Moving into Fall

And just like that, I’m calling an end to the canning. I just can’t do it anymore. The pantry is full (four jars of tomatoes cooling before filling that last row), and if I’m so moved, I can still dehydrate and/or freeze tomatoes. I’ve started stringing the paprika peppers. There are herbs to dry and maybe even some roasted peppers in oil in my future. But the canner is going away. Enough is enough.

I feel the strong pull of fall, which is a completely different thing in terms of the garden and even the kitchen. First, I dug up some potatoes, although they’re not dying back as quickly as I’d like. And I picked off a few rows on a stalk of Brussel’s sprouts. And then, I tried to get a few of the parsnips that have been growing for six full months in the garden.

Those puppies are gorgeous– big and thick– my first success with full-grown parsnips, but some of them had a taproot that grew right through the bottom of the raised beds and into the ground. They do not come out like carrots, which sometimes need a bit of loosening of the soil before they’ll release, or leeks, which sometimes need a little chopping through the roots before you can pull them free. These guys had to be dug around and then pulled out hard, sometimes breaking off at the bottom. The word “taproot” suits them. I cut off a foot of root on some of these.

I also did my first phase of rhubarb eradication today, which involved wrestling with roots. I’ve moved a small piece, but the other root was like that creature from Alien. I am sure I did not get it all. I hope to get it out of the asparagus bed next year.

When you’re digging things out of the ground, you can’t help but think it’s time for roasting!! Time to cut up a bunch of these hard vegetables and the rest of the garlic and onions and put them in a pan for an hour until they soften up and release all their flavors.

I’ll be using a lot of delicata squash. And maybe the oddly colored Tahitian squash. And maybe, like if I suddenly have to feed thirty people, the 19-pound, 24-inch “Cool Old Squash” or one of its three cousins, which certainly add up to another 30 pounds or so when put together… If I’m lucky, about 10 butternut squash out there will ripen fully before the first frost. If not… uh… we’ll manage somehow! Yes, I have over 100 pounds of winter squash.

I figure, from the jars of tomatoes and the jars of dried beans (4 quarts!) and a brief once-over of the rest of things, including the prolific pepper plants, that I’ve averaged about 150-175% of usual yield this year. That’s not at all scientific, of course. The cucumbers weren’t good. Asparagus and spinach bolted (though I have spinach for fall coming in). All I know is, I think 15 beds are quite enough. And I will be unveiling a new part of the operation coming to the farm in October.  Next year is going to be interesting.