On Tuesday it was the coldest yet, had a good hard frost in the night. As soon as it had warmed up, I went out to get what I could from the New Herb garden. L – R: 2 types of bee balm, marigolds, and marjoram.
My helper friend was here and he harvested the 4 pumpkins from the compost as the frost had killed the vine.
It was far too cold for me out there. He helped me get the unused freezer boxes and canning jars put away in the cellar then he headed out to the Big garden. I stayed inside and loaded dehydrator trays.
He took 2 totes and cleaned out the understory of the kale for the layers.
There are plenty of bugs on the mess underneath and the layers just love this stuff.
The hens already had their 2 totes of stuff for the day. We discussed pulling the summer squash vine but I decided to leave it to do on Wednesday. I’d take the squash to the birds then. The frost got the summer squash, but not so much the kabocha squash as it was under the overhang of the MacIntosh apple tree.
The last thing I had him do was clean out the carrot bed. There was a pathetic crop of carrots in it. I used over half of them to make beef stew for supper.
So except for harvesting the inside of the Big garden is done until everything is killed by cold. Next is to clean out the perimeter for the winter. It’s to be warmer on Wednesday and I hope to get started on this.
My husband was dx’d with a bad flare of arthritis and a pulled muscle in his back. So he’s still taking it easy. He decided to start preparations for hunting season. It starts in mid October and he wanted to get his new tree stand into the selected tree, with branches cut now.
So he spent the day putting it together, getting the pole saw running, and collecting various implements of destruction like arrow tips and a target. He and our son plan to put the stand up on Wednesday morning.
Not that we have had any rain, or have any hope of any in the future, but if we do, I am now prepared to see how much. This, like most of my decorations in the New Herb garden, will only be outside for a short while longer. The freezing isn’t good for most of them.
Garden looks great! So much kale. Have you tried it in an air fryer?
I don't have an air fryer, nor plans to get one. My favorite way to make it is torn up raw with a bit of dressing on it. Next favorite is kale chips with tahini dehydrated in the dehydrator.
I really need to get my kale dealt with. The bugs have hit them and I am not likely to get much for us. May just toss them to animals. I still have a couple pounds of dried kale in the pantry that we are using.
Kale chips are super good.
Kale chips are ADDICTIVE! LOL