Carrots and pullet eggs

 My dad used to say, “A pint’s a pound the world around.” I know this is true for something that has more or less the same density as liquid water, but I wondered how it would play out with sauerkraut. In my September 19 post, I reported that Jane and I put up 16 ¼ pounds. We put 10 pounds in one crock and the rest in a second crock. When the sauerkraut stopped bubbling last week, it was time to pack it in jars and can it. It turned out that a pint was just about a pound! I got almost all of the 6 ¼ lb crock in 6 pint jars. I filled 5 quart jars (=10 pints) out of the other crock, which left just enough to put in the slow cooker with pork country ribs for supper.

5 quarts and 6 pints of sauerkraut

We finally had enough rain to soften the ground sufficiently for me to harvest the carrots without having to chisel out each one. There are certainly challenges to clayey soils. I always think that I will harvest carrots throughout the summer and get them all before they get enormous, and every summer I get busy with other things and end up pulling most of them at the end of the season. I realize that carrots can be left in the ground, but unless the soil is sandy, it is impossible to extract them after the soil freezes. See above for our soil type. The only silver lining is that they don’t seem to get woody like huge carrots that you buy in the store. I filled three 2-gallon bags which, taken together, was 20 pounds of carrots. They keep pretty well, but I have to make a conscious effort to eat carrots daily to get through them all before they rot.

I may have overplanted carrots

I have seen odd carrots before, but not like this one! It reminds me of the tropical fruit called Buddha’s hand, except that Buddha would never flip anyone off. That would be unenlightened in a major way.

Not Buddha's hand

Yesterday was the moment we’d been waiting for since the first week of June. Terry found the first pullet egg—and it was in the nest box! Pullet eggs are so darned cute.

The first pullet egg, front and center

Also yesterday, we were anticipating high winds from the south. Terry left the south side of the high tunnel down. Being too lazy to walk around to the north side, I went in through the “rabbit hole” door on the south side. The door had not been opened all summer, but I didn’t think about that until I had a giant spiderweb in my hair. Ug! I did what I could to get the web off me, hoping it wasn’t full of dead flies. I didn’t see the maker of the web, but another predator was on the door. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a praying mantis, and this one was a beauty. I went back this morning to see if it was still there, which it was. There is also a small moth to the lower right in the picture. You would think that would be a perilous place for a moth to hang around, but it didn’t look scared. Maybe it’s safe as long as it doesn’t move.

Praying mantis with a tiny moth (lower right)

While I don’t welcome the coming of winter, I’m ready for the temperatures to go down to where they ought to be this time of year. Pests are eating my high-tunnel spinach, and the mosquitoes are annoying. It’s time for a killing frost, for heaven’s sake.