Organic Garden - Fall             

The Squash

We have an incredible crop of squash this year. I believe that this is the best harvest that we have ever had with squash. Right now, they are curing out on the picnic bench and others are spread out on the drying table. I will get them inside in several weeks.

I am searching out squash recipes. This morning, I made a Butternut Squash Curry Soup. It is yummy. We will have it for dinner and I will freeze the rest. I like to make huge batches of soup and then freeze it in quart size baggies. This way, we always have a quick meal, even on my busy days.

My Indian cookbook has several recipes for squash. It will be fun to try them. If you have any great recipes that you would share with me, I would really appreciate it.  One of our favorite ways to eat squash is to bake them whole (350 degrees) for an hour. Next, I cut the squash in half—lengh-ways, and clean out the seeds and pulp.  I put butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and chopped pecans in the cavity. Then I bake it for another 20 minutes. This is GOOD!

HARVEST

My garden always announces the arrival of fall before it becomes "official" and we hear it on the evening news. The signs are all here now, and I have a feeling of urgency. The weather pattern in Minnesota can change quite dramatically and it does not pay to let things get behind. My neighbors are all farmers who depend on the harvest for their livelihood. Their hours get longer as the days become shorter.

Bob picked tomatoes last evening. I feel like the tomato queen of the world. There are three huge pots of tomato sauce boiling on the stove. I remove only the stems and put the whole tomatoes into my VITA-MIX (a blender will work too). After processing for a few seconds, they go directly into the pot. I usually add salt, pepper, fresh basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, sage, and parsley. The herbs go in by the handfuls. This will simmer away until the sauce cooks down and them be put in quart size plastic bags, labeled and put in the freezer. This winter, it will be converted into all kinds of good things-including spaghetti sauce, Chile, lamb stew, and tomato and barley soup. An excellent way to thicken the sauce is to add squash (put it in the blender first). I also put a fresh red beet in each pot of sauce-(grated or blended first). This makes a deep red sauce that doesn't taste any different, but it is a prettier shade of red!

The peppers are coming on strong and we are going to have a LOT!

My favorite new variety this year is a huge sweet pepper that looks like a bell pepper, but is bigger and tastes sweeter. It is called a Chinese Giant. I will plant these again next year. I slice them and put them into the dehydrator. These make good snacks and I use them in quite a few recipes.

The Jalapenos go right into salsa . The extra ones, I will pickle. These are good on pizza. The cayenne will be hung in long strands and dried. I also have an Anaheim pepper that is sweet/hot and good roasted or in stir fry.

My Alaskan melon plants were a huge success. I am drying the seed to save for next year. The melons are firm and sweet and it is the first time I have be able to grow really good ones in Minnesota. We are eating them fresh- every day and I am also dehydrating some for winter snacks.

Yesterday, I cooked pumpkin in the oven. The cooked pumpkin is cooked and then frozen. Each bag of cooked pumpkin will make two pies. My sheep and geese fight over the skins and seeds. There are always extra pumpkins planted for winter feed for the sheep. The chickens like them too.

Sometime soon, I need to write about all the herbs being harvested. The house smells wonderful with all the herbs hanging from the ceiling. That is another story and I need to get back to the garden.

I would love to hear about your garden harvest. If you get a minute or just want to take a break, give me a call or send an email.  You can also add a comment to the message board.  It's easy, fun, and we can get a dialog going among all our readers.

As I write, my garden is almost "put to bed" for the winter. There are still several rows of perennial herds that will need mulching. The sheep pens and chicken coops have been cleaned out and the straw and manure will make most excellent mulch. It is piled on one side of the garden, waiting to be put in place.

A friend from town brought out 12 large bags of leaves she had raked. They are already put down around the grapes.

There is still some general cleanup to do. This consists of pulling up the plants and pitching them across the fence to the waiting sheep. This is their favorite time of the year and they are getting FAT!

Soon, the "snow blanket will come to cover the land. The garden and I will rest.