The days are getting shorter, there’s a chill in the air, the jeans/sweaters/boots are coming out, and the garden is slowly getting cleaned out… That can only mean one thing…. IT’S FALL Y’ALL!! In case you don’t know me, or haven’t read any of my previous blog posts, fall is my favorite season!! Although I love seeing all the new sprouts coming up in the garden in the spring, like seeing the garden all cleaned out in the fall. It is a feeling of accomplishment from all the hard work of planting, harvesting and putting up for the coming year.
While much of my garden is cleaned out already, I still have a few things in the garden. As long as they are going to continue to give me produce, I’m going to let them go until the frost kills them, and this week I was able to get quite a picking of veggies.
This year was my first time doing a second planting of peas, and I wasn’t sure how they would turn out planting them in the warm dirt…however, I got quite the picking yesterday! They seem to be doing great, and I still have quite few blossoms on the plants. Hopefully, that means I will have another picking or two left from them.
As worried as I was about the slow start to my tomatoes, even with the weather turning cold, my tomato plants are still producing. They are definitely slowing down, but I was still able to get a good picking from them. We are going to try canning homemade tomato soup with this batch.
In a previous post, I wrote how my pepper plants were looking great, but I was not getting any peppers…well, that has changed! I was able to pick poblano, jalapeno and a couple bell peppers! The kids have been asking for me to make jalapeno poppers, so this round of peppers will be turned into poppers and put in the freezer. I’m not sure what will be done with all the poblanos. I loved stuffed poblano peppers, so I may do that with some (although I think I’m the only one who will eat them). HAHAHA
My first picking of corn this year didn’t seem to do well. The stalks all stayed really short, and we only got a few ears of corn off of our 4 short rows. The rest of the corn got some kind of fungus. I planted corn a second time, and it seems to be doing a lot better! The stalks are taller than last time, and the ears of corn seem to be getting bigger than the first batch.
While I was in the mood to harvest some veggies, I took the opportunity to pick some herbs as well. I picked basil again, got it washed, dried out, and put in a jar to use through the rest of the year. Truth be told, I have been putting off cutting my rosemary. I hated the task of tying the rosemary and hanging it to dry. I don’t know why, it isn’t difficult. But I just dreaded that chore. However, I found a game changer!!! I don’t have a dehydrator, but I have been drying my parsley and basil in the oven, and after doing some searching, I found how to dry rosemary in the oven!! Why is it a game changer??? Hanging the rosemary to dry can take weeks to months to dry out (depending on weather and humidity), but drying it in the oven only takes 2 hours. I gave it a shot last night, and VICTORY! In my option, it works even better than hanging to dry. And, with all the drying of herbs last night, my house smelled amazing! Double win!
I hope everyone had a blessed start to the fall season! Dig out those sweaters/sweatshirts and boots…it’s time to get cozy with this crisp weather!! <3 I’d love to hear from you!! What is some of your favorite things to do with peppers? Have a blessed week!!!