pour into the house from the garden. The tomatoes and tomatillos have triggered the production of now over 100 jars of salsa. I am turning tomatoes into others things as well, namely, pasta sauce, BBQ sauce, hot sauce and just plain canned tomatoes.  There doesn't seem to be any end in site either to the basketfulls of the red things every other day.

The canning jar tally is now at 300 and climbing from there. I have put the word out to my Maine friends and church or garden club colleagues that jars of goodies are now for sale. I am hoping many jars are sold and the money can help fund the garden needs for next year.  I still have more potatoes and onions to dig and as the photo of the leeks show, it is time to make some potato-leek soup.

My gladolias and dahlias are now showing wonderful blooms all over the Raised Bed Garden and the black eyed Susans, sedum and other late summer-fall flowers are in full display. I am still cutting the acreages of grass but not as often now. The nights are cool for sleeping and the days rarely bring sweat producing heat.  Unfortunately I seem to spend most of my time in the kitchen except when it is time to pick more tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, and greens for dinner. If I was a vegetarian I might not visit the grocery store at all!

August in Maine!

Where do I begin...the Garden Blog has been long silent due to some computer issues here at the Schlaver Seed Farm. Those problems are now over, thanks to son, Benjamin, so now I can catch up and give a report on the 2nd half of the incredible summer in Saco. This is my eight summer in Maine and the weather this year has been the absolute best of them all...even if the rainfall has been less than what might be needed for the garden.  We have had endless sun and warmth, cool nights for sleeping, far fewer mosquitoes than usual and the tomatoes are thriving!

I continue to fight a losing battle with weeds in the fairly new Field Garden. I am seriously conidering an investment in a large amount of black plastic for next year. I can anchor that on the beds, add slits and holes for the seedlings and plants and hopefully better manage the weeds as a result. The onion and potato crop has yielded a stunted, in size, harvest because of the weeds stealing the water and nutrients from the crops. This has also been the case with other veggies like the cucumbers and corn.  Yet I am pleased with what I have been able to harvest so far.  The tomato crop is mammonth and so is the tomatillo yield as well as various varieties of hot peppers so that means lots of SALSA!

Anyone that has been sitting at my dinner table this summer has enjoyed an abundance of lettuse, beets, cooked greens, beans, potatoes, zucchini, and incredible amounts of fruit like strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and peaches. The freezer is filled with bags of fruit that was first frozen on cookie sheets to keep the individual pieces separated and then put into plastic bags.

As the pictures below show, I am in full canning mode now and have been for several weeks. The tally of jars is now close to 200. The first effort is always jam: strawberry-rhubarb; strawberry; blueberry; blackberry and peach.  Later will come the apple butter. Pickles begin next and so far I have done: bread and butter pickles; sweet pickle spears; dill pickles and even zucchini spears. I have a crock full of whole dills that are brinning away for a month or so before going into the canning jars.  I have made four batches of red salsa and a couple batches of green salsa and there will certainly be more of both to come. Several jars of pasta sauce are put up already and more is expected. The main variety of tomato I choose to grow is the pear shaped San Marzano, a meaty variety perfect for sauce and salsa. One batch of "eggplant Madras" is completed for a special tasty treat.

As per usual I am able to pick my neighbor Midge's bountiful peach tree of all its fruit and this year that meant a lot of work over a couple days as they all seemed to ripen at once. So jam, pies, canned peach halves, some baked desserts and a lot of peaches eaten right off the tree resulted.

A very special event happened this August. I was given the honor of spending a full week alone with my grandson, Cotton.  This was his first time away from both his parents at the same time and he passed the test with flying colors. Fortunately he is so used to the Schlaver Seed Farm that it was like his home away from home in Brooklyn. We had a great time together digging potatoes, watching spider webs, picking Japanese beetles off the grape arbor, and eating blueberries and blackberries right off their bushes.  He loves his sandbox and all trucks and toys here and kept very busy. Of course, preferred that I, "Pops," was right there playing with him. To cap off a fun week for this almost three year old, we took the Downeaster train to Boston and then after a subway switch from North Station to South Station, boarded the Amtrak train for New York City.  He was thrilled to see his folks again but enjoyed his first of many trips, I presume, for a "summer camp" adventure in Saco.

Garden Club Visits The Farm

On Thursday evening July 8th The Saco Bay Garden /Club (SBGC) held its monthly meeting at the Schlaver Seed Farm to hear from two Master Gardeners involved with the the Plant a Row for the Hungry (PAR) Program:  http://extension.umaine.edu/york/programs/master-gardener-volunteer-program/plant-a-row/  My gardens are the most extensive among the SBGC members as to vegetable growing so was the logical setting for this presentation.  Thirty plus people showed up to walk around my gardens, hear the presentation and share in so tasty nibbles.  I served a large sheet pan filled with home grown rhubarb made into pie-like squares and also had a couple remaining 2009 jars of both red and green salsa from last year's harvest. The club members kindly overlooked all the weeds to enjoy the growing vegetable and flower plants. I welcomed all the advice and suggestions offered as well.  Thank goodness I have a long driveway for there were many cars to park! This meeting happened two days before the bi-annual SBGC Garden Tour that viewed ten area gardens. That tour was a big success even though the rainly deluge of that day hit about noontime. The SBGC web page is:  http://sacobaygardenclub.com/

It is "Officially" Summer Now and Very Welcome!

Today was a bit rainy so I am inside taking a gardening break and thought it was time for a Garden Blog update. The almost perfect weather year continues in Saco ME.Even though the vast gardens here continues  to trigger endless gardening work, I am happy and confident of the harvest already at hand and to come in the weeks and months ahead.

The Field Garden strawberry beds had their first productive year and I ended up with 18 quarts of tasty berries in this early harvest year. The Raised Bed Garden with the two very mature strawberry beds is now taking over the ripe berry duty so the harvest continues. 21 jars of jam, frozen berries and some strawberry- rhubarb pies and lots of simple berry eating has already happened with the first 18 quarts. Fresh rhubarb has been picked once and is about to yield the second harvest.

The Raised Bed Garden has already yielded broccoli raab (rapini), turnip greens, radishes, lettuce and arugula and soon some fresh peas will be captured. The blueberry harvest due to begin in late July looks VERY promising. The 100 plus garlic plants have produced curly scapes and when the plants turn yellow/brown that harvest can begin, also in July. I am anxious to see how big the garlic heads will be as the manure rich Field Garden might just produce the best results for me to date. I am still using garlic in the kitchen from last year's harvest. 

I reluctantly  stopped harvesting asparagus after a solid month of good eating. For the health of the plants and next year's crop one can't be greedy after all. I planted a new row of plants this year as well so the volume of harvest in two year should simply be spectacular. 

The weeding burdens are relentless though, especially in the Field Garden. as it is a long term task to let gardening dominate that 120 feet by 85 foot garden created there after decades of weed growing freedom.  I continue to try to keep on top of it and to add more wood chips to the garden paths. The power company was busily cutting branches along Ferry Road recently to protect the power lines and I scored two huge loads of their wood chips. I have enough for the next couple of years for sure now. They offer me a free weed barrier, source of nutritional mulch as it breaks down over time and a visual appear to paths and flower beds.

So now I am waiting, watching and working hard hoping the 60 tomato plants, rows of onions and potatoes and sweet potatoes, many variety of beans and countless other vegetables grow and grow. The flower beds don't wait until July and after to satisfy though, for phase two of the year's blooms now abound. Some new plantings near the front porch complete the new look just fine thanks to Julian's hard work on his Father's Day visit.

The Memorial Day Report

  The Memorial Day holiday prompted a full week's stay for Julian, Roxi, Cotton and Roxi's dad, Ken visiting from St. Louis So Ferry Road saw a burst of activity and lots of fun and good eating. As per usual Julian and Roxi did tons of work on the homestead.  Planting, pruning, weeding, lilacs adding fragrance to several rooms inside, meat cooking in the smoker, and domino playing late in the evening. Cotton, now three months short of his third birthday had a ball, endlessly digging in the sandbox. He rarely stopped running in the yard, playing, or looking for worms and spiders to take a nap. As the photo below shows he once fell asleep on my lap looking at videos on the computer. He is a busy boy and a joy.

The flowerbeds by the deck always are revitalized and improved by the creative energy of Julian and Roxi as these photos certainly show. The pond received a new pump and fountain as well. No chipmunk has moved into Roxi's little hobbit hole but time will tell.  Their visit lasted long enough to sample the first pickings of strawberries, arriving about two weeks early this year. They enjoyed the first rhubarb pies and the taste of home grown asparagus a couple times.  Since they left last Thursday I have picked more strawberries and the first radishes. An abundance of lettuce, broccoli raab and the first turnip greens are due for pickings shortly.

A major home improvement has been accomplished this spring...a new roof on the house! Yes, a new 30 year shingling of the roof was completed this past week by a great local contractor that may well be the regular handy man I will turn to in the months and years ahead for other projects as needed. I think the "sandlewood" color is a good addition to the look of the place.

The continuing good weather with a nice mix of rain, sun and warming days gives all indication for a great garden year. The next few weeks will focus on more and more vegetable planting and weeding as well as the beginning of the canning season with strawberry jam. The potatoes, onions and sweet potato beds look especially promising and now there are 33 tomato plants in cages and counting, for more need to be added.  The various perennials are starting to show their colors with the first roses, peonies, lupine, irises and other bursting forth. All the winter pondering and anticipation of spring and summer is at hand!