Well, it finally happened — Thursday night it froze. David came over in the afternoon after his college course was finished and helped Will cover what we could, hoping to save at least a portion of our tomatoes and peppers. At six p.m. it was 42 degrees. By nine, it had dropped to 38 and the clouds had moved out, leaving it as clear as a bell. Not good!
We woke early to 28 degrees and heavy frost. Too cold to even run the sprinklers to offset frost. Bummer. And even covering the crops did not completely save them, as many plants were limp and dark.
The squash and pumpkin vines were limp and dead and even the sweet corn stalks were toast.
I feel especially bad because I’m recovering from my gallbladder surgery a week ago, and couldn’t even get out to pick what I could to ripen later in the house, as I always do. (One more reason to have at least two years’ worth of food canned in your pantry.)
Friday I pecked away at it a bit at a time (can’t lift much and sure get tired quickly).
Will pitted our last 19 pounds of wild plums as several people have asked if they could buy pits. Then he put the flesh in the Mehu Liisa and juiced it. We ended up with a gallon and half of plum juice which I’ll can up to make jelly later on, when I get time. While he was doing that, I made a big batch of enchilada sauce with the tomato puree Will cranked out with our Victorio tomato strainer. We were almost out of enchilada sauce so now we’re stocked up much better with 15 pints.
Even though a lot of our tomatoes were killed, the heavy leaves on many of the plants did protect some tomatoes so we’ll be able to harvest quite a few to finish saucing and saving seeds. — Jackie
So sorry to hear about the frost, Jackie.
We froze out – 23 – 26 degrees – the same night. The Punta Banda tomatoes survived covered up, with just a touch of frozen leaves. They are amazing. We had a very difficult spring so none of my winter squash produced a crop. My Hopi Pale Grey squash vines produced just one squash, and it was a long way from ripe when the vine froze. I steamed a slice to try it out. Tasted just like the little scallop squash. I often wonder just as Diana said how the pioneers survived – but where I live a lot of them did starve, or died from typhoid, alkali in the water
Brenda,
Check the next blog for two enchilada sauce recipes. Every so often I’m asked for a recipe and think “Oh oh, I forgot to include that in Growing and Canning!” Hey, I can A LOT!!!! lol
I lost all my squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, and corn that has not been picked. But the tomatoes that got snowed on before the freeze that were covered faired fairly well. Sorry you lost do much. I had shoulder surgery three years ago and had a rough time putting up my harvest. Only had one arm/hand to use and tired easily. Just pace yourself and rest when you can. What is your enchilada sauce recipe? I have the Growing and Canning book 1st edition and can not find it in there. Thanks get well soon.
Aw so sorry you got this frost/freeze at a lousy time. Wish we lived closer so we could have helped!
My garden got nipped by the frost. I only lost one watermelon vine, but everything else had black patches in the leaves here and there. So many things are *almost* ripe, I’m praying the weather warms up for a couple more weeks!
what a bummer …that frost could not come at a worse time for you….here in Arizona we had rain and more rain and we are getting some more this week. We did not get rain when we needed it and then it all came at once… Yes it just reminds us to stock up and can when we can.I hope you fell better soon Jackie and thank god for Will and David.
Didn’t get quite as cold here (Colo. Springs) as at your place, but my squash plants are all wilted over and turning black. Everything was pretty much done anyway other than a zillion tomatoes to ripen and they weathered the cold ok. I sometimes wonder how pioneers didn’t starve when their food supplies were dependent on the weather. Ah, the joys of homesteading….
Comments are closed.