Three nights in a row we were under a frost advisory for our area. The first two nights, we got down to 30 F, but, fortunately, it must not have been for long because the only damage was some burning on the squash and pumpkin leaves. The tomatoes, field peppers, corn, and potatoes were unaffected to a large part. Last night was the last night for the advisory. Fortunately, we only saw a low of 39. Whew! As we have way too much to even think about covering, all we could do is pray.
Yesterday, I seeded out another big batch of tomatoes, with the seeds in coffee mugs on the counter fermenting and the leftovers tomato parts in the oven, in a roasting pan. I’ll turn these into plain tomato sauce.
On Saturday, I canned up 12 quarts of chili from the last bunch of tomatoes I’d seeded plus garlic and peppers. One didn’t seal as some bit of something got under the seal. Darn, we had to eat it for dinner! As the high yesterday was only 45, it sure felt good going down.
We have a lot of ripe pumpkins in the North Garden. Today the girls at the Watering Can greenhouse in Cook called to see if they could come out and pick some. By 11, we were out loading nice orange pumpkins into their pickup. It’s always so much fun picking pumpkins! I’d grow them even if we didn’t sell them. I just love pumpkins!
— Jackie
