Even we are amazed and, I’ll admit, somewhat daunted. (In our garden we planted 108 tomato plants.) A few days ago, frost was predicted and we went into hyperdrive. And, because of our little seed business, we had to not only pick ripe tomatoes but also keep them separate and labeled. Whew! Will figured he picked more than 400 pounds and in two days, I’m sure I also picked that many. And there are tons of tomatoes in various stages of ripening still on the vines.
Yep, we did get a frost, but the temp was only 31 degrees so it didn’t hurt us much. It did burn about half of the leaves on the squash and pumpkins and just a very few top tomato leaves but we felt so blessed to have missed severe freezing! I did get up at 4 AM to start our irrigation pump on the overhead sprinklers. We’ve found that watering in the early morning seems to save plants that otherwise would freeze (if the temp is not too low).
We had a visit yesterday by our oldest son Bill and our grandkids, my sister Sue, and nephew Sean, and a neighbor Ervin, from our old neighborhood, down on the farm near Sturgeon Lake. We were real surprised to see Ervin pile out of Bill’s truck! Our families were very close; his kids and mine were good friends and the two families hayed together for years. What a fun day! We picked some tomatoes and the grandkids helped pull carrots for Bill to take home to can. (I did get a little carried away with the carrots this year; two 50′ rows and boy are they productive! Bill got 2 five-gallon buckets full and we only picked about ten feet of row.) We got a big kick out of 3-year-old Ava, and Mason, her “big” brother pulling carrots. They would have gladly pulled the whole two rows.
Luckily, our temperatures have warmed up and there is no frost in the forecast for at least a week. That’ll give us more time to pull tomatoes, finish ripening some crops and let me seed more tomatoes on the front porch. (Boy, do we ever use our front porch!) — Jackie
I am so jealous! I had to destroy out initial planting of tomatoes due to mosaic (ugh!!) Zucchini too. We replanted a few tomatoes and they are still green.
Lisa,
So sorry to hear you have THE fall cold. They’re horrible. I hope you get well soon so you can enjoy the fall weather. When we lived really remote up on the mountain in Montana and David was little, everyone worried about “what happens if you get sick???”. None of us ever was….until we moved to “civilization” in New Mexico and were around folks a lot more.
Deb Motylinski,
I love those root crops too! Our parsnips are getting big and the rutabagas are sizing up great out on the new corn/pumpkin patch. I can’t wait! I wish you had some of my carrots too! I have this feeling we’ll be eating a lot of carrots this winter. Not such a bad thing…..
Linda Bee,
Not only am I canning but taking seed from tomatoes and muskmelon like mad. Whew~~
Deborah Harvey,
Our beavers say it’s going to be an early winter with plenty of snow but not so terribly cold. (Remember that these are northern Minnesota beavers and you readers in other areas may have different weather….)
Tomatoes look gorgeous! Been making salsa, paste, sauce and whole for the last week or so, but battling this awful Fall cold generously given to me from my son! Got to love when school starts!! Glad you are having a great harvest season and the frost was a ‘gentle’ one. Here’s hoping for a couple more weeks of nice tamps for you!
Lisa
WOw, you and Will are really reaping the harvest of all your hard work! An inspiration to all of us. I am looking forward to the new seed varieties you will be offering this spring. I love root crops best of all and had some parsnips yesterday that I used in a pot of beef soup. Wish I had some of your carrots too. The pictures are wonderful. I so enjoy seeing the huge harvest.
What a beautiful harvest. If we don’t hear from you for a while, we understand that your probably canning in overdrive.
beaver update?
Comments are closed.