Fall Garden

We have had a lovely long Indian Summer here, with the next 10 days forecasted to be mid-60s and no frost in sight! We planted a bunch of fall crops at the beginning of August, and are starting to reap great results. While the summer tomatoes and raspberries are slowing down, we are pulling in lots of fall wax beans, greens, and the winter radishes are starting to get huge! Still waiting on carrots and beets to mature a bit, but looking forward to a few more weeks of fresh garden produce, as our farmers' markets have all ended for the season.

Anyone else have a fall garden?

Plenty of kale, spinach and lettuce to go along with the tomatoes and eggplant which are still bearing some fruit. We are far enough South that we usually have Kale and spinach through the Winter. Last year, with the polar vortex, being a notable exception.
Thanks for the reminder that we probably have some kale ready for harvest.

In this neck of the woods fall gardens are dangerous. Having said that we were supposed to have our first frost last night. So, over the past two days I cleaned out the garden. All except for the parsley and basil in planters on the deck. I wasn't concerned about the parsley as it can take temps almost as low as rosemary, but the basil is a good indicator. What we still had was pretty much gone anyway. A check this morning revealed the basil was still alive!

[Jenise]

Nope! I actually harvested 8 sungold cherry tomatoes yesterday, but that's just because we haven't had a serious frost yet. Way things go up here, not something I could have planned on, though. All the other tomatoes petered out already--I put up two quarts of kosher green tomato pickles with the last from the big plants.

Nothing left in the garden but parsley now. There would have been chives, but I got this bright idea to clean up my husband's shop space by emptying over a dozen partial bottles of bottled water (hubby's an accumulator, tends not to throw things away as he goes) onto the chives during a brief dry spell, and one of those bottles actually held not water but some oily petroleum product that literally killed the patch. How was I supposed to know?

Nope! I actually harvested 8 sungold cherry tomatoes yesterday, but that's just because we haven't had a serious frost yet. Way things go up here, not something I could have planned on, though. All the other tomatoes petered out already--I put up two quarts of kosher green tomato pickles with the last from the big plants.

Nothing left in the garden but parsley now. There would have been chives, but I got this bright idea to clean up my husband's shop space by emptying over a dozen partial bottles of bottled water (hubby's an accumulator, tends not to throw things away as he goes) onto the chives during a brief dry spell, and one of those bottles actually held not water but some oily petroleum product that literally killed the patch. How was I supposed to know?

Sad about the chives! Do you have a green tomato pickle recipe you particularly like? When our vines die, we usually have a big fried green tomato party to use up the big ones, but haven't figured out what to do with the green cherries yet.

[Jenise]

Joy, I use Daniel Rogov's recipe, it's somewhere on this site. Garlic, a tblsp of vinegar, salt and water go into each jar, essentially, though I throw in a few dried red chiles. Btw, did not have luck with cherries myself the one time I tried. But they were yellow pear shaped, and probably softer/thinner walled than several others. A thicker walled cherry might work out quite well. I use bigger tomatoes, halved.