As sad as it is, i'm wishing for snow.

So pretty much everything is dead. We're doing our last market this Saturday and we'll be at the Christmas market (If there is one this year). You'll still be able to purchase things from me all winter though.

I am so close to being able to plant my winter crop of greenhouse stuff i can almost taste it. Kris and I harvested all the peppers today. I've never seen such a bad case of rot, every kind of rot you can imagine is happening to my pepper plants so tomorrow they're all going in the not for farming compost.

My basement is completely full of tomatoes and peppers which is pretty sweet cause my basement smells awesome.

The ground is still too wet and we haven't been able to plow the field. Panic is starting to set in, i really need to get everything prepped so i'm not completely screwed come spring.

My stress level is through the roof! However my athletes foot has subsided, so i suppose that's a bonus.

I'll be very happy when everything that is outside is tilled and gone and i'm back to just the greenhouse. I'm exhausted! I need a vacation!

I figure in about two weeks i should have the garden taken down and put away.

No pictures today, nothing really exciting too see aside from dead plants.

A very late picture update

I'm sorry for not posting any updates recently, i started my dance classes this week and my life is a bit crazy. Also i'm so sore that i can hardly move and I've pretty much had to take the week off.

A few things have happened since i took these pictures. A huge frost hit a few days ago and froze all the tomato plants under the plastic, which sucked. So i picked them all and they're ripening in the basement. Oddly enough the few little tomatoes i left on the plants are still growing even though they're slightly dead. I had initially covered the squash but at some point during the night the cover blew off and frost killed all the squash plants. I'm pretty bummed about that one.

I took this picture the day before the frost hit. These guys are all in the basement now. 

These are my mother's Tiny Tim tomato plants that i grew her. They're producing really nicely now that they're back in the greenhouse. 

The fig tree is doing really really well inside. The little figs in the picture are much larger now and the tree has had substantial growth since it's been moved inside. 

Whatever wasn't killed is now under row covers. It looks like i'm growing sheets. 

This is my mother's sad little grape vine. I've taken it under my wing and my plan is to eat some grapes. 

Yesterday i was going to take apart the cold frames that are over the hot peppers since they looked half dead and frozen the other day. So i went in and checked them out and there are actually hot peppers everywhere. I'm happy they finally decided to start doing something at the end of September. 

For anyone wondering about the mustard, I plan to attack it on Monday. It's pretty much dry at this point so i just have to get the seeds out of the pods. Also the mustard flowered again after we cut it and now i have another round of pods to harvest. 

The peppers in the greenhouse are having a bit of a hard time. They've started to ripen finally however, i'm pretty sure i have root rot from all the rain in August. So i'm fighting off rot and aphids, yes aphids. Thankfully there are still about a hundred ladybugs in the greenhouse so they're making quick work of them. Freakin aphids! Man, they make me angry. Since the peppers are taking their sweet ass time to ripen i haven't been able to plant anything in the greenhouse because they're taking up all the space. 

So i'm doing a preserving workshop on Sunday at Martha's kitchen in south end. My plan was to make pickles, but no one has any cucumbers. I may be able to get my hands on half a bushel, but i'm not sure yet. You know it was a crappy growing summer when it's hard to track down a full bushel of pickling cucumbers. Even i don't have enough yet, maybe another week or so. So maybe we'll make zucchini relish or something. 

At this point in the game i'm exhausted and overwhelmed. I have so much work to do i don't want to do anything. This summer has been very discouraging. When i started my seeds i only accounted for about 2 weeks of screwed up weather when i should have accounted for a month and 2 weeks. I didn't get nearly as much as i had hoped for but, at least i learned a lot. Next year i'm preparing for the Apocalypse. 

I finally got my pictures off my phone!!!

Now that i know i can get the pictures on here i'll go take some more tomorrow. 

So here's a small picture update. 

The long island cheese squash has cross pollinated with the butternut and the scallop squash. It's weird looking but it still tastes really good. I made some squash curry soup with it today and it still tastes awesome. 

This is one of our watermelons. I really wasn't sure if they would produce any melons but here it is all cute and yummy looking. 

We are now officially a little shy of 4 cleared acres of usable farm land. How awesome is that?!!!

This is the forestry tiller, this thing is freaking awesome. It eats whole trees like nothing. Very cool to watch. 

This is partially completed. I'll take some more tomorrow. 

The greenhouse is packed again!! The peppers are extremely happy to be back in here, they were a little cold outside. I hand pollinated all the new blooms the other day and they already have little baby peppers. 

Yummy peppers!!

There are loads of beautiful red long sweet peppers, they just haven't ripened yet. 

Well that's it for today. I will have much much more tomorrow!!

And the cycle begins again.

So i don't have any pictures today, mostly because my phone is being weird and won't connect to my computer.
Last week and this week so far have been crazy. My summer student is gone to school and i'm all by myself. Today was my first time picking and prepping for market by myself, it took me 8 hrs to get everything together.

The greenhouse is back in full swing, the peppers have gone back inside and i'll be planting for winter very shortly. I've found someone to help me during the winter so i'm beyond happy about that.

This summer has been rough, i feel like i just planted and now i'm covering everything with row covers. I learned a fair amount though, i learned mostly what not to do next year.

The company is coming on Friday to mulch and till and start prepping the expansion. I'm excited and exhausted by the entire thing. I'm secretly very excited for the snow to fall so i'm down to just a greenhouse again.

I've hired another student for next summer and hopefully Erin (my student from this summer) will be back. Erin was the greatest thing to happen to me all summer, she was a wonderful employee and i couldn't have pulled any of this off without her. She worked her ass off for me this summer and i can't thank her enough for all of her hard work. I really hope nothing changes and she comes back next summer.

That's it for now, hopefully my phone will upload pictures tomorrow.

I apologize for not updating recently.

I haven't really had anytime or all that much to say. Stuff is still growing, haven't had a frost, hail, tornadoes or the Apocalypse yet. I will have a fairly large update near the end of the week. 

Cheers!

Jelly making marathon, also some really fun recipes.

Today i finished canning the chokecherries, 8 hrs in the kitchen and another few hours picking up last minute supplies. I'm beyond pleased though! I made 102 jars of jelly and syrup! I burnt myself a few times and smashed my head really hard into the exhaust fan more than once but, it was totally worth it.
During our chokecherry picking adventures we discovered we have well over 30 trees, so i don't think my chokecherry canning adventures are over just yet. Also the cranberries are about to ripen and so the cycle starts all over again. It's a good thing that i like canning things.

Here's a few pictures to sweeten the deal. 

That's my new giant pot! It's changed my life. I love it. 

A bunch of jars of jelly!

I like to think of this as a forest of jelly. 

The jars are $6.00 each. If you can't make the market and would like to purchase some please call my cell phone at 705-465-3651.

I found some absolutely amazingly mouth watering recipes to use the jelly in. Here you go. I think you may want some jelly after reading these two recipes. 

Chokecherry-Glazed Pork Chops with Parmesan Polenta

§  2 pork chops

§  Salt and black pepper, to taste

§  2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

§  1 cup chicken broth

§  6 cloves garlic, minced, divided

§  2 shallots, minced, divided

§  1/3 cup finely ground corn meal

§  1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated 

§  1/4 cup dry red wine

§  1/4 cup chokecherry jelly 

§  1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Season pork chops with salt and pepper.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large, ovenproof saute pan until smoking hot. Add the chops and brown on both sides over high heat, about 2 minutes on each side.

Slide the pan into preheated 350-degree oven and bake until internal temperature of pork chops reaches 145 degrees, about 15 minutes.

While pork chops are cooking, prepare the polenta. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small saucepan. Saute half of shallots and half of garlic in the hot oil for 2 minutes. Add chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Slowly whisk in cornmeal, being careful mixture does not get lumpy. Cook the polenta over medium heat until the mixture is thick, just a few minutes. Add the cheese and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

Keep polenta warm while the pork chops finish up.

Remove pan of chops from the oven. Transfer chops to a plate and cover with foil. Add remaining shallots and garlic to pan and saute over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add red wine and boil until reduced by half. It will take just a minute or two. Add jelly and cracked pepper and stir until jelly melts. Put pork chops back in pan and turn to coat both sides with glaze. Remove from heat. Serve warm chops with polenta. Makes 2 servings.

(Souce: http://sdoeden.areavoices.com/2011/10/19/lean-pork-glazed-and-amazing/) 

Panko Pork Tenderloin with Chokecherry Mustard

Ingredients:          

4 Tbsp coarse Mustard, plus 2 Tbsp
4 Tbsp Chokecherry Jelly
1 cup Panko crumbs
2 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
2 pork tenderloins, about 1 lb each
Olive oil cooking spray
Sea salt
Freshly ground Black Pepper

Directions:

Place a rack near the bottom of the oven and preheat to 400ºF.

In a small saucepan, stir together 4 Tbsp of the Dijon mustard and all of the chokecherry jelly and heat briefly until gently bubbling. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Combine panko crumbs and fresh thyme. Season tenderloins with salt and pepper and generously brush with 2 Tbsp mustard. Press Panko crumb mixture onto the surface of the tenderloins.

Place the tenderloins side by side (but not touching!) in a roasting pan. Press more panko crumbs onto any areas that are not thoroughly covered. Spray the top lightly with olive oil.

Roast uncovered at 400ºF for 20 - 30 minutes. Remove from oven, cover with foil and let rest for 10 minutes.

Slice into ¾ inch thick medallions and serve at the table with chokecherry mustard.

(Source: http://www.earthy.com/Panko-Pork-Tenderloin-with-Chokecherry-Mustard-W715.aspx) 

I will also have recipe cards at market this weekend. 

It has stopped raining!!

So the forecast is called for sun all week! So by the looks of things we should have a good variety for market next weekend.
The corn is starting to sprout silks, the squash finally has large squash on it, the cucumbers are producing, and the pickling cucumbers are finally starting to vine out and bloom! I'm beyond happy.
The cold frames we built over the hot peppers are working extremely well, they are covered in blooms and have loads of peppers again. We should also have a very large crop of bell peppers very soon.
I'm spending the weekend making more chokecherry jelly and the cranberries are about to ripen.
Life is looking up!