Introducing...

 

October

What says "October" like big orange pumpkins?

Maybe apples?

This pumpkin didn't grow in my garden, but the apples grew on our trees. You can tell that they were grown in truly organic style because they are warty and spotty with little "worm" trails, some more than others. When we first started our orchard we researched how to do it organically. We read "The Apple Grower," by Michael Phillips (a great book) and found an organic spray schedule and recipe that included liquid fish, kelp, neem oil, and maybe a couple of other things that I can't recall. This was supposed to not only keep pests at bay, but also help prevent diseases and feed the trees.

We sprayed one time (the schedule calls for spraying several times a season). My husband operated the spray wand while I stood in the pickup bed and kept the sprayer engine going. 

I got sprayed in the face once -- maybe twice. Fortunately I was wearing sunglasses and the spray contained nothing toxic, but it was smelly.

After that we decided it was too much work and we'd put up with a few "worms" in our apples. After a while even routine pruning fell by the wayside (life happens, y'know). But the trees keep producing, not spectacularly, but they make apples, wormy and spotty and sometimes not worth cutting into. But this was a good year and the squirrels didn't get too many. 

Before planting 25 or more trees, we did a little research on varieties. We looked for disease resistance, ability to grow well here in Kansas, and flavor. So we tried lots of different kinds.

The apples in this photo represent two different varieties. The one on top is Tydeman's Late Orange. The bottom one is Liberty. 

Tydeman's actually would grow better in the northeast. We knew this when we planted it, but the flavor description could not be ignored. The apples, when allowed to ripen on the tree are truly delicious. However, the tree, healthy as it is, produces sparsely. This year was its best year in 12 years. We're glad we tried it, but we would not recommend it if you're only going to grow two or three trees.

The Liberty, though, comes highly recommended. It has a wonderful flavor and is indeed disease resistant. It may get a few spots of cedar apple rust, but it is not much bothered by it. It must be partially self-fertile, as for the past several years it has been the only apple tree up by the house, and yet it produces every year. Even though the books and online information say that Liberty apples tend to be more attractive to pests than other varieties, these apples have fewer worm trails and damage than the others. Perhaps because it's the only apple up by the house? All the other trees are a good distance away, at the bottom of the hill. The best flavor develops when you wait until early October to harvest these. One year the little tree bore so many nearly perfect, dark red apples that it looked as if it had been hung with Christmas tree ornaments. Never since then, but it does produce relatively well.

My second recommendation is Enterprise, another disease-resistant variety. It also is best picked in early October or a little later. However, we picked ours way to early. Another disease-resistant apple in our orchard, Freedom, ripens on the early side. I was waiting for late September to get them at their ripest. Then my husband noticed that the red apples began disappearing (dang squirrels). So on the Autumnal Equinox we took the tractor down to the orchard. I rode in the front loader and my husband raised me up so I could pick the highest apples. We picked from all of the trees except the Tydeman's. I wish I would have left the Enterprises as well. They were still green enough that I think the squirrels would have left them. They still had a nice flavor, especially after sitting in the refrigerator for two or so weeks. Enterprise has always produced the largest apples in our orchard and they seem less bothered by pests than the others.

Thousands of other apple varieties exist besides the seven varieties in our orchard and the two or three other varieties that once grew there. In 1900 an official publication listed 14,000 different varieties -- and that's after some varieties went away. What is this love affair we have with apples? I am not sure. They've always found a place in my refrigerator. I grew up eating homegrown apples. My siblings and I would snack on green apples as we played. We climbed the apple trees and ate homemade, homegrown apple pie.

When European settlers came to this continent they brought cuttings from their favorite apple trees, and seeds. If you plant an apple seed, you have no idea what you'll get.

Of course, it will be an apple tree, but what kind of apple? Will it be tasty or hard and bitter? You never know. Careful cross-pollination and serendipity both have brought us various kinds of apples. Some lucky orchardist will find a seedling in his orchard producing large, delicious fruit and make a fortune selling scions for grafting and propagation. Or, years of cross-pollination and failure will yield an extra special apple. It's a gamble, always. And it's why we once had 14,000 apple varieties.

So why did my husband and I plant 25 or more apple trees 12 years ago? Because we love apples. And we weren't very smart. We're smarter now. Please don't start off planting 20 plus trees and struggling to care for them. It's ok to dream of having that many and more, but unless it's going to be a business, start smaller. Plant three or five. Find out how much time it takes to care for them properly and efficiently, then plant more, or not. I'm glad I got to taste so many different varieties. Those Red Delicious in the grocery store just can't compare to the the complexity of flavor some of these varieties offer.

But, if I had it to do all over again.........

Summer to Autumn (Part 2)

 September

Yes; sweet potatoes in September.

Sweet potatoes are so easy to grow, and we love them. I planted a lot of sweet potatoes this year-- almost three times as many as I typically do. My husband encouraged me to plant more than usual. He urged me to plant lots of them. He begged me "pretty please" and promised me his first born if I planted lots of sweet potatoes. (OK. I think his very adult first born would have something to say about that.) 

So I ordered almost twice my usual amount from K-State; their slips are very inexpensive and they comes as small, unrooted slips. They are shipped to a local hardware store, where we pick up our pre-paid slips, selecting them from boxes full of green slips. Local market growers get some of their sweet potato slips this way. We can order as many or as few as we wish, however. I ordered 40; 15 each of two varieties and 10 of a third.

Forty sweet potato slips sounded like a lot of sweet potato potential to me. However, last year K-State delayed their slip delivery by a month because weather delayed the planting for slips (more about how to grow your own slips later) and we got very few sweet potatoes. So my husband was a little nervous about this year's delivery, especially when we got word that the delivery would be delayed by a week or so. He then stopped by a local nursery and bought 25 large, well-rooted slips. This was just after the middle of a rainy, chilly May, at least two weeks earlier than I usually plant sweet potatoes. I planted them right away, though. They did quite well in spite of the less than ideal planting weather. They are very forgiving plants. I was able dig them about the middle of September.

The other slips arrived not much later than usual, in early June. I stuck them all in water for several days to get some roots going. That's not necessary, you can plant slips directly in the soil, but I always feel better about planting slips that have at least started rooting. By mid-June I had planted them all.

The weather had gone from chilly and rainy to very hot and dry. Sigh. So I stretched shade cloth over the newly planted slips and watered them every day. Most of them survived. Hurray. I dug those at the end of September.

Usually I wait until they forecast frost in mid-October. But I wanted to avoid the rush of trying to dig more than 60 hills of sweet potatoes, while dragging out old blankets and sheets to protect the summer vegetables I wanted to save and throwing frost blanket row cover over the fall lettuce. Besides, I figured that in September and early October we'd still have enough heat to keep the attic warm enough to "cure" the sweet potatoes. Curing for one to two weeks heals wounds (I always poke a few with the garden fork or break them while pulling them out), dries them a bit so they keep longer, and, most important, converts starches to sugars and improving the flavor.

It was difficult waiting two weeks to eat the sweet potatoes.

Four different varieties went into the ground. I don't know what variety went in first -- most likely Beauregard, as that is a commonly planted orange variety. The nursery had only that one, so that's what my husband got. The other three, from left to right in the photo were Bonita (white skin, white flesh), Covington (all orange), and Murasaki (a Japanese variety with purple skin and white flesh). In the past I've also planted an all-purple variety. I was somewhat disappointed in their production, and the slips are hard to find and expensive. However, my husband insists that I try them again next year. All righty, then. Apparently a yellow sweet potato variety also exists. I was not aware of that before. I may search out a source for slips next year. O'Henry is the variety that someone told me about.

Next year, I think I will give the white and Japanese sweet potatoes a little extra time in the ground, as they had many more of the small tubers and fewer really large ones than the orange varieties. However, for the most part, they produced a lot more tubers per plant. 

White and Japanese sweet potatoes are a bit sweeter than the orange varieties. The purple ones are starchier, but quite nice. 

As I said before, sweet potatoes are easy to grow. Other than some TLC when the slips first go in the ground, you can almost ignore them. They grow best in loose, loamy soil, but will grow in almost anything but concrete. Of course, the tighter the soil, the weirder the tubers will look. I've also grown them successfully in large tubs. I hardly ever water sweet potatoes. The only real work I do with them during the growing season is to cut back the vines so they don't cover the paths and other vegetable beds. You can eat the tender growing tips as a summer green, if you wish.

Rather than spend a lot more space on describing how to create your own sweet potato slips, here is a link to one of many sites with that info. The only thing I would add here it that it is not necessary to pot up your slips before putting them in the garden. 

A final note: You can do a lot more with sweet potatoes than the sickly sweet, marshmallow topped sweet potato casserole that I grew up eating at Thanksgiving. They need no added sugar and can be savory as well as sweet. I must do a blog with our recipes for various garden vegetables. That will definitely include my Southwest style sweet potato salad, and others. 

Locally, October was declared Sweet Potato Month a few years ago. Apparently there are some national observances, as well, in February (Why February?) and November.

But now seems like a great time to Celebrate Sweet Potatoes!

 

Through Summer and Autumn (Part 1)

 August.

I know, August is so two months ago.

But here I continue the summer saga. The diggers I wrote about at the end of June have been evicted. In all we trapped seven racoons, two opossums and one rabbit. All but the rabbit were relocated. Rabbits don't cause much trouble here. I know what their favorite snacks are and protect those plants with chicken wire fencing until they're too large for the rabbits to find them tasty. They and the deer prefer clover, so as long as I leave the red clover that has somehow found its way into the garden we're all cool.

July brought on the tomatoes, slowly, then the blackberries, and melons toward the end of the month. The first tomatoes to ripen were the Sun Golds, a little orange cherry type. August brought the tomato boom, however, and okra, eggplant, melons, ground cherries, summer squash and more blackberries.

This photo represents my August, which was dominated by tomatoes.

The huge tomatoes here are Amish Paste, a large heirloom paste variety, destined for slicing and dehydrating. I've grown this variety for years. It seems relatively disease resistant and has always produced abundantly. This year was no exception, although it was strange. Planted in a rainy, cool May, and suddenly thrust into a hot, dry June they nonetheless grew sturdily (with irrigation, of course). July eased up a bit and August seemed more normal. However, they went into decline much earlier than usual. Typically, they're still producing into October and I scurry to pick the remaining green tomatoes when the first freeze is predicted. But this year I took them all down by the end of September. They were the last to go, however, except for the Sun Golds, which are always the most robust tomatoes.

The Black Plum tomatoes, the ones I roast for sauce-making, are always the first to come down. However, they are so productive that I am glad when they start their decline. This year they came down even earlier, but not before I took down the slicing tomatoes. Usually my slicers hang in there until frost, but not this year. 

I tried some new ones, though. Mortgage Lifter replaced my usual Brandywines. They were nice tomatoes and nearly as flavorful as the Brandywine, with less cracking. But they went into decline early, probably a result of the weather fluctuations. I'll try them again next year, perhaps alongside a Brandywine and see how they do. Another slicer in my garden remains unidentified. It was supposed to be Dark Galaxy, a little salad tomato, dark purple with white star-like spots. This was a purple-red slicing size tomato, however. I grew it from seed saved by another gardener, so who knows what happened.

Another new variety this year was Indigo Rose, a small salad tomato that turns dark purple, almost black where the sun hits the fruit and ripens to brick red on the underside. It's a pretty tomato. When I searched for information about this variety I read mixed reviews about the flavor. You can count me among those who were not impressed. I might grow this one again for the color, but not the taste.

Because I took the tomatoes out early, you might think it was a bad year for them. However, I wound up with three and a half gallons of dried tomatoes and 13 pints of roasted tomato sauce. Plus we ate tomatoes at every meal but breakfast and gave away pounds and pounds, to friends, family and a neighbor whose plants were stunted and produced fruit that refused to ripen. 

We were rich with tomatoes. And okra, and melons, and berries, eggplant (most of which survived getting dug up by our diggers), long beans, summer squash.  Not only was August busy with work in the garden, I also spent a good bit of time in the kitchen processing the produce. Some days were spent just picking and processing.

So I was glad when September brought a little slow-down. I'll show you September later.