harvest moonfest, fall veggies and jack frost carnage

 the first frost hit thursday the 4th of this month. there was about a week of cool weather with temperatures right around freezing every night, and eventually all my non-hardy garden plants died, except for the ones i brought inside and the ones i covered with blankets. all my tomatoes, basils, and both naranjilla plants are still alive. now it's warmer again, but very fall-like.

 the last saturday of september, right before the weather turned chilly, i hosted a harvest moon celebration. homegrown veggie cookout, tomato tasting, vegan potluck, and so much beer. it was a fabulous time and the weather was perfect--low 80s/upper 70s to start, and stayed in the 60s late into the night.

 this is the tomato tasting table. i put out samples of all the varieties i had ripe at the time. the crowd favorite was chocolate stripe, a strikingly beautiful, salty, super-flavorful beefsteak (my favorite too):

 i made wild rice, homegrown veggie salsa, and grilled squash and potatoes. victoria and kim brought a very tasty and complex savory pineapple salad, jeanne and kyle brought some huge, fancy homegrown eggplants for the grill, andrea brought a fantastic vegan huckleberry crumble made with berries she picked herself. there was way too much delicious food.

 unfortunately i didn't get photos while guests were here. it was a challenging day, i'd had a cold for a few days in the week leading up--so instead of cleaning house/yard and prepping as planned, all week i was letting dishes pile up and being tired and unmotivated. i ended up having to do everything on saturday, starting at 7 in the morning and finishing minutes before people began arriving. it put me in such a surprisingly good mood though, since i'd already gone past the point of exhaustion, i was deliriously happy the whole evening.

 poor little potato was stung by a wasp during the party! i hadn't noticed there's a wasp nest at the base of the apple tree, and he stuck his head right in there and got stung on the ear. it was the saddest thing. he didn't yelp or cry, but he ran around like he was on fire, shaking his head and looking horrified. after a while he calmed down and was just deeply, deeply sad the rest of the night. he sulked around the yard throwing himself at peoples' feet for sympathy. he was fine the next morning, and the swelling went away after just a few days. but he's still afraid of the apple tree.

 recent harvests and garden photos:

 nepalese bell peppers have elegant flowers. the peppers themselves are crazy looking:

 my giant pot of basil is taking up more than its share of space in the mudroom. i was planning on keeping it into the winter, but now i think i'll harvest and preserve it or try to use it up fast.

 corno de toro gaillo and sweet bell peppers. they started turning ripe colors after i brought them inside. best bell peppers i've ever grown--heavy, thick walls, delicious.

 anatomically correct japanese black trifele tomato.

 udumalpet eggplant.

 tomatillos are so very pretty.

 my apple harvest this year was completely non-existent. the squirrels stole every single apple.

 i didn't even know squirrels liked apples that much. i'm at peace with the lack of apples, because the squirrels left all my other plants alone. didn't take a single tomato. i'd much rather have tomatoes than apples.

 i can't believe summer is over and it's almost halloween. has frost hit yet where you are?

late august harvests

 these days i'm mostly getting lots of tomatoes, squash, some peppers, eggplants, and ground cherries.

 the long red peppers are choriceros, a basque heirloom pepper brought here and grown for the last 50 years by a gentleman i met at a seed swap a couple years ago. the purple/green peppers are black hungarian, the eggplants are fairy tale and shoya long, and the squash are ronde de nice and yellow straightneck.

 the yellow-ish green tomatoes on the far right are lime green salad--when you cut them open they're brilliant emerald green inside. also pictured are ground cherries (in the dish), and an assortment of tomatoes: white currants, cream sausage, lemon drop, chocolate cherry, brown berry, gartenperle, tiny tim, and a mystery tomato i grew from OSU blue seed i saved last year. the mystery appears to be an accidental cross with a larger, striped tomato (in this picture they just look like generic medium-size red tomatoes, but the ones ripening now have some blue in them, and more pronounced stripes.) thankfully i planted one pure OSU blue plant from the original seed.

 casper eggplant, tomatoes and squash, including a couple "peter pan" squashes. i planted these extremely late so they're just now starting to pump out the fruit. when you let them age off the plant for a few days the coloring turns really cool, kinda green/yellow tie-dye.

 my first two japanese black trifele tomatoes (top right) and zapotec pleated tomatoes (bottom). i tried to grow both of these last year but they died as seedlings before transplant. the zapotec pleated at front/right weighs 3/4lb.

 snow white cherry tomato, with an outie belly button!

 mixed basil pot, with (clockwise from bottom right) opal, sweet, thai and dwarf greek basil. i discovered last year (or maybe the year before? i can't remember) that basil does really well planted in a container, planted late in the season, and grown in partial shade. some of that goes against traditional growing practices for basil, but that's what has worked by far the best for me here in boise.

 this is red and green holy basil, a.k.a. krishna tulsi, grown in a separate container. the stems turned a beautiful deep purple.

 the dozen-or-so volunteer tomatillo plants took over a huge portion of the garden bed. they're all loaded with fruit, but nothing ripe yet.

 nikki and i went blackberry picking yesterday. the berries were super sour, nothing like the ones i picked a couple weeks ago. luckily i picked just the right amount for a pie. it still turned out nice and tart, but not as unbearably mouth-puckering as the raw berries.

 the calendula in my front bed is in full bloom, and the bees are loving it.

first harvest monday of autumn

this weekend jason and i went to our friend rifka’s house in king hill for a harvest/equinox celebration. we feasted, foraged, played music, wandered, relaxed, feasted some more...it was so lovely, i’ll put up photos once i finish them.

i’ve harvested a lot since last week. many of my plants are having their second (or third, or fourth) wind, like this monster zucchini plant:

if you can believe it this has been growing since april. outdoors, using a fishbowl for a cloche early on when frost was still an issue. it started squashing in june, and i wish i kept track of how many zukes it produced...at least 50. the stem split into two vines, and it keeps growing in both directions.

just in the last week it’s put out seven zucchini, with two more growing now. that’s more than most weeks, but not by much. and i'm still not tired of them.

all three of my eggplants are blooming and fruiting again.

so are the strawberries.

ground cherries are dropping more than ever.

future salsa verde: my first big harvest of green tomatillos.

and the very first ripe purple one. little late, but i’ll take it.

the citrus fruits show no sign of wanting to ripen anytime soon. it’s almost time to move the plants inside. they’ve grown so much from the tiny twigs that came in the mail six months ago.

happy autumn everyone!