Charley's Vegetables

With 8 inches of snow on the ground and freezing temperatures outside, the only thing one can do in the garden is dream about it from the couch.  Now is planning time…time to study last years garden and decide what to do different this year.  Reflect on the layout and plantings and harvest, what do you need to expand?  How did the design of your garden affect accessibility and aesthetics?  Were your paths wide enough?  Could you get to everything easily to pick the fruit?  Did you have too much of one thing and not enough of the other?  What worked and what did not? 

Reflecting and recording are two favorite past times of good gardeners.  Write down your thoughts and new ideas.  Study the seed catalogs and order new seeds for the Spring.  The vision of your new garden will enable you to weather the winter blues without too much cabin fever. 

Enjoy the snow – it is summers irrigation!

How many of you have a big stack of seed catalogs sitting on your coffe table? If your like me, you have five or more beautiful, colorful seed catalogs to cheer up your winter blues.
I sit and dream and think about all the different things I would like to grow this next spring. I have circles hundreds of dollars worth of seed in just 2 catalogs! Of course, I will not order that much but it is fun to dream.
How do you choose what to order? There are so many choices, though not as many as there were 80-100 years ago. I choose based on what was fun last year but maybe I did not plant enough or I want to try a different variety. Take potatoes, for instance, last year they grew quite well but I did not plant very many. This year I want o plant several different varieties as well as more of each. The varieties I am considering are All Blue, French Fingerling and Caribe. I also choose seeds based on just plain interesting. Maybe it is something I have never tried before or it is something neat that I want to show the kids or something I think they will like, like Mexican Sour Gherkins, Hardy Kiwi and Luffa Gourds. Of course, my garden is a work and progress and I plant half the things I dream about and half the things I already have or can get at the Farm.
My eyes are bigger than my yard, as the saying goes!

So…what does one do with a whole, whole bunch of green tomatoes? Why, make pickled green tomatoes, of course!
I was determined not to throw all those green tomatoes away, so I did a little searching and found a great canning recipe for Pickled Green Tomatoes on allrecipes.com.
Now, it was time to try my hand at canning for the first time ever. I quizzed several friends and neighbors on the process – if I would need anything special to do it or not. I found out that all you need are some big deep pots, the jars and a sense of adventure!
The Day of Canning commenced with me getting everything ready. I had sliced the tomatoes the night before and refrigerated them per the recipes instructions and now was ready to do the thing. I started boiling jars and lids and the vinegar and tomato concoction and it all just came together…after about 5 phone calls to Mom, that is!
Truly, this was so fun and much easier than I expected. I just finished canning the second batch today. Now, I am hooked. I keep trying to come up with something else to can! I highly recommend this to any beginner. I had been totally intimidated by all the `rules` I thought went into canning, but it was not that bad once I got going. And it is a great way to store excess produce from your garden!

Pickled Green Tomatoes

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Wow! My garden has been an adventure this year! And the adventure continues. With all the whacky weather things are kind of confused…I am still picking black cherry tomatoes. Everytime I go out to pull up the vines there are bunches of ripe tomatoes.
I planted carrot seeds and endive seeds, but it has not been sunny and they are not germinating at all. These plants like the cool weather but they still need sun. But the radishes could care less whats going on; they come up immediately and thrive no matter what the weather conditions.
I have some flats of pansies to plant but again it has not dried out enough for me to clean out the bed they are going in.
I am loving the cool weather, but I miss the sun!
What kind of crazy weather are you experiencing?
Enjoy your fall gardens.