5th week of September 2008
Things are winding down for the summer crops in the garden. I'm gathering the last of the peppers for chopping up in the freezer and hot Laotian chilis are being picked for drying. I also have plenty of tiny Tom Thumb peppers that some folks use for stuffing with cabbage and canning. I don't have the time for that long process and a friend shared a good idea for using them creatively. I topped and cored the peppers and then filled them with my herbed soft cheese for a beautiful appetizer.
Salad is tasting delicious this time of year again with cooler weather. In the greenhouse area I am cutting lots of arugula, chard, kale and chervil that grew from seed for some of our salads. Mache that went to seed is coming up everywhere also and we are transplanting it in rows between winter lettuces and areas that will get covered with plastic barrels. Letting a few of my cold frame plants go to seed in the spring saves me the time of planting them again but it does involve plenty of "weeding" come fall but at least these are all useful weeds. Another benefit of cooler weather is that having the dehydrator running in the kitchen adds some pleasant warmth. It is getting filled with pears, apples and even some watermelon that will become tasty dried snacks during the winter months.
We got several garden areas disked up this week and a cover crop of rye planted. It's a little late going in but hopefully the rain will help it to germinate quickly to start growing and providing winter cover. I just watched an inspiring DVD by Cindy Connor, the "cover crop queen" of Virginia. I would like to try some different cover crops next year like red clover and buckwheat and perhaps even thresh some of my own grain seed like she demonstrated. She stresses the importance of growing your soil fertility rather than just importing it all from outside sources. The children also helped me build a compost pile from old sunflower stalks and weeds we pulled with the plans of trying Cindy's ideas of growing butternut squash over the pile next year.
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