Rings around the Moon.

With the nights getting cooler and temperatures dropping in general, we are seeing lots of neat changes; the leaves, the yard and even in the sky. This past Monday night, we went outside to take a look at an enormous ring around the moon. Pretty intense sight and I tried my best to get a picture of it. It ends up that this
ring is a relatively common and is the result of the moonlight being refracted by upper atmospheric ice crystals. These ice crystals dissipate quickly so the rings are often only seen for a short period of time.

With a good stretch of cold nights, the garden is 90% finished for this year. I will have to start ripping out the tomato plants and pepper plants. We've harvested almost 90% of the edible radishes; with Jen's comments that they are starting to get "woody", the rest will come out as well. The only thing left will be the beets and I plan to let them go for another month or so. Once the bottom bed is cleared, I can start building the second retaining wall and replacing the broken garden gate and fence. I am still undecided on replacing the gate with a gate and arbor combination. I guess I will make that decision when I have the time to start it and the money to pay for it. It should only cost about $100 in lumber for everything.

Magnolia Tree Seed Pod (found by Jen)

I received my Seed Savers Exchange seed garlic this week. I am going to try to plant three varieties for our use but also to re-list them in the SSE 2009 yearbook. I have not a clue of what I am doing nor the best place to plant it so this is going to be one big experiment. I hope to have it in the ground this weekend. One potential place for it would be the new planting bed I am getting ready in my front side yard. I would also like to put potatoes, peppers and radishes in this bed in the spring. The only hurdle is that I need about 3 hours to finish getting the bed ready (removing the grass, adding peat and manure, top dressing it with mulch) and I am not feeling it today.

There has been a continuation of the indoor things that are happening to prepare us for winter as well as just finishing up the small started-but-unfinished projects around the house. The list of things started to get a little crazy as you can see from the picture (that is just Sunday's list). Seems that the little things sure add up quick and they also make a mess of vacation; I need a vacation from my vacation. Needless to say, 90% of the work is done, small polishing things left to finish up and we are settled in ready for the winter.

Food Harvested:
Radishes

Things Planted:
Garlic
Transplanted grasses

Seeds Saved:
Daylillies
Jen saved Magnolia...very odd looking.

Preserved/Cooked:
Whole Chicken
Repeat of the lamb shanks

Things to Remember:
1. Tomato seeds to be started inside in Feb
2. Peppers to be started with Tomatoes
3. Peppers will need small cages or support
4. Garlic to be planted in up front bed with potatoes and radishes

Tomatoes Galore

Tomatoes are starting to come in now. Seems that they are about 2-3 weeks behind most other people's plants. I think I need to not winter SOW the seeds but start them indoors in Feb. and let them get some size before I transplant. The plant sizes are now mostly slowing down in growth and topping off at about 7 or 8 feet for most of them. So far, the best tasting tomato has been the Marglobe and Purple Cherokee. The Black Krim was good but a little bland, the black cherries were not as sweet as I would have wished but the yellow cherries are a huge hit with the kids. Although Jen is not much of a fan of Cherries, I will grow them for the kids every year, maybe even two plants. Their appetite for tomatoes is insatiable.

The radishes sprouted (both white icicle and red globe) and I also just noticed the Chioga Beets starting as well. Nothing for the carrots or the golden beets. With the Chioga starting as quickly as they did, I am not so quick to blame myself for doing something wrong. Once the garden starts to finish up, I think I have decided to buy some 4x4's and build up the upper bed to better define the walkway. Eventually I can do the same to the bottom bed and have a fully defined walkway where I can lay weed barrier and nice stone. I have to make sure Sam the Scarecrow is OK with it first though.

Jen and I discovered the Summit Farmer's Market which is 10x better than Scotch Plains and Westfield. There are about 10 vendors including fresh seafood, local beef /lamb/poulty, local cheese and the kids favorite, a pickle vendor. This past Sunday was our second time going and we managed to plan meals relatively well. We ate two local meals where nothing came from out of the state (except butter, sea salt, butter and olive oil). We have been eating a lot of red beets, chard and fresh eggs all from here.


Oven Baked Sea Scallops:

• 1lb Sea Scallops (about 12-15 scallops)
• 4 Tbsp melted butter
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large shallots, chopped
• 2 pinches ground nutmeg
• dash of salt
• 1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan Cheese (optional)
• Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Clean, dry and place scallops in a bowl. Add melted butter, garlic, salt and nutmeg and scallops and mix. Place in baking dish arranging to one layer. In a separate bowl, mix breadcrumbs, cheese (optional) and enough oil to see it START to clump (about 4 Tbsp). Pour evenly over the scallops and place dish in the oven for 45 minutes or until the breadcrumbs are browned.

Food Harvested:
Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes
Lemon Cukes

Things Planted:
Nothing

Preserved/Cooked:
Carrot Cake
String Bean Salad
Local Sea Scallops

Seeds Saved:
Nick's Yellow Cherry Tomato
Black Cherry Tomato

Things to Remember:
1. Use 4x4 to clean up the edges of the garden
2. DO not plant so heavily on the cukes
3. Move the tomatoes to the higher part of the bed
4. Tomatoes need more spacing

Scarecrow Sam

With Jen wanting a clothes line for the last few years and no real place to put a temporary one, I finally went to Home Depot for the 4x4's and pulleys for a permanent one. Charlotte and I spent about an hour getting different things and when we got home, Jack came running to the gate to tell me that I had to go pick something in the garden. To my surprise, Jack led me by the hand and introduced me to Sam the Firefighting Scarecrow. I think he will be a recurring permanent fixture in the garden. I particularly like the fire boots, fire hat, pearls and silver necklaces. He however did scare the bejesus out of me when later I was digging, bumped into him as I caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye; I really though it was someone in the garden with me!!

Tomatoes are starting to come in. Got our first Marglobe which the kids promptly split for lunch and a Black Krim. The Cherry Tomatoes are starting to come in regularly and Jen decided to try her hand at photography.....Next Year I want to try some different staking methods without cages. The cages became too much and were way too small. Most of the plants especially the Black Cherry and Nick's Yellow Cherry are approaching 8 feet tall and the Mortgage Lifter and Italian Market Wonder need much more support as they are prolific producers so far.

Fall planting from my understanding should happen about 6 weeks prior to the first frost. Since that would be now, I returned that upper half of the garden, flattened out the rows, removed all weeds and planted more like a square foot gardening method. I replanted the rest of the Icicle Radishes, heirloom carrots, golden beets as well as picking up chioga beets and organic red globe radishes. This will be my first attempt at fall cropping and square foot gardening methods so we'll see.

Last weekend Jen was not feeling great again. She decided to man-up and we took the kids peach picking. It is the beginning of the season in NJ so the only peaches ready were donut peaches. These are small but packed with flavor. Jack and Charlotte managed to pick just over 10 lbs in less than 30 minutes. Since they were not 100% ripe, into a paper bag they went for 2 days. The end result, I am sick of peaches but I managed to cook a peach pie that Jen and the kids loved.

Peach Pie

• Pie Dough - enough for a top and bottom
• 5 cups skinned and sliced peaches
• 2 Tblsn Lemon Juice
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tblsn butter
  
  In a bowl, mix all dry ingredients. Toss the peaches with the lemon juice to coat then with the dry ingredients. Turn into a pie crust. Break butter into bits placing on top. Cover with second pie crust and place little slits to allow steam to escape. Place into a 450 deg. preheated oven for 10 minutes then reduce heat to 350. Cook for 40-45 minutes or until bubbling. Let cool completely before serving.

New format for me stealing some ideas from other blogs I follow. To help me when I go back to older posts and as a reminder:

Food Harvested:
Cherry Tomatoes, Sultan Beans, Last of the Squash

Things Planted:
Golden Beets, Chioga Beets, Icicle Radishes, Red Globe Radishes, St Viceroy Carrots

Things Preserved/Cooked:
Peach Pie

Seeds Saved:
Yellow Yarrow, Harbinger Peas

Things to Remember:
1. Thinning of all things is required. I did not believe in this in the spring and I got very few small carrots, radishes and beets.
2. Prepare for larger tomato plants than your 3 foot cages will support.
3. Weed, Weed, Weed. Letting it go will allow it to overtake your garden
4. Start seeds for Toms and Peppers earlier - like January indoors.

Blueberry Picking

Well, yesterday was blueberry picking. We tried a new place much closer to home, Hillview Farms in Gillette. With Jen still feeling the same, I was hoping being so close to home would make it easier. Didn't start out too well as Jen felt pretty bad but by the time we got there, her medicine kicked in.

We picked up our baskets and walk across the street to the "bobbing heads". Sounded a little funny. We walked through some planted rows (about an acre's worth) and I was completely amazed, 6'-7' tall blueberry bushes, rows and rows....each row probably 500' long.

Although there was complete excitement on Jack and Charlotte's part, there was a calm that sort of came over us, a distinct mission at hand. Charlotte ate every berry that she picked over the hour or so of picking, Jack needed to fill up his pail entirely by taking mine, Jen had the determination and patience to pick only the very ripest, roundest and largest of the millions of berries around us and I was just plain happy, something about being outside picking right from the bush has had more and more of a draw for me than ever before.

I am probably going to register for Margret Noon's library talk on Slow Food.org. I did quite a bit of research and is seems to be focused on local, sustainability, etc... concepts that I am feeling more and more strongly about. There is so much to know, so much out there, and even with what Jen and I already know, I feel like we are in the dark.

The garden overall is going well. the Sultan Beans are now ripe and I picked the first few, the picking cukes are now starting as well, 3-4 every other day. No Slicing or lemon cukes though. Zuc's and Squash have take off and I now need to figure out how to freeze, store, cook more than I care to admit. Knowing that there would be a lot per plant, I only planted two of each but it seems these 4 plants are producing more than any other plant I have ever had or seen.

Tomatoes are growing well. As are the beets. I picked my first beet and I now think I can pick all of them as I wish. Since these are root crops, I will leave them in the ground until I am ready to use them. I am thinking about a recipe that Cheryl mentioned, Roasted Fennel and Beets. Sounds good.....need to try that. There are many more green tomatoes but none turning. My only problem is one of the Black cherry plants next to the house is skyrocketing in size to almost 7', wilting and I had to stake it today.