Hey pesto

It's that time of year when a frost alert is out, and the basil needs to be harvested.

 

This year instead of using a blender I used my newly acquired blender stick. It worked a treat.

Here is my how I do it from last year.

 

I now have my basil safely stored in the freezer to be used whenever I need it.

Better late than never

Sometimes I wonder when I get the garden up and running late in the season as I did this summer in Canada whether it is worth the effort of getting organised, getting the seedlings started and pampered and in the ground knowing that there is a likelihood of not getting any results in the short season we have here.
But the joy of eating home grown, non sprayed veges just minutes after harvesting makes it seem all worth while even if the harvest isn't huge.
This summer I started harvesting from the vege garden just about as soon as I arrived. There were the self sown peas and lettuces and the perennial herbs-chive, oregano, parsley and thyme.
I also managed to scoop up a few tomato plants cheaply from the local nursery, that were ready to harvest almost from the time I bought them, and have continued to produce all summer.

This tomato bush has been producing for the last 2 months, but has finally just given up. Though there are still a lot left to harvest. Fortunately I still have more tomato plants just starting to ripen their fruit. They are in pots, so when the weather cools down I'll at least be able to move them to a sheltered area.

The jalapeno peppers and the cayenne peppers are starting to ripen in their pots. When we leave in a few weeks, I'll do my usual trick of putting them inside, in front of a bright window, and let them ripen some more, then dry down over the winter. They will then be ready to crush and store on our return next spring.

The beans and peas finally produced a largish harvest a few days ago and lots more on the way. I only need a few more weeks of frost free weather before we go to make those worth their while starting.

Even the zucchinis are starting to produce. The lettuce are continueing to produce. I did have a big failure with the pak choi when the slugs devoured the complete row early on in their life.
The root bound cucumber seedlings I picked up from the nursery on our arrival made a strong come back, and have been supplying our salads for the last few weeks.

This harvest made it all worth the effort. It made a healthy contribution to a dinner party we had a few nights ago.

Harvesting and preserving

Last week I noticed the apples were ripening. This week I ended up with a small bucketful.

 

The apple trees are laden, but I thought it would be another few weeks until they ripened.

But when I realised some critter was eating them I investigated further.
Suddenly it was time to do something with them. I now have quite a lot of apple sauce. Great for on the oatmeal on these continuing cold mornings.

Then while I was on a roll I did a batch of tomato relish- a recipe I inherited from my mum.

 

When I got back to Canada in July, I started a new batch of sour dough starter. It always seems to take a while for the starter to get lively. The first few loaves are always a little solid.

But the starter is great now, and it is making me some great bread.

I am experimenting with using 1/2 cup of oat flour to replace some of the whole wheat spelt flour I used previously. So far so good. I've also replaced some of the whole wheat spelt with rye flour with good results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small but delish

The harvests from my garden are small but regular. Enough to keep us in salads and herbs. The first of the apples are ready. This I discovered after seeing half eaten fruit on the ground. Raccoons enjoying the harvest too. The first of the chillies are ripening and I am expecting big things from my peas and beans any day now.

 

The lettuce I started last month are big enough to make it into the garden  (and a few into pots so I can move them if necessary). In a few weeks I should be eating them, which is good as the self sewn lettuce that I returned home to in July are almost finished.

More paths

We spent an afternoon digging in some unused paving stones to form a path. It is just a short path, but looks much better than the worn grass.
Doesn't it look great?

 

Then there was just enough time and energy to pick this posy.

 

Summers here

Finally the weather seems to have warmed up and it feels like summer.
Even though I was late getting seedlings into the ground this summer in Canada I hoped that lots of hot weather would really get them going. It didn't happen, though now I have high hopes for a warm fall.
In spite of the weather I'm  managing to get a harvest out of the vege garden.
I'm still getting a small harvest from the peas that self sowed in the spring, and the ones I started in July are almost ready to start producing.
The self sown lettuce is keeping us in salads, with new seedlings starting to show promise.
The parsley patch has gone to seed producing lots of flowers for the insect life to feed on and then lots of seed to keep the patch going next year. Last years self sown parsley plants are big enough to harvest.

The parsley flowers look great in a vase with rudbeckia and Echinacea.

I am managing to get enough tomatoes each day for salads. Lots of tomato plants look a ways from ripening, but if we get that warm fall they may make it.

Still in the wings are the squash and beans. We'll see if they make it.
The chillies that I bought as seedlings and put in pots have lots of small chillies on them, so it looks like I'll have enough of those to get through another year.
It's always interesting to see what makes it and what doesn't.

Garlic harvest

Like many others at this time of the year I harvested my garlic.
It is probably not such a grand harvest as others may have, but it took so little effort, it was like something for nothing.
Last September I left the garden here in Canada in the hands of my hubby. He is not exactly a gardener, but did enjoy the harvests late into the fall.
Then he left around mid October. On my instructions he took the left over garlic from the kitchen and spent a few minutes planting the cloves in a few empty spaces in the vege bed. That was it- until a few days ago when I went in and did the harvest.

There are 27 cloves of garlic! Some are a good size, some a little on the small size, but there is certainly enough to get us through the next 7 weeks that we are in Canada, and maybe even a few cloves to plant again so we can do it all over again.
This has got to be the best returns for effort.