garden attempts 2014

You can also skin them, cut them into chunks and freeze those to make sauce later. My pattypan squash is having one last fling.

I was thinking of making some sauce for lowcarb lasagna....the recipe I pulled up on the computer calls for fresh tomatoes.

Sounds good and it should freeze well.

Now to find some freezer space....mine is so small and usually full of ingredients like chicken, salmon, pea pods, leftover mozzarella and pizza sauce (since I don't use the whole container at once).

I understand.

I really do wish I had the space and money for a nice chest freezer.....I know I'd use that space to good advantage!

EEK! My mom had one. She couldn't reach the bottom easily enough, and when it died, we found a 10-year-old turkey in there.

The squash plants will probably not survive the big rain we're getting today. They've gone on a lot longer than expected, so I can't complain. The sweet potatoes should be fine though. They're in a raised bed that drains really well. I haven't seen any hint of the broccoli seeds I planted a while ago. I wonder if they got eaten before they got to sprout.

EEK is right. I've been able to reach the bottom of one either. Our garden is winding down. I wander what kind of fall crop Joysanna is going to do.

I got a weird winter squash in my farm basket last week. I think it's called a Boston Marrow squash (http://www.grit.com/farm-and-garden/boston-marrow.aspx#axzz3ENIpqayD). I haven't cooked it yet. It's like a pumpkin... It'll hold for a while. So far, my squash store consists of a small pie pumpkin, a spaghetti squash, and the Boston Marrow. I'm hoping to save these for a winter of eating since one squash makes enough food for almost a whole week.

I love spaghetti squish. Bake scoop out, little butter and olive oil. Fresh chopped tomorotoes.

And parmesan cheese.

My friend gave me a bunch of football-sized sweet potatoes. I am going to have enough sweet potatoes to last through the winter. Love it! I'm seeing pies (sweet and savory) in my future.

IF you have a big freezer (we had an upright one when I was in high school) you can precook that pumpkin, squash, sweet potatoes....and freeze it. Pies or just plain with a touch of butter....all easy. Just defrost, warm it up, and you're good to go. My mom had premade, ready to bake, made from scratch pumpkin pies in our big freezer. MMmmmmm! Made tomato preserves too (we all fought over who got the slice of lemon from the jar).

I like spaghetti squash for spaghetti in the wintertime.

Our french door fridge has an enormous freezer drawer, and we have the extra fridge in the barn with a standard freezer. I do cook pumpkin and taters for eating all winter long. I haven't tried freezing spaghetti squash, although I did cook some on the grill tonight. It smells really good, but it's for dinner tomorrow since today was pork chops, potatoes, and kale.

I should try putting spaghetti squash on the grill

It was delicious! Next up... Butternut squash. That one might wait for a little while. I'm kind of squashed up. I'm waiting (not so patiently) for the sweet potatoes to get sweet.

Created a temporary greenhouse for the catnip patch the garden with several large rolls of clear plastic sheeting my sis got from menards on sale. With the wind we had yesterday it was a challenge but we got it done. Good thing too, the temps dropped to 35 last night and it's going to be colder tonight. We might get another 2 weeks out of the garden, a bit longer from the catnip since its patch is right up against the house so it's a tad warmer there.

Mine managed to survive over the winter. I don't know how I did it
but survived. The green house idea is great and if it's up against a building that should help.

If you can find someone re-doing a house, you might be able to get a discarded storm window or two. I'm using some to shelter my lettuce during frost nights. We had our first under-50 night last night. Temps dropped to 45. Frost is coming soon, so the dead storm windows are waiting to be greenhouses. Unfortunately, my volunteer catnip is right out in the open, so there's really no way to shelter it. I plan to put some cut soda bottles over it, so it should be alright come spring. It will definitely die back though.

Mint is almost impossible to kill.

You can try a clear plastic sheet pinned to the ground over the catnip patch (just use a tall stick to keep the center from collapsing on it). You can keep your catnip alive for over a month that way. It creates the green house effect and keeps the frost off. We had catnip for quite a while after the cold weather came last year. It helped that the patch was also right up against the house too.

Ours is under the hitching post at the barn. I think the hose (that runs behind the hitching post) might tear up plastic, but it's worth a shot. The stuff survived last winter with no protection, so it'll be fine no matter what. Like Sue says, you can't kill mint. I have some spearmint that went to seed. It's now all over the back yard. It smells great when we mow.

Oooooo, I wish I could smell your lawn after mowing!