Month: November 2013

What weather we’ve been having.  We’ve started having freeze warning.  We’ve been covering plants.  And so far so good.  Yesterday I picked 2.5 lbs of tomatoes from the plant.  But considering todays weather, that may be the last I will get from it.  Its 10 AM and its 38 degrees and raining, blowing rain.  Let’s just say this cold came earlier then I thought it would and I didn’t get the plants covered last night.  I thought we were supposed to get cold tonight, not last night.  So it looks like I’m off one night, and I may not get any more tomatoes because of that.  That’s okay.  Its not the end of the world if I lose the plant.  There’s always next  year.

update:  Its now 5pm, 35 degrees and a wind chill of 28.  We went out and covered the plants since its supposed to stay cold. Down jackets helped a lot.

Tomatoes are ripening!!  Today I picked tomatoes.  I’m making home made tomato sauce, with home grown tomatoes.  I probably need more tomatoes to do this with, but we’ll use what we have and see how it goes.  Since I’m only feeding two, its not like I need a lot.  I guess its spaghetti for dinner tonight.

I’m also trying desserts for Thanksgiving.  I’ve read recipes that use puff pastry so I’m trying puff pastry topped with sliced apples, sugar and butter.  We’ll see how it goes.  I’m hoping it goes well.  we’ll see.  But if it does, its incredibly easy to make dessert this way.  Literally, put the puff pastry down on a sheet pan (I lined it with non-stick aluminum foil, didn’t have parchment paper), top it with sliced apples, sprinkle with sugar, dot with butter then cook at 400 for 40 minutes.  Easy!!  Now I just hope it tastes good too.

Good news, we have a bridge.  We now have a way to get over the “creek” we get in the back yard when it rains.  Its a wood bridge, about 8-10 feet long, with a slight arch, and about 3 feet wide.  It sits on a concrete base on one side, near the house, and on blocks on the other side, near the garden.  Its unfinished wood so it will need to be sealed some how.  That’s not happening today.  We are due for rain Monday thru Wednesday so we’ll get a chance to see how well it works.

Other bits of good news:  the tomatoes are ripening and we finally ate the watermelon.  The watermelon was only about the size of a softball, more a personal size then a family size.  But it was sweet and good.  We’ll try to grow some again next year.  The tomatoes are now starting to ripen in larger quantities.  I plucked over half a dozen to day and there are many more getting color.  There are still a lot that are green, but it looks like we may finally get our crop of tomatoes.

I was at Lowes the other day and picked up seeds by Seeds of Change.  We’ll give some of those seeds a try next year.  Yes, I’m already thinking about what to grow next year.  Considering how things grow here, I figure I can’t start thinking too early about it.  Its November and I have tomatoes ripening, broccoli growing, peas starting to grow, and lettuce growing.  The pomegranate tree still has fruit on it and I expect next year will be a larger crop there.  I think I need to be thinking about next  year this year.  At the rate I’m going, I’ll be starting plants in the green house late January or early February.