79. Fall Crops and Preserving for the Winter

Happy mid-September! This month seems to be flying by. While the garden is slowing down some from the business of the summer, there is still some things happening. I don’t know about you but there are years where I dread fall and the summer garden to be over. This year however, I am ready for a break and the fall season.

Yellow Heart Chinese Bok Choy

I got my pears in from Azure Standard. I spent some time today making pear sauce. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s basically the same concept as applesauce but with pears. It ends up with a slightly different taste and texture. This is my first time trying it but if we like it over the winter, I will probably continue to add this into my yearly preservation. I added cinnamon to mine this year but I might mix it up some next year and try out different batches.

Pear Sauce Canned

One thing I need to acquire before winter is some butternut squash. Mine never produced anything this year but I know I can go to a local farm stand and buy a couple. They store so well throughout the winter and are a great addition to our winter meals.

Speaking of winter meals, this may seem like an odd time but now is the time to start thinking about meals you may want to make in the winter months. If you’re like me and want to cook from scratch, especially if you want to cook from your own homegrown food, you need to be thinking about the ingredients you’ll need now. Make sure you have things stored away or preserved for the months when it’s hard to get fresh fruits and veggies. If there’s still time in your growing season to grow things (maybe it’s radishes or lettuce, something quick for sure) you could do that as well. If not, then go support a local farmer and buy produce from them.

Some of our canned good storage

My okra that I planted the first of July is producing in a big way. Usually just about every day I am gathering a bowl full of okra. So far we’ve either ate it fresh or froze it for dinner. I really like planting okra later in the season for a couple of reasons. First off because it is always a heavy producer and we just simply can’t eat but so much of it in a year. Second of all, it loves our high heat and humidity in the summer. There aren’t many other crops that thrive during that time period. So saving this crop for that time and planting others before it that like cooler weather, really pay off. As a bonus point, it is also more rewarding to get the harvests this time of year when I’m not getting as much else out of my garden in the way of produce. While I do have almost every bed full of something, it is all in growing stages and not ready to harvest yet.

I save my okra seed every year to plant for the following season

I took off the shade cloth from my fall crops now that the heat has subsided. We have cooled into the low 80’s for highs and this next week, it looks like we’re into the 70’s. I really think it made a huge difference in allowing my crops to settle into their spots. Everything is looking good and growing well. My favorite angle to look at is the broccoli that’s planted with hairy vetch surrounding it and cucumbers growing in the bed behind it. If that doesn’t scream fall garden to you, I don’t know what will.

My favorite spot in the garden right now

That’ll do it for this week’s update. I hope your garden’s still have crops growing in them and I hope you are prepping for the fall and winter months.