Late season harvests

 Ah, the landscape cloth. A pain to put down, a pain to pull up. But would we want to pull weeds in all the space that the landscape cloth protects? Absolutely not. Hilda and I worked all morning Friday wresting the edges of the landscape cloth from the grass in the corn patch. It was hard, dusty work. This is how it looked when we were done. Imagine, if you will, all the bare ground covered with as much grass as is growing between the stalks. That would be our life without landscape cloth.

Corn with bare ground between rows where the landscape cloth used to be

As I was pulling up the cloth, I came upon some tunnels and holes of some small rodent, perhaps a mouse or vole. That wasn’t so bad. One year, I uncovered a nest with babies. I didn’t know what to do, so I did nothing. The next day they were gone. Either mom moved them to a safer place or they were snacks for some predator. I’ll never know.

Rodent tunnels under the landscape cloth. Loose soil (upper right) probably came out of the hole on the lower left

Next to the corn, we have lots and lots of Delicata squash. I will have to remember to make squash every Sunday from now until Kingdom Come. So much squash.

Delicata squash

And then there’s the butternut. They are huge and numerous. To be honest, one butternut squash will be enough for pumpkin bars, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin pancakes until next fall. That’s a culinary secret for you—use squash instead of pumpkin in recipes. The flesh has much less water and is not a fibrous. You’re welcome.

Butternut squash

The apples are ripe. Terry has started picking them and filling up the spare refrigerator. So many apples. I thought about making applesauce today, but nothing came of it. I finished the Sunday crossword and made yogurt. Then it was time for football.

Apples

I learned from a friend early in the summer that the tops should be cut off of Brussels sprouts to promote even growth of the sprouts. I should have thought of it myself. It’s not as if I’d never heard of apical dominance. In past years, there were always big sprouts at the bottom and weenie sprouts at the top. A few weeks ago, I beheaded all the stalks, and by golly, the sprouts really are about the same size.

Brussels sprouts

 Before the beheading, I was worried that the sprouts did not seem to be growing at all. Now I’m worried that they are going to get excessively large before they get some frost on them to make them sweeter. They’re a little bitter before the frost (although not resentful, as far as I can tell). We had a light frost yesterday morning, but not enough to turn the basil black. Basil is so wussy.

The tomatoes in the high tunnel are just beautiful, as juicy and delicious as the first picks of summer, not like the mealy late season tomatoes we’d been getting from the outside plants. It’s just amazing.

High tunnel tomatoes

I finished reading Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman. I learned that the idea of the four season garden is to grow cool season plants during the autumn and spring. Some of these plants (carrots, beets) will survive the winter months in the high tunnel, covered with row cover, but only if it’s had enough time to get a well-developed root. Coleman says to plant a bunch of seeds and see what happens. Our seed supply was short. I found radishes and lettuce, which I planted on Sept. 14. And they’re up! Hooray!

Lettuce sprouts

Radish sprouts

I ordered seeds for beets, winter lettuce, carrots, and scallions, but I may miss my window by the time they get here. Coleman says mâche (cornsalad) is the bees’ knees for winter greens. As far as I can tell, there is not a single mâche seed left in the country. I checked 3 major seed companies; all were sold out. Next year for the mâche.

Speaking of bees, I recently learned that bumblebees can generate enough body heat to be able to fly on chilly mornings when other bees have to stay home. When I looked at (something I believe to be) hard-leaved goldenrod this morning, there they were, a bit sluggish, but getting the pollen and nectar. The genus name of bumblebees is Bombus. I love that. In Darwin’s time, they were also known as humblebees. Such fun furry little beasts.

Sluggish bumblebees on goldenrod

Hummingbird activity is slowing down on these cool days. There was one at the feeder this morning when the sunlight was just right to catch its beautiful iridescence. We have to enjoy them while we can. They will be leaving soon.

Hummingbird bulking up for winter