Monday October 21

I haven't posted for a week and a half.  I've been getting firewood for the winter.  This year I haven't cut any wood so I had to buy 5 ricks (a rick in these parts is a third of a cord), in other words a single stack 4' high and 8' long.  Purveyors of firewood have to be the most irritating people on earth.  You'd think it would be no big deal - they have wood and a truck, I have cash, let's make a transaction - but they always make it as painful and complicated as possible.  You'd think they were selling Moroccan hashish.  With my daily gripe out of the way, on to the post!

Last week I dug up the sweet potatoes.  This was the first year for them and I did not expect much.  On the barren slope toward the pond I set two badly decomposed compost frames, 2 x 10's three feet on the side, put some soil and compost in them and planted the slips.  I made no effort to dig up the hard clay beneath the frames.  I harvested about 15 pounds, many of them deformed from where the roots ran into the clay.  There's Beuregard, Georgia Jet and Vardamann.

Next year I'll give the sweet potatoes some better growing conditions.

Considering that it is mid-October this week was a decent harvest.  I'm still picking Kentucky Wonder beans and have picked over 30 pounds of beans this year, probably more than I wanted.  The summer squash plant really grew fast after the competing acorn squash was removed, but the squash have grown slowly in the fall weather and many of them rot before sizing up.  This one was a keeper.

I'm hoping for a good crop of brussel sprouts if the pods will just size up a bit more.  I picked some more buds near the base before they opened up.

Sunday morning I found a nice sized summer squash, 19 oz, that seemingly came out of nowhere.  There's another one sizing up on this plant that should be ready tomorrow .  This area is supposed to get a hard frost in a few days, so I'll have to pick any tomatoes, squash and beans before that.

I picked some Parade scallions and a celery bunch from the Earthbox.  I tossed out the rest of the celery.  I'm going to make some tater salad using the scallions and celery, if the center stalks are mild.  Overall the celery was kind of a disappointment.  This was Sunday's harvest.  The pepper is an ancho.

Wait, I'm not through yet!  This morning I caught a catfish from the pond.  This may be the last fish of the year as they are acting like they are ready to go deep and stop feeding, so I thought it was worth a picture.  (I doubt if the fish agreed).  Not as big as some fish from the pond, but at 19 inches it makes two nice filets.

For the week:  celery 7 oz, beans 11 oz, summer squash 26 oz, tomato 4 oz, pepper 4 oz, brussels sprouts 9 oz.  Total for year 279 lbs.  I was hoping for 300 pounds this year but will probably fall a bit short.  To see what other people are getting from their gardens go to http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/