Kitchen Garden Harvest. Sweet Corn, Figs, Tomatoes. 9.30.16

Tomatoes and Brunswick Figs.  9.30.16

Bodaceous Sweet Corn.  9.30.16

It's been a spectacular year for me in the kitchen garden.  Not everything works out, but the things that do are great.

Now is the end of September, and still harvesting tomatoes, sweet corn, and figs.

There are lots of other veggies out there too - peppers, radishes, collards, and others.

This corn variety was Bodaceous.  It's great, nice thick juice in the kernels.   Tastes like sweet corn.  Mirai was overly sweet and not very corn-like, watery juice.  Bodaceous is so much better.

Planting Garlic. 9.30.16

Mostly Inchelium Red Garlic for planting.  9.30.16

Garlic, placed and ready to conver.  9.30.16

This is a good time to plant garlic.  I've planted earlier and later, and it all seems to work out OK.  Earlier seems to give bigger bulbs next year.

This is mostly Inchelium Red.  I try to find the biggest heads with the biggest heads. 

The location was sweet corn this summer.  Last year it was sweet corn and squash.  The year before it was squash.  Before that it was grass.

After this rotation, beans would be a good choice to build soil and as a different species.

In my experience, garlic does not need protection from herbivores.  Deer, rabbits, and voles avoid it.

More Pumpkins & Squashes. Persimmons. 9.28.16

Pumpkins and Squashes.  9.28.16

If there's a famine this winter and we have to live on pumpkins and squashes, here we are.  Here are some more that I harvested this week.   The big pumpkin is Golias Pumpkin, and the squash on my knee is a Pink Banana squash.  The flatter pumpkins are Rouge Vif D' Etampes Pumpkins, and the smaller squashes are Butternut and Spaghetti squashes.

Nikita's Gift persimmon is looking great.   Waiting for the rest to ripen.  Beautiful tree and beautiful fruit.

Saijo is not as attractive and doesn't have as many, but it looks like there will be a taste of that persimmon too.

Ripening Saijo Persimmons.  9.28.54

Nikita's Gift Persimmon.  9.28.16

Using Tomato Surplus - Skinning for Freezing. 9.28.16

Skinned Tomatoes, Ready to Use or Freeze.  9.28.16

Yet another way to use surplus tomatoes.  Preparing Romas to freeze as whole tomatoes is easy - just wash them off, cut off any bad spots.  Bring pot of water to boil.  Boil one minute - I timed it.  Then plunge them into ice water.  The ice water stops the cooking and prevents the inside from turning into tomato paste.  The skins slide off easily.  Some need a nick with a knife to get started, but other than that the process couldn't be easier.

I froze two freezer bags for future soups or tamales or other use.  I also sliced a bunch for tamales today. 

Tomato Blossom End Rot. 9.28.16

Roma Tomatoes with Blossom End Rot.  9.28.16

Roma Tomatoes with Blossom End Rot.  9.28.16

This is a good example of tomato blossom end rot.  I knew the soil was low in Calcium, having had it tested last year.  I did not get around to applying lime to this garden bed.  Not every tomato was affected, but this was about 1/3 of this crop of Romas. 

I cut off the bad end with about 1/2 inch margin, and cooked the good part.  The bad part goes to the chickens.

Meanwhile, this fall I should get a bag of dolomite lime.  Dolomite contains magnesium as well as calcium.  I have somewhat low magnesium, but the calcium is the main issue.  In the Pacific Northwest, calcium is leached by the constant winter rains.  Low calcium causes blossom end rot.  Inadequate watering, cold soils, and using high nitrogen fertilizer can also be an issue, and I should watch for those as well.  The main thing that I am aware of is that the calcium here is low.