Drying hops

We planted two kinds of hops rhizomes this spring, Willamette and Cascade. They grew the entire height of the deck - probably about 20 feet. The hops themselves started to develop by mid-July but we waited to harvest until the pollen grains were clearly visible and fragrant. To dry them, Conor knocked the bottoms out of the drawers of a small bureau and stapled a screen to hold the hops. By keeping the top drawer cracked and the bottom one removed with a fan blowing into it, plenty of air circulated up through the hops while reducing light entry. It took just under three days and the hops was bagged and frozen, waiting for the first estate brew.

Late Summer Harvests

canteloupes
tomatillos
cayenne, jalepeno, hungarian wax, big jim peppers


Late summer is passing quickly into early autumn. The major harvests of summer veggies are almost in, with the shelves lined and the freezer full. We've hung the 45 pounds of onions and more of potatoes, some squash are curing in the loft and more are still to pick. The melons made nice pickles, tomatillos a salsa verde, and peppers are now a jalepeno sauce.

Carrots and squash

The first harvest of carrots is in jars, nestled on dark shelves in the garage: 15 pints. The pretty purple ones are called Purple haze, the last of the 'purple' seeds from Katie (other favorites were purple basil and Purple Cherokee Tomatoes). We'll harvest the rest of the carrots as we need them, leaving some in the ground and some in cold storage for as long as possible. The canned veggies will hopefully be saved for late spring in the gap before the new gardening season begins.

A few odd squashes have appeared on our most prolific squash vines: Spagetti squash. They may be cross-breds. The acorn squash was very susceptible to the beetles and their diseases, but it looks like we may get 7 or 8 of those. There are more than a dozen spagettis, most of which are ready, and a few dozen Waltham butternut. All the cucurbits were pretty heavily hit by the cucumber beetles which carried downy mildew and a variety of other fungal diseases. The cukes and melons were especially bad so I just pulled them out as they stopped producing. Not a good year for cukes. I did put in some late plantings though, including a few melons which are getting big now, larger than grapefruits.

Eggplant

Summer Sauerkraut

Squash borer

Canning stone fruit

One of my favorite treats in the winter is pickled plums - nice firm and sour, deep ruby but with some spice from whole black peppers. I pickled six pints of these, plus an additional 8 pints of pickled peaches and 8 pints of pickled nectarines. Hopefully they are equally good. The peaches this year have been amazing and we've frozen and canned about 25 pounds.