Apple Picking and other Fall things...

Over Thanksgiving (second weekend in October here in Canada)

we spent the weekend with my mother and her man in Brighton.

Brighton is a fantastic place to be in the fall!

Historically, it's major industry was APPLES!

They have an Applefest celebration in September.

They block off the streets to showcase everything to do with apples.

Naturally, we thought this was the place to go apple picking!

Turns out it was a perfect day to pick apples and

Everyone else had the same idea too!

I love the shapes and colours of fall...every size, shape and colour of squash...

Get them now, for they store really well in a cool room most of the winter!

No hydro required.

The funky blue one is a Blue Hubbard squash...I'm seriously tempted to grow these things!

Of course the pick-your-own farms have the usual silliness for family entertainment...

I do love a good apple pun!

(get it...MACintosh apples...)

We love Macs because they are good for just about anything!

Pies, crisps, freezing, baking or just eating plain.

Cricklewood Farm also offered pick your own pumpkins!!!

But better still...they had PICK YOUR OWN FALL RASPBERRIES!

I had no idea such a thing existed...

So, of course we set out to pick one very large pint!

Super sweet...those cool nights does a berry good.

The last time I was at Cricklewood Farm with Owen, was an equally great weather day.

We did the enormous corn maze which changes every year.

The farm was NOT this busy though...but the staff handled it beautifully.

What a great place to stop and spend an afternoon!!!

Also, a guy showed up driving THIS...I was dying to steal it!

I highly recommend this place if you are even close to the area of Trenton or Brighton Ontario.

Stay tuned on a post dedicated to everything we did with 10lbs of apples!!!

Trellis Action...

So...a few weeks ago I was struggling with how to trellis my plants.

In my garden update post, I lamented that I had a short amount of time to

think about it...before it became a necessity.

I was able to come up with some completely free solutions!

Let's check them out...

PEAS

We planted two beds of peas...multiple rows in each bed.

One day, as I walked on the shores of Desert Lake, I came upon a driftwood log!

I used other sticks to support the driftwood and 

then laced craft wire to that it formed a teepee like trellis on both sides.

The craft wire was free because I had bought it many many many years ago.

It was for a rock jewelry business that I tried.

In the end it was a trellis for some old windows we got from the dump.

I carefully unhooked all of the wire...and repurposed it!

The second bed of peas had the same treatment...for I was shocked to time a second driftwood tree!

This tree was shorter...so I made up the difference with some broken old wire tomato cages.

The shot above is probably the best to see the wire...can you see it?

I got creative by the second trellis...attaching the log to a piece of firewood set in a mix of daisies and asters.

SQUASH

 

The squash trellis solution was actually Handsome Husband's idea!

I had already removed the wire from the dump-scavenged windows...

Ches said "Why don't we put them on pieces of wood?"

Works for me!

Above you can see how much the enjoy the partial shade on their roots...

and all of the climbing room on the windows!

The windows aren't actually that far off of the ground...only a few inches.

BEANS

The beans don't necessarily need a trellis...

but sometimes they fall over and you're scraping the dirt for your beans.

Not my idea of fun veggies...

So we built a cage of sorts!

The t-bars came from a family friend.

The wire was repurposed invisible fencing!!!

Can you believe we have dug up the equivalent of a whole spool on 

our property compliments of previous owners?

True story.

CUCUMBERS

Above is our trusty machine.

Its made of old t-bar and metal chain-link fence found at a former house we rented in Verona!

You pound the t-bars in on an angle and plant the seeds "under" the angle.

The plants grow up the chain link and voila!

Dirt free veggies!

It has been so successful in the past...beans, cukes...whatever trails!

PUMPKINS

I still haven't figured out what to do with the pumpkins...but they are filling in too quickly now

so I think I'll just leave them this year.

They seem to like the saddle-shaped lattice!

If you want more (way more!) trellis ideas...

you can now follow me on Pinterest!

(Psst I have a whole folder of trellis ideas!!!)

Once there, you can find all of my recipes and food photos in handy dandy folders too.

UPDATE: Garden 2014

So here is our garden for this year....

It's bigger!

It's badder!!

It's all ours!!!

Above is the plan we created while planting.

We used the "Carrots Love Tomatoes" plan and adjusted it where necessary.

Some plants we already had planted in other areas of the yard, so we

weren't able to adhere to it very strictly.

The above shots are of our red and white potatoes.

The metal bin at the back is actually filled with spare soil.

Potatoes need to be mounded as the get taller...so we save

some dirt for that purpose.

Red and white onions in the above shot.

Many jalapeno plants as some other hot peppers at the front.

Our field of tomatoes!

There are 24 plants in this area, some romas and some hertiage varieties.

While I am loving not hauling water, the tomatoes are not loving all the rain we've been having.

Can you see the leaves that are yellowing at the back?

Heritage white corn...we grew it last year and saved the seeds

for this year!  Looks like it worked!!!

(we found the wood under our pile of logs for the campfire...

nicely repurposed to keep the weeds down)

Directly to the left of the corn are our two sweet potato plants!

We tried growing sweet potatoes once in 2011...

it didn't turn out then...so we thought we'd try again!

The last time the plants spent the whole growing season just trying to grow leaves!

The bunnies thought the leaves were mighty tasty...so the plants never got a chance to grow tubers.

Our yellow zucchinis are starting out great!

The green zucchinis...not so much...

We dismantled a black composter...and filled them with dirt.

The sides have slots...so you don't have to worry about the plants drowning

in rain water!  Score!

Our pumpkins...with one sad trellis...

I have to get me some T bars and do these

trellis thingies right!

The radishes are coming along...

The beets are shy.

We planted dill with them (as per the book)

and the dill likes the bed...

NOW WAKE UP BEETS!!!

Our cucumber machine makes its triumphant return.

We had such a great year with cukes last year.

We're taking a small break and only planted about a dozen of them this year.

Our kale seems to love it here!

The swiss chard on the left hand side of the bed...not so much.

I want to make kale chips so badly...

mainly so I can see what all the hype is all about...

\

Above shows our salad bar!

We have 5 different packs of lettuce and salad greens sprinkled

in this bed.  We forgot almost instantly what kinds we planted...but does it really matter?

SALADS!

Our spinach bed is pretty pathetic right now...

Hopefully it will make a come back...

or a decent fall crop from a second planting...

We have 2 rows of peas this year...cuz why not?

No seriously...we love peas.  

Especially sitting in the garden eating them straight out of the pod.

Each year we plan to store some in the freezer...and sometimes we actually do!

This year I am determined to get a whole large freezer bag full!

We also have to get to work on trellises (or is it trelli!?) for these peas.

Pea plants have a tendency to fall over and grow in the dirt.

We saved beans from last years crop.

We have no idea which beans are which...

but in this bed are green, yellow and purple wax beans.

Finally we have our acorn squash.

Again with the sad trellis...

So I've been pinning a TON of trellis ideas.

I will be posting soon with the results of my adventures into trellising.

(Trellising?  I have no idea...but you'll see some cool stuff for sure!)

I have to admit...last year we didn't plan much.
In fact, I made the mistake of having a few libations while planting seeds.
The result was that I had no idea what I planted and where.
(Laugh all you like)
It was a surprise when everything started growing...which was funny for about a week.
(oh who are we kidding...I'm still getting ribbed for that!!!)


Don't forget to send me your garden love!
I want you to post photos of YOUR gardens on my facebook group and page.
Lets celebrate our accomplishments together!!!

This years pumpkins went far...

We went all out this year with pumpkins.

Fortunate as we seem to be...we came into a bunch of pumpkins.

FREE!

So this year's haul of pumpkin products feels like gold even more!

Let's start with the initial process...

ROASTING.

You wash the outside of the pumpkin and pat dry.

Using a large knife, slice the pumpkin in half.

Scoop out the stringy bits and separate the seeds into a colander.

Cut the remaining hunks of pumpkin into smaller pieces.

Set pumpkin pieces in a roasting pan, skin side out.

Add a bunch of water to the pan and roast at 400 degrees for about 60 mins.

Take pieces out and place in a big mixing bowl until they cool.

Scoop out the flesh into containers.

Blend in food processor if desired...mainly for texture.

Repeat until the entire veggie is reduced to pumpkin skin resting nicely in your compost bucket.

The seeds can be roasted...

Toss seeds in oil or cut a few pieces of butter and spread around a pan of seeds and some cracked salt.

Bake at 350 degrees for 60 mins or until brown and crispy.

The flesh can be used in so many delicious ways!

Here is what we managed to make out of a few jack o lanterns still kicking around...

Pumpkin spice muffins freeze really well and can be reheated in under 30 sec in a microwave.

It is a seriously economical recipe, as long as you already have the spices in the pantry.

Creamy Spicy Pumpkin Soup was an afterthought.

I was spooning the flesh out into containers for freezing.

The inevitable happened...I had a half full container.

So soup it was!

This soup recipe is great...it has a spicy kick due to the curry and cayenne.

I had a tablespoon of cream cheese left over so I added it!

The spicy and creamy were perfect compliments.

I garnished the soup with roasted pumpkin seeds...crunchy!

For even more yummy recipes, head on over to my friend Sam of the lovely Ravels & Tangles blog!

She's seriously obsessed with pumpkin...you'll see...

Pumpkin smoothie, pumpkin earle grey latte and pumpkin mac n cheese!!!

What to do with a pumpkin?

Halloween is over....sigh...

And what are you to do with the pumpkins you bought?

Perhaps they were for the kids to carve out...perhaps just a fall themed decoration?

Well I'm here to help you decide what to do with these enormous squashes!

First you take the pumpkins and wash the exterior of nicely...pat dry.

Chop off the stem and slice in half.

The next part should be easy...gut the gourd just like you would if you were carving a pumpkin!

Reserve the seeds in a separate container.

(To save time, have 2 bins going...one for guts and one for mostly seeds)

The flesh of the pumpkin is soft, but its coated in a slimy, sinuey substance.

Scrape this substance off with a big metal spoon and discard.

The flesh is now ready for roasting.

Place the pieces, inside down, on a deep roasting dish with some water.

Bake at 325 degrees for about an hour or until the flesh is mushy and soft.

Use a metal spoon to carve the flesh away from the deep orange rind.

You can portion the flesh out for future use.

Spoon mush into 1 cup cups and freeze in a freezer bag.

Or you can just spoon the flesh into a large container and freeze the whole thing.

You can opt to use a food processor to blend the mush further before freezing if you wish.

(If you blend the mush, it becomes very tricky to get it to stay in the 1 cup forms until frozen)

Use this mush when ever it calls for canned pumpkin.

Use in baking muffins, loaves or pies.

Whatever you do, it is a very healthy vegetable!  Loaded with iron, fibre, vitamin A & C and actually contains calcium...

If you prefer roasted pumpkin, skip the whole roasting process and cleave flesh from rind raw.

Chop into 1 inch cubes and freeze in large freezer bags.

Roast later with other root vegetables for a great winter side dish!

For a list of 10 intriguing pumpkin recipes, check out this link to Food.com

http://www.food.com/slideshow/seasonal-eats-46/spicy-roasted-seeds-4#./whoopie-pies-1?&_suid=135238663053102653393943930793

A fantastic use for pumpkins is the seeds!!!

Take the container you used for the seeds and rinse the seeds very well.

Take care to remove all orange and stringy bits.

Let seeds soak for a bit in the fresh cold water.

Spread out on a baking sheet or stone.

Add 2-3 tbsp of butter or marg and a bunch of grinds of coarse salt.

You can use parchment paper under if you wish.

Bake at 300 degrees for approx 45 mins (if you use a stone, it will be sooner!)

Just keep checking on them every now and again, giving a stir along the way.

What you have is a great snack that is loaded with fibre, vitamin E and manganese!

You can also adjust the taste of this snack just by sprinkling on a different spice...

Try these:

-garlic powder

-onion powder

-cayenne pepper

-chili powder

-cinnamon & brown sugar

Alternatively, you can also switch up the taste by using other seeds like squash or sunflower.

How do you like your pumpkin?