the season is done.

[rxkeith]

we had a couple of light frosts that damaged the tender plants, but the cherry tomatoes,
peppers, and pole beans were still gamely hanging in there, and staying alive.
when i woke up this morning, and looked outside, everything was gray. we had a heavy frost.
a killing frost it was, no messing around this time.
garden clean up has begun. garlic has to get in. tractor needs maintenance, final load of wood
needs to get stacked. time to get ready for that other season. brrrrrr.


keith

[Sue_CT]

Always a bit sad to see the season end.

[GoDawgs]

We still haven't had that first light October frost yet and no sign of it in the 10 day forecast. It's La Nina through the winter again. Still, it's time to remove the spent summer stuff and add more fall/winter things. I'm hoping those things will do better than the summer garden which was a real disappointment.

[Tormahto]

Always a bit sad to see the season end.

It's not sad to see yellow jacket season end.

[bower]

We had one major frost with white hoar on everything, but it really only killed the tops of the squash and buckwheat - I picked another kousa yesterday - and at least one tomato plant hung on for days afterwards, although it appears the stem is gone now.
I have not done the cleanup, and I'm not done prepping for garlic planting yet either.
Wish I had nothing else to do, it would be spiff by now.
However we do still have a plenty wasps around enjoying that end of season gorging, so I will be picking cold hours if not cold days to do that work!

[ddsack]

This is our last warm day before the serious cool down tomorrow. No major frost here yet, but enough nights in the mid-30's so that the heat loving plants have pretty much gradually folded. I picked all mature peppers last week, but the pepper plants are still looking pretty good. The tomatoes were going down to disease anyway, so nothing left there besides what fruit I brought in the house to ripen. I wish I could work on garden clean up today, but I have to spend most of the time on soaping and cleaning off the potted plants I will need to bring back into the house, and on patching the holes in our siding where the silly little woodpeckers have been drilling.

[wykvlvr]

We have been having chilly nights but tonight they are forecasting a freeze so sadly went out and picked the green tomatoes and brought them in. Our squash and cucumbers were done in by the low temps last night so I only have a few things still growing. My two eggplants ran out of time this year as I put them out too late but were loaded with flowers and had their first little eggplants on them. I think I will try them again next year. We still need to harvest our potatoes but as long as Kennebec is still growing I will leave it alone as well as the others still struggling to grow. It will be a decent harvest for them I think. Considering how little care my garden got this year I am pleased with the harvest.

[AKgardener]

We got snow last night but mines been over for a good while now

[Tormahto]

We had one major frost with white hoar on everything, but it really only killed the tops of the squash and buckwheat - I picked another kousa yesterday - and at least one tomato plant hung on for days afterwards, although it appears the stem is gone now.
I have not done the cleanup, and I'm not done prepping for garlic planting yet either.
Wish I had nothing else to do, it would be spiff by now.
However we do still have a plenty wasps around enjoying that end of season gorging, so I will be picking cold hours if not cold days to do that work!

You just had to go and mention buckwheat today.

I had planned for several days to go looking for buckwheat flour today. With the first three stores, I struck out, nothing, not even whole buckwheat. I then went to the small local Polish/Ukrainian deli, figuring if they didn't have any, I'd likely be out of luck. The owners told me that Poland doesn't grow much buckwheat anymore, and that Ukraine and Russia are the major growers. It doesn't look like any will be imported in the near future.

I purchased one 500 g box for 1.99, leaving a few other boxes on the shelves. After getting home, I read the extremely fine print, saying that it came from the Chelyabinsk Region, Russia. I have no beef with Russian farmers, so I'll likely go back for the rest of the boxes.

The nutritional facts lists the box as having 16 one cup (30 g) servings per container. It looks like a lot less than 16 cups/servings. The buckwheat is for blueberry buckwheat buttermilk pancakes. I'll be experimenting with different ratios of wheat flour to buckwheat flour to blueberries, in order to achieve the best flavor. Someone has to do it, and I'm up the task.

And, I wonder how much land I would need to grow my own small supply.

[Sue_CT]

I would be willing to help taste those expiriments. I am unselfish like that.

[Tormahto]

[bower]

Sign me up as a tester... or at the very least, publish your results so we can imitate the science/art! .
I'll send you pics of my little 'crop' of buckwheat and how much space it took for a few cups of flour...
I believe you can grind it up hulls and all, sift out any too large pieces? Not sure.

Wasps have been gorging on the buckwheat flowers btw. I will not repeat a late season planting near the back door.

[karstopography]

A Reasonable yield per acre on buckwheat for commercial growers is 1,000-1,200 pounds per acre. 430 sq. ft. might get you 10-12 pounds.

[WoodSprite]

We haven't had a frost yet (center of Pennsylvania) but it will likely be here in the next week or two. Since I can only do so much activity at a time, I've been slowly working on pulling and composting things. The bed that I'll plant garlic in soon is empty and ready. I'm leaving one tomato plant (True Colours) and one pepper plant (Carmen F1) until the frost get them. I already pulled everything else except for the two banana pepper plants that I'll harvest and pull the plants tomorrow or the next day, pole beans (need to collect the seeds), nasturtiums (I'm selecting for my preferred color and am waiting for more seeds to develop) and biennial and perennial herbs that will stay. It's sad to see the garden so empty but I was exhausted from all of the effort to keep it going and keep up with harvesting and was ready for a break.

I canned a lot of salsa plus some bruschetta, tomato/veggie juice. (We have plenty of tomato sauce from last year do didn't make more this year. Ditto dilly beans.) My husband canned enchilada sauce and sloppy joe sauce. I froze lots of kale, peppers, onions (the ones that were a bit funky to save them from rotting completely), green beans, carrots, dill, cilantro, basil/garlic/oil mix, eggplant dip and other things that I'm forgetting. I fermented pickles and my husband fermented peppers. I dried basil, parsley, summer savory, French tarragon, fennel, tulsi, calendula petals. I have lots of garlic and onions in the cool, dark pantry. Potatoes are harvested but need to be brought inside yet. And I saved lot and lots and lots of tomato seeds and several kinds of herbs and flower seeds.

It was a satisfying and productive year. A week or so ago I added a strawberry bed (with wild, native strawberry plants that I found growing on our property) and am looking forward to them if I can beat the chipmunks to them. I already have next year's garden planned as far as crops, varieties and layouts in the beds. Soon I'll be switching hobbies over to sewing and quilting after I finish building the last set of shelves in my hobby room walk-in closet.

[TheMad_Poet]

We had one major frost with white hoar on everything, but it really only killed the tops of the squash and buckwheat - I picked another kousa yesterday - and at least one tomato plant hung on for days afterwards, although it appears the stem is gone now.
I have not done the cleanup, and I'm not done prepping for garlic planting yet either.
Wish I had nothing else to do, it would be spiff by now.
However we do still have a plenty wasps around enjoying that end of season gorging, so I will be picking cold hours if not cold days to do that work!

You just had to go and mention buckwheat today.

I had planned for several days to go looking for buckwheat flour today. With the first three stores, I struck out, nothing, not even whole buckwheat. I then went to the small local Polish/Ukrainian deli, figuring if they didn't have any, I'd likely be out of luck. The owners told me that Poland doesn't grow much buckwheat anymore, and that Ukraine and Russia are the major growers. It doesn't look like any will be imported in the near future.

I purchased one 500 g box for 1.99, leaving a few other boxes on the shelves. After getting home, I read the extremely fine print, saying that it came from the Chelyabinsk Region, Russia. I have no beef with Russian farmers, so I'll likely go back for the rest of the boxes.

The nutritional facts lists the box as having 16 one cup (30 g) servings per container. It looks like a lot less than 16 cups/servings. The buckwheat is for blueberry buckwheat buttermilk pancakes. I'll be experimenting with different ratios of wheat flour to buckwheat flour to blueberries, in order to achieve the best flavor. Someone has to do it, and I'm up the task.

And, I wonder how much land I would need to grow my own small supply.

Can't remember the last time I had buckwheat pancakes. A long time ago. Delicious and buckwheat makes a good cover crop too!!!

[Tormahto]

Well, the first pancakes were a disaster. The batter was too dry, so I added more water. I though that I was close, but as soon as I dropped some batter on the griddle, I instantly saw that it was still too thick. The finished product tasted good, but they rose up to almost an inch thick. They would likely have a good r-value as basement window insulation, before the critters would get to it. I'm not wasting any blueberries until I get the batter right.

I haven't made pancakes in about a decade, and it's not like riding a tricycle.

[Shule]

Well, the first pancakes were a disaster. The batter was too dry, so I added more water. I though that I was close, but as soon as I dropped some batter on the griddle, I instantly saw that it was still too thick. The finished product tasted good, but they rose up to almost an inch thick. They would likely have a good r-value as basement window insulation, before the critters would get to it. I'm not wasting any blueberries until I get the batter right.

I haven't made pancakes in about a decade, and it's not like riding a tricycle.

I know the feeling. I've been trying to reinvent the pancake recipes of my youth that seemed second-nature at the time, but I keep inventing new kinds of pancakes instead (maybe it's because I'm determined to use baking soda instead of baking powder). However, my latest invention was edible, this time, and might be of interest to you. I didn't use buckwheat, but it was 100% whole wheat, as far as flour goes. The reason it may be of interest is that the pancakes were super thin and tasted kind of like crepes. I think the secret to making them thinner was to use more eggs (and more water, of course). Here's the recipe (it did require me to spread the batter out thinner manually with a spoon after putting it on the pan, though, which is the drawback--but it worked, and they tasted good; they're sweet with this recipe; not sure if the brown sugar impacted the thickness; I used the brown sugar for its low pH, and to prevent that bitter baking soda flavor):

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 heaping 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 heaping 1/8 teaspoon iodized salt
0.25 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
A few tablespoons avocado oil
Water (enough to make it the right consistency; I didn't measure)

I cooked them on medium heat on a 12" cast-iron pan.

In retrospect, we don't have an eighth of a teaspoon; it was probably a fourth. This was on March 31st, so . . .

[JRinPA]

It's not sad to see yellow jacket season end.

quote of the year, I say.

[JRinPA]

We had one major frost with white hoar on everything, but it really only killed the tops of the squash and buckwheat - I picked another kousa yesterday - and at least one tomato plant hung on for days afterwards, although it appears the stem is gone now.
I have not done the cleanup, and I'm not done prepping for garlic planting yet either.
Wish I had nothing else to do, it would be spiff by now.
However we do still have a plenty wasps around enjoying that end of season gorging, so I will be picking cold hours if not cold days to do that work!

You just had to go and mention buckwheat today.

I had planned for several days to go looking for buckwheat flour today. With the first three stores, I struck out, nothing, not even whole buckwheat. I then went to the small local Polish/Ukrainian deli, figuring if they didn't have any, I'd likely be out of luck. The owners told me that Poland doesn't grow much buckwheat anymore, and that Ukraine and Russia are the major growers. It doesn't look like any will be imported in the near future.

I purchased one 500 g box for 1.99, leaving a few other boxes on the shelves. After getting home, I read the extremely fine print, saying that it came from the Chelyabinsk Region, Russia. I have no beef with Russian farmers, so I'll likely go back for the rest of the boxes.

The nutritional facts lists the box as having 16 one cup (30 g) servings per container. It looks like a lot less than 16 cups/servings. The buckwheat is for blueberry buckwheat buttermilk pancakes. I'll be experimenting with different ratios of wheat flour to buckwheat flour to blueberries, in order to achieve the best flavor. Someone has to do it, and I'm up the task.

And, I wonder how much land I would need to grow my own small supply.

First, I don't know what the price would be.
Second, I don't know if they ship or how much that would be.
But, I'm pretty sure the store I hit once in a while, called Echo Hill Country Store (Fleetwood, PA) carries buckwheat flour. Pretty sure I bought some for scrapple a few years back. They have a non-functional website with no front end for web purchases, but they might ship. The accent on the phone will be pure Berks Co. It may or may not be worth the price plus shipping.

I was there at Echo Hill a few days ago and guess what I found...it really made my day.
O.T.C. The old style oyster crackers. These are not truly "Original Trenton Crackers", but they are being made by a restaurant in Telford and are being marketed as Old. Towne. Crackers. Beautifully sneaky.
O.T.C were the go to crackers in this region for stews and tomato soup and it was a sin when the company had to stop making them. This is the first time I have seen any reasonable facsimile. Retail is $8/lb from the restaurant website. Echo Hill has them in bulk packs for $6.80/lb. They are pretty close to the originals. This off season they will go together wonderfully with the tomato basil soup I can that is way too classy for saltines.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

Harvested-n-pulled all the (sigh!) Sweet Pepper plants, and ~ 40 Sun Coleus yesterday, after it (groan!) freakin' SNOWED!

Glass half full?

Have a mountain of Real Beauts to process!

The Gotch