Our harvest is basically in, with the exception of brassicas that will be a little bit yet. That does not mean, however, that harvest season is over. This is the best time of year to get great deals on other people's produce, as fellow gardeners clean out before the frosts.
I have an aunt with some apple trees and a very productive bit of grapevine, and despite the drought she had more than she could use or give away this year. I was happy to take advantage of this bounty, and they were happy not to see things rot in the field. These two grocery bags of apples are mixed variety, one bag is sweet and the other is tart. They weigh about 15 lbs. apiece.
The concord grapes were super sweet this year, even before the frost. This is about 12 lbs.
There is a local farmer who sets up a produce stand that we frequently buy from to help fill our jars, bellies and freezer. He gives us some amazing deals on his leftovers, and this year that included these multi-colored habaneros. In all, we bought well over 100 lbs. of assorted produce from him, which we have been furiously processing along with everything else.
Of course, we had our own harvesting to do before the first frost, most of which was green tomatoes that we'll ripen inside. A couple of things we covered, since we're likely to have another two weeks of good weather without frost. This simple homemade hoop cover went over our row of basil.
The peppers needed a bit more square footage to get covered. I set some 6' T-posts around the corners of the beds, and threw these 16' x 20' tarps over them.
The basil came through unscathed, and the peppers took just a touch of damage in the few spots the tarps touched their tops. Only the leaves suffered any damage at all, the actual peppers all came out fine.
There were enough habaneros to do two ristras and these wonderfully colorful batches of sauce. We also bought about a bushel of jalapenos, which made 3 1/2 qts. of hot sauce, 4 dozen sausage stuffed peppers, and still some left to use later. Of course, I have no pictures of any of the jalapeno goods.
He threw in some tomatoes with the huge order, which along with some of our own made 8 quarts of nearly whole tomatoes. The bowl of seeds on top of them is the first batch of toasted butternut squash seeds, soaking in brine. These are one of my favorite salty snacks. The pot in the upper left is the closest I have to a picture of the jalapeno sauce.
My aunt's grapes and apples became jars of grape pie filling and grape pulp, which was added to this 4 quart batch of applesauce. We also made 8 quarts of apple pie filling.
After all that, there were still a lot of apples left. Some of these will get covered in from-scratch caramel.
Our local farmer also had a good deal of leftover onions, so we're going to make and can a ridiculous amount of French onion soup.
It struck me as funny how much the sauteed onions look like the cooked apples. This is a 4 gallon pot, which should be pretty close to full when the soup is done. We'll still have about 8 lbs. of onions for storage.
The weather has been quite a bit chillier, and my last batch of ginger ale just started fermenting today. We keep the house open to the cooler weather until it's time to close up and turn on the heat. It helps to keep the produce fresh while we process, and gives a nice change of air before we stifle inside for winter.
I hope this harvest season finds you all well, and buried in abundance. Hope to see you around again!
