Last harvests of the year! Everything must go!
I planted carrots in late April, and we've been picking them all summer. Now it was time to pull the remaining. It made a much larger harvest than I was expecting.
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| Scarlet Nantes and Danvers Half-long |
Also time to pull the few leeks the voles let us have. Too bad, really, because we love leeks and use them a lot. Also found were some spring-planted onions that suddenly decided November was an awesome time to start growing.
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| King Richard leeks |
I tried growing turmeric and ginger for the first time this year. Both were planted in large pots. The ginger failed, but the turmeric grew to a nice plant. I harvested the roots this week, and saved some pieces to replant for next year.
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| Turmeric root |
The dehydrator has been busy, what with the carrots and the apples we picked a few weeks ago. The dried carrots are great for soups and stews and won't take up freezer space (I finally was able to empty the chest freezer in the barn and shut it down). The apples are for adding to oatmeal or Cream of Wheat (my favorite!), and also for fruit leather. The Kitchen Goddess also used the last of her canning jars to make apple pie filling.
In wildlife notes, we had a visit from a bear on Friday night, who knocked down both the front and back bird feeders. "Fortunately" it had been raining hard and the ground was super-saturated, so the poles were only uprooted and not bent beyond hope. He did destroy the suet feeders though. I know, you shouldn't feed birds when bears are active (March to December), but we love watching the birds on the feeders year round.
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| A visit from Mr. or Ms. Bear |
So no more harvests this year, and nothing to show in that department until maple syrup season in late winter. Thanks to all for reading my posts over the months, and to Dave at
HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.
I would just like to close by reminding all Americans to vote tomorrow! TKG and I will certainly be doing that, as well as serving once again as town election officials, making sure everyone's vote is counted, and all voters are treated with fairness and respect.
Those are some good looking carrots, that's so interesting that you dry them to use in soups. It's a great way to save freezer space. And it's very interesting that you grew turmeric, you got some nice roots there.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Phuong. Shutting down the 3rd freezer was a big accomplishment. I'm happy with the turmeric, but I think ginger would have been more useful.
DeleteWow, do you often have bears around your property? I saw some bear scat recently while out hiking but they are few and far between here and very reclusive. Sightings around here are very rare.
ReplyDeleteI dehydrate carrots too. Dried shredded carrots rehydrate to make a pretty decent carrot salad out on the trail. I also do a mix of dried carrots and brussels sprouts for another trail salad.
Those darn voles! They go for your leeks but not for the carrots?
There are bears here, but until now they've left us alone. I planted carrots, beets, and potatoes in the new metal stock tank planters, so they are vole-proof I guess, unlike last year where all those crops suffered in the plain raised beds.
DeleteI would love to have a go at growing ginger and turmeric so will try next year. Lots of carrots!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joy. I'll try ginger and turmeric next year as well.
DeleteA bear!! And we think we have issues with wild life visitors sometimes! IT's been a good year for carrots here too, but I never would have thought of drying them
ReplyDeleteYeah, why doesn't the bear just eat the voles?? Glad you had a good carrot year too.
DeleteIT's amazing you got turmeric and not ginger. Mine was the other way around a couple of years ago. Your carrot harvest is impressive. I haven't planted them in a couple of years after disappointing results. I'm with you on the dried apples - we love them here in oatmeal and steel cut oats, or just for snacking. And I am so thankful we don't have bears here!
ReplyDeleteIs your climate too warm for carrots? Here we are just on the cusp of rural/suburbia, so bears are not common but will venture in now and then. First time we've had a visit in 7 years.
DeleteHurray for a bumper crop of carrots - they are so sweet when harvested now. I don't live in bear country so didn't realize that you shouldn't feed the birds during bear season (makes sense, though). But that would only leave you with 2 months of the year...doesn't seem right!
ReplyDelete