October kept us busy with harvesting; tidying up for the winter (storing plant supports, mulching, composting, and more); and of course sharing, storing, and eating some of our harvest. As demonstrated in an earlier post, we had a bumper crop of Two-Inch Strawberry Popcorn this year, and it's always fun to experiment and see when it's ready to pop. It needs to have the proper moisture content, because it is the expansion of the water in the kernel that causes it to explode when heated. Too much or too little moisture, and you won't get the fluffy, crunchable snack we all know and love. We harvested our popcorn in mid-September, and tried our first pop on October 2. Here are the results of that pop, as well as subsequent pops on October 9 and 23: |
We also enjoyed the wildlife that still populated the garden, and we wondered what critters like grasshoppers and caterpillars would do when it froze.
The Cabbage White butterfly looks so pretty and innocent, but its caterpillars wouldn't leave our kale and cabbage alone! They thrive on plants from the Brassica family. We picked them off by the handful! However, if you're looking for a soft and cuddly pet and you don't like broccoli, this might be the critter for you! |
Have you ever seen such itty bitty snails?
We had a bountiful late-autumn harvest; the garden was so beautiful, seeming to be at its peak of loveliness about the time it started frosting!
In spite of our late planting last year - as in, the ground was already mostly frozen - we had a surprisingly decent garlic harvest. (Unfortunately, I forgot to label which kind of garlic was planted in which bed, so we now have three mystery types.) After digging it and allowing it to cure, we trimmed off the stalks and roots and cleaned it up for storage. The biggest bulbs we saved for replanting. |
Buckets o' greens and peppers: