Harvest is about finished

When the sun came out this morning after a full week of drizzly, nasty weather, we did a happy dance. I pulled our parsnips (in the rain) and canned them up yesterday. We had a good crop but something strange happened this year. They were not long and skinny; but turnip-shaped and had many roots, looking like aliens from Mars! We figure it was a combination of planting them where the ground was pretty heavily manured and where the run-off from our big hoop house frequently soaked the row. Luckily, despite the weird shapes, they were still tender and tasty. Now we have dozens of pints of parsnips ready to go into the pantry. Yum!

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This year, we tried a San Felipe pumpkin that we really liked. Being a C. pepo, we could grow it in our garden along with Hopi Pale Grey, a C. maxima, without having them cross. We loved the shape and color along with the deeper ribbing. Just like the old pumpkins our ancestors grew in the cornfields. When I opened them to extract the seeds, I was happy to notice the fragrant smell and deep orange color. The seeds were nice too and would make wonderful roasted pumpkin seeds. A definite keeper for next year!

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Good news!

“Winter of the Wolves,” the third book in the Jess Hazzard series, has been scheduled for release on December 1st. You can order an advance copy for immediate delivery here: http://bit.ly/1Wjt9G3 . (If you haven’t yet read these fast-moving adventure stories, you don’t know what you’re missing.

If you’re a Kindle reader, you can pre-order it for Dec. 1st delivery here: http://amzn.to/1MWc4rv.

And if you can wait until mid-November, you can order the print edition direct from the publisher and save 10% – 20% (with complimentary bookmarks) here: http://bit.ly/1ivfp8s .

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Happy reading. I hope you enjoy it! — Jackie

8 COMMENTS

  1. Erin,

    Yep you can order from me but like I told Rick, it would be faster to get it through Amazon or Mason Marshall Press as I won’t get my copies until later on in the ball game.

  2. zelda,

    Yes, I know all of that. I planted the parsnips as a “well I have a space, I’ll tuck in a row of parsnips”. We always add manure in the fall, and it is well rotted then. But Will got a little generous with it and you see what happens. We definitely have rocky soil but have picked truckloads out so it’s not very rocky any more. Our carrots are straight…mostly. But the weird parsnips did can up and taste great anyway. No carrot flies nor root knot nematodes here. Thank goodness.

  3. Rick,

    Sure, you can order from me. But it’s faster to get it through either Amazon or Mason Marshall Press. You can then send it on to me for signing if you’d like. Either way I’m happy to have you as a Jess Hazzard fan!

    The two of us won’t be hunting this year. We’ve got a steer to butcher this month and the deer had a hard time, the winter before last so we’re giving them a break to recuperate. David will be hunting though so we may end up with some venison anyway. He usually comes up with a deer. And all of us certainly watch out for the “other” hunters. Luckily we live in the middle of nowhere and few hunters venture here.

  4. Hi Jackie,
    Oh YAY! SO looking forward to book # three! Could I order an autographed copy directly from you?
    As always, I appreciate these wonderful blogs and photos, as well as your articles and column in the Backwoods Home magazine. Your experience and knowledge passed on to the rest of us is invaluable. Thank you. Erin Porter

  5. When that happens to carrots it’s usually caused by too much nitrogen in the soil, usualy from manuring but it can also happen with fertilizer or with runoff from another heavily fertilized area. Nitrogen is very mobile in the soil. And you mentioned that the soil they grew in was heavily manured. Manure for root crops is best applied in the early fall and left to decompose over at least one winter before the soil is used for crops. Nitrogen can also contaminate surface and groundwater if it is applied at a rate in excess of what plants can use. Rocky soil and carrot fly and root knot nematode can also cause multiple roots.

  6. Ms Jackie, I am so excited that Winter of the Wolves has a release date!!!! I plan to direct order my copy from you unless you tell us not to do so.

    Was wondering if you and Will plan to hunt big game this year…I hope you are immensely successful if yo choose to go. Watch out for the crazies who can’t tell a calf from an elk, or what ever. Rick

  7. Looking forward to the newest book! Loved the other two, have them on my Kindle.
    That is sure some weird-looking parsnip! When we grew them here in Maine we left them in the ground all winter and dug them up in the spring. Nice and sweet.

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