Highalt's 2013 Grow - End of Season Wrap Up

midwestchilehead · Sep 27, 2013

Bummer that your season could be ending so early, but it looks like you had a great one!

highalt · Sep 28, 2013

Yeah, it's a little earlier than I had hoped, but overall, I am pleased with how the season turned out. There were some issues with the veggie bed here at the house. The plants were all stunted, and the pods smaller than the same varieties grown in either the containers, or the community garden. Thankfully, it wasn't the result of any disease or pest issues. It was mostly due to an irrigation problem, and the need for some amendments. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time or the money to deal with either of those issues this season.

Speaking of a lack of time, the biggest disappointment has been the amount of tomatoes that either rotted on the vine, and were left for the critters and bugs to eat, or that managed to get picked, only to rot on the kitchen counter because I didn't have time to process them. It was discouraging to see all that hard work go to waste!

Here are some pics of the final harvest:

From the community garden. (sorry the color is off. Things aren't as orange as they appear.)

From here at the house

... and the ones that look white are actually orange :rolleyes:

Group shot

I have half a dozen bags of tomatoes, some are ripe ... others are mostly green, like these.

The container plants, safe in the garage

No time to make pesto this evening, so I just yanked up the basil plants, and stuck them in a bucket of water.

... and finally, a basket of onions that could have used a couple more weeks.

Well, I guess that's all for tonight. I'll still be posting a few pics as I process this last harvest, but this show has been cancelled due to weather. :mope:

Sawyer · Sep 28, 2013

That's a peck of peppers!

How cold did it get last night?

HillBilly Jeff · Sep 28, 2013

Sorry your year was bad from a lack of time. Looks like a great last pull for you. My tomatoes in the back were pulled yesterday. Bad year for tomatoes here.

Hope you got some enjoyment out of the bombs.

highalt · Sep 28, 2013

Sawyer said:
That's a peck of peppers!

How cold did it get last night?

Not as bad as predicted. Here at the house it only got down to 31 degrees, and even though there was a lot of frost this morning, it only killed the tops of the tomato plants, all of the cucumbers, a couple of pepper plants, and the one basil plant I missed last night. The grapes came through fine, and the wasps sense the end is near. They are ready to defend their bounty, and are swarming all over the vines today.

Didn't make it by the community garden yet, so not sure how things fared over there.

Today my son had a game in El Jebel, which is halfway between my house and Aspen. Here is what Mount Sopris looked like:

A week ago, when I was in Carbondale for a football game, there was no snow on it at all!

This is what the field looked like when we first arrived this morning:

You can't tell in these last two pics, but the ground was saturated. My son's cleats were so wet, they flew off his feet several times during the game. Kept them on for this move though ...

He's got a good reach with that leg, LOL! Oh, and yes they WON 7 - 2!!!

Bodeen said:
Sorry your year was bad from a lack of time. Looks like a great last pull for you. My tomatoes in the back were pulled yesterday. Bad year for tomatoes here.

Hope you got some enjoyment out of the bombs.

We're still working on the Bombs, but the kids LOVE them, so I may have to grow them next year. Thanks again for sharing those with me! Since they are hybrids, where do you usually get the seeds for those?

We actually had a decent year for tomatoes. That is what was so frustrating!

Stopped at the farmer's market on the way home today and picked up a case of Honeycrisp apples, so before I start working on peppers and tomatoes, I'm going to can some homemade applesauce for the kids.

Sawyer · Sep 28, 2013

Brrr! I'm not ready for winter.

Honeycrisp are a tasty apple. I had a Gala tree that didn't survive the previous two killer summers; maybe I'll replace it with a Honeycrisp.

highalt · Sep 28, 2013

I actually have a Honeycrisp apple tree, but didn't spray it, and they all ended up with worm holes. They are the perfect combination of tart and sweet, which makes them a great applesauce apple, IMHO. I tried another variety one year, but the applesauce was just bland in comparison.

This is about 2/3 of the box of apples, or just over 12 lbs.

I used to use one of those hand crank apple peeler/corer thingies, but it made a huge mess, took forever, and if the apple core wasn't straight it would waste half the apple. Before that, I would peel, then use one of those apple slicers that cut into 8 pieces, and then boil.but that was also very time consuming. Plus, you still had to run them through the food processor after boiling to puree. Now I just quarter, boil with the skins on, and run them through the Kitchen Aid fruit/vegetable attachment, and it takes the skins off and purees them simultaneously.

Made 8 1/2 pints in about 2 hours, instead of half a day like it used to take!!!

Okay, sorry about the non-pepper posts today, but didn't want y'all to think I was being a slacker for not working on all those peppers today!

stc3248 · Sep 29, 2013

Boo!!! Great season lady!!! :clap:

Maybe we'll get you some YELLOW Fataliis for next season!!!

WalkGood · Sep 29, 2013

Great looking A-sauce ... seanson's not over till Shane says it is

hehehe

highalt · Sep 29, 2013

Still haven't made it by the community garden, but will run by there tomorrow to see how big a hit it took Friday night. They're not forecasting any more below freezing temps until Friday night, so maybe there'll be one more small harvest?

Since I didn't can any salsa or tomato sauce this weekend, and I knew all the ripe tomatoes would rot before next weekend rolled around, I ended up filling 2 gallon freezer bags with whole tomatoes and putting them in the deep freeze. Won't be any good for canning salsa now, but I can at least use them for spaghetti sauce or soups and chili over the winter.

Finished processing the rest of the apples today. After 4 years of tweaking my Spiced Apples recipe, I am finally happy with the results!

The first time I used a recipe that called for vinegar, which was too acidic. Then I found one that used water, too bland. Tried subbing apple juice, still not enough bite. This year, I used unsweetened cranberry juice. Just the right combination of sweet and tart!

The liquid left in the pan tasted like pure Christmas!!! "Here we come a wassailing ..."

stickman · Sep 30, 2013

Hi Bonnie, sorry to hear your season has pretty much ended. Maybe next year you'll get to use the black plastic solar mulch I sent you and it'll extend your season some... my peppers, eggplants and tomatoes are still growing though the cold snaps we got have killed off my neighbor's plants. The sun on the black plastic warms the ground, and at night the ground radiates the heat to warm the plants. It's only a few degrees difference, but when your nighttime lows are bordering on freezing, it can often buy you a couple more weeks of growing time.

That said, it looks like you had a great last harvest! Do you do anything with your green tomatoes? My Mom always canned relish made with green tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers and shredded cabbage, and mock mincemeat with green tomatoes, apples, raisins and spices. Sorry to hear the Cayenne Thick wasn't particularly hot, but I can send you better if you want to try the Koreans next year. Cheers!

Sawyer · Sep 30, 2013

Have you tried adding a little hot pepper to either the apple sauce or spiced apples? Seems like that might work, if only in a jar or two.

stickman · Sep 30, 2013

Sawyer said:
Have you tried adding a little hot pepper to either the apple sauce or spiced apples? Seems like that might work, if only in a jar or two.

+1 on that... I made a great hot sauce last year with Habaneros and apples... it was great on roast pork!

highalt · Sep 30, 2013

I would LOVE to add some heat to the spiced apples guys, but this is one canning project that I do strictly for the kids, and they would not be happy with me if I "ruined" their spiced apples with some of my peppers, LOL!

Just got back from the community garden, and it took a serious hit the other night. :mope:

The top 1/2 of the plants are mush, except a couple of poblano types. If it was a beginning of the season frost, the plants would bounce back, but since frost is likely again at the end of the week, there isn't enough time for them to recover. I got several good sized harvests this season, so it was a successful year, just a little shorter than some seasons ...

Devv · Sep 30, 2013

Sad to see your season end, but you had some really nice pulls. And next year you get to do it all over again :party:

HillBilly Jeff · Sep 30, 2013

highalt said:
Not as bad as predicted. Here at the house it only got down to 31 degrees, and even though there was a lot of frost this morning, it only killed the tops of the tomato plants, all of the cucumbers, a couple of pepper plants, and the one basil plant I missed last night. The grapes came through fine, and the wasps sense the end is near. They are ready to defend their bounty, and are swarming all over the vines today.

Didn't make it by the community garden yet, so not sure how things fared over there.

Today my son had a game in El Jebel, which is halfway between my house and Aspen. Here is what Mount Sopris looked like:

A week ago, when I was in Carbondale for a football game, there was no snow on it at all!

This is what the field looked like when we first arrived this morning:

You can't tell in these last two pics, but the ground was saturated. My son's cleats were so wet, they flew off his feet several times during the game. Kept them on for this move though ...

He's got a good reach with that leg, LOL! Oh, and yes they WON 7 - 2!!!

We're still working on the Bombs, but the kids LOVE them, so I may have to grow them next year. Thanks again for sharing those with me! Since they are hybrids, where do you usually get the seeds for those?

We actually had a decent year for tomatoes. That is what was so frustrating!

Stopped at the farmer's market on the way home today and picked up a case of Honeycrisp apples, so before I start working on peppers and tomatoes, I'm going to can some homemade applesauce for the kids.

I get a lot of my middle of the road hybrids from totally tomato.com

Put up a lot of tomatoes, but had the BER for the first time.

I think I am about appled out. Three big trees here and a neighbor gave me two big bushels of apples. Pears are next on my list. I did get pick some nice wild crab apples for jelly today.

Pulpiteer · Oct 2, 2013

You're doing well with your harvest Bonnie! I'm still amazed at how much you grow in that climate. Well done!

highalt · Oct 5, 2013

Thank you, Andy!!!

Here's what I woke up to this morning. This is the view out of my garage right before sunrise.

Okay, probably a last harvest pic, and it's not pepper related. These are 'Reliance' grapes.

This wasn't even close to half of what was still out there, but it was 34 degrees, and my son and I were out there in pajamas with a flashlight, grabbing as much as we could, until our hands started hurting!

Swung by the community garden on the way to work this morning to disconnect the timer, but someone had already done it for me. There were a LOT of peppers still there, but most were either damaged by last week's frost, or not even close to being ripe. Predicted low tonight = 24 degrees!!!

No soccer this weekend, so hopefully I'll have time to work on all those peppers I picked last week!

Pulpiteer · Oct 5, 2013

Wow. It's beautiful. Too bad it's the end of gardening though. What a view!

stc3248 · Oct 5, 2013

Sad to see it end Bonnie...but it's almost time to start some seeds for next season!!!