Funny carrots and precious sawdust

The weird shape of the carrot is no reflection of its taste.  The reason why they have more than one root is because there was too much nitrogen in the soil. Unlike last year, this year's crop of carrots was existent since I double dug the soil.  This tedious procedure allowed the roots to grow freely in every direction. Next year I just have to get the nitrogen right for the carrots.

The squash and pumpkins are so beautiful.  This year's crop was donated by The Mountain School. In the spring, I did not start any of these guys from scratch and I kept forgetting to get them from the farmers market.  Destiny united me and the plant bearers of these in a cow barn among manure.  I was very happy and curious about the type of squash and/or pumpkin that I was getting.  They are all very similar to the pure bred buttercup, acorn and spaghetti squash and pie pumpkins.  I brought these inside this week before a frost.

Definitely a hybrid

Potatoes are now in the root cellar among sawdust. I was keeping them in the basement, but we have started to heat the house with the wood stove. I felt them to make sure they were still hard and smooth.  If they were soft and wrinkled then they were already loosing water. Not good.  I organized them by size in different bags.  I happened to discovered old potatoes in the root cellar.  They were sprouting and some had new potatoes attached to them. I kept those and I baked them with dehydrated herbs from our garden and salt. 

Chioggia beets

We grew a 1 and 3/4 pound beet.  The were other big ones, but this one was the monster beet.  We roasted it with thyme, olive oil and sea salt.

Carrots and beets are now in the root cellar in bags with sawdust as well. It is wise to note that I did not wash any of the root crops before storing them.  If you wash them before you store them, the roots will start loosing water and not keep well.
I also dug up the Dahlia's bulbs.  Hopefully I can plant them next year as soon as the soil can be worked. 

Irene sweeps Ladeau away

The tropical storm brought a lot of rain in our neck of the woods.  It started raining last night around midnight and it is still raining with some wind right now.  We went for a walk to see how the neighborhood was doing and some parts of the road has been washed away and some are flooded.

Save the Elf! and sheep

Waterfall ripping !

Some of our blue potatoes that I picked this week.  We lost a lot of the Russet potatoes I planted since the mice got to them and ate them.  They ate them since the bed was a new bed made up of sticks and organic matter, in other words a perfect home for mice.  I won't be doing that next year.  On the other hand, the potatoes that did not get eaten were huge and delicious.

We have corn from Cedar Circle Farm.  We volunteer there when they have festivals and special events and in return we get free produce. 

I plan to blanch the ears of corn, then strip the kernels off and freeze them in bags. We also have 70+ pounds of tomatoes to make sauce and can.

Che Che and the chickens take refuge in the tool shed while the storm passes.

Asa looks out the window for us

A Bridal Garden Party to remember

Our beautiful garden was complemented by all the beautiful, caring and fun people that joined us this past weekend.  We are very lucky to have found this place. I am very fortunate despite the circumstances of moving to this country when I was 15, and all the hardwork that  Lindo and I had to do to get to where we are now.  And it is all worh it.

                                    

I want to thank everyone that came to the party. I am sorry I missed some of the people that I wanted to be there the most, like my mom and my sister. I guess that is the price you pay when you live away from "family" home. 

                                     

I had so much fun and I just have a big smile every time someone asks me about the party.  It was everything I imagined it to be and more. Thanks to Lindo for putting up with my mysterious planning and setting up the place for the guests.

Since I am teacher, I like to be organized so I set up a map of the garden and a to do list by the temporary tent I borrowed from school. Everyone was helping so cheerfully and I am glad that all my friends got to meet each other and meet my mother in law, Sherrie and father in law Michael. 

Weeding was the first project and the one project everyone was willing to do.  Some of my friends were scared of weeding beds because they didn't want to rip off the veggies, instead they helped me weed the paths and at the same time I showed them what some of the weeds looked like. Also, we planted chard that I had sprouted indoors weeks ago. 

Other projects included planting the veggies and herbs that I got from Jinny Cleland's farm - Four Springs Farm. I worked for her this year for a couple of days and she paid me with plants for the garden. 

I got all kinds of peppers including Hungarian waxpepper, cherrybomb and others. I also got tomatoes for making sauce, for slicing, cherries and novelty ones. Finally, I got eggplants including my favorite Japanese eggplant.

For the first time I got Okra. Also a huge bush cucumber, and herbs like Borage, Thai basil, thyme, water cress and ginger mint. The water cress was planted by a spring near the house and the mint near a bank where it can take over without getting in the way of the garden plants.

The party was also filled with joy and laughter. Our friend Michelle brought her 6 month old baby girl, Brynn to the party.  She was great! I must say she was the number one attraction and who could deny that?

We also planted 3 varieties of potatoes, Red Norland, Russets and Blue potatoes. We turned a bed in the middle of the garden for one variety and for the other two varieties we put them in a new bed that I made of decomposed wood, raspberry canes, mulch, compost and top soil.  We will see how they do. I added phosphate as well before planting the potatoes.

Our friend Jo planting and watering the Forsythia.  These beautiful bushes have the first yellow flowers besides daffodils and dandelions that we can see in New England. Can't wait to see it as a 6 ft + bush

We also worked on planting a new flower garden by the front yard next to where we park the cars. We planted goatsbeard, dahlias among many others.

Jinny Cleland holding the bush cucumber! She knew exactly where to place it in the garden, as well as, where to put the herbs depending on the watering that each herb needs and spacing. I have known Jinny since the fall of 2008 when I met her at the coop and asked her if I could work at her farm.  Since that year, I have helped her either planting pansies and other plants in the greenhouse, spreading compost in the field, wedding carrots and picking up produce for her CSA members. She has been a great source of gardening information and we share a vision for the development of a farm school at her farm.

Edamame

Today I picked the soybeans we planted this summer

I pulled the whole plant and removed the pods 

I think we are going to steam these and eat them with sea salt 

Also, from the garden we have 

acorn squash

cherry tomatoes

fingerling potatoes

Early harvest

Garlic drying inside our cabin underneath the 

stairs 

Tomatoes, eggplant and husk cherries 

New potatoes !

Fingerlings, red potatoes and blue potatoes

Potatoes and Tomatoes

Pay attention to the yellowing of the bottom leaves of your tomatoes and potatoes. SO far this season has been warm and rainy and the blight loves that type of weather.  Yesterday, I was looking over my potatoes and they seem to have it, so I cut the plant down to the soil line.  Potatoes are know for keeping sprouting, so I hope they keep growing.  I happened to check on the tomatoes, and since this year I plant them too close, then they could also get fungal diseases.  I picked the bottom leaves, since they had yellow  and brown spots (not a good sign at all).  I also stopped watering, since it doesn't help with the humidity and hot weather this season.  My advice is to keep an eye on your tomatoes and potatoes this season. 
Also, garlic is about to be picked, since almost 5 leaves are dead on each plant !