And that’s a wrap!

And that’s a wrap on the 2020 growing season folks! We’re expecting our first real snow fall (we’ve had a couple of flurries here and there but no real accumulation that has stuck around for longer than a day) and the temps have dropped, dropped, dropped here. I’m in front of the fake fire place wearing my cozy cape trying to stay warm. I left the garden ‘wrap up’ for far too long. In fact, I literally just put the garden to bed, officially, this past Sunday. It was the last nice day for a long time. So I wanted to give you a run down of all things gardening to wrap up our season.

The garden did okay this year. Not as great as I’d hoped but I think it was mostly because the beds weren’t deep enough. If you remember, the Mister built some raised beds on the old tennis court. We were going to remove the asphalt but it turned out to not be a feasible endeavor, mostly due to timing, but also it was going to be an expensive endeavor as well. So we went with it as an experiment this year. It turns out I learned a lot this year about gardening. Mostly–don’t start your seeds too early! So come March 2021 I will need a reminder to not start those seeds. Only lettuces. Those can easily grow in containers inside for a long time (year round actually). I built my seed spreadsheet last year and I will try to stick to it, and update it as needed. I’ve already ordered my seeds and have them ready for next year’s garden. I have that handy seed inventory sheet in my planner and will work on getting my seeds inventoried. I basically purchased the same seeds that I did for this year’s garden. I didn’t really save any seeds except a ton of flower seeds. I meant to save some veg seeds but either things didn’t grow (because I started too early) or I just got in a hurry once things started coming in. Next year I will be better about saving seeds. It’s been on my list for years now–to save my seeds.

Speaking of. I bought a ton of bouquets this year and ended up drying the flowers. I kept them thinking I would use the dried versions to make things. Then an idea struck me. I’ve long wanted a cutting garden but where does one start? With saving the flowers that you’ve purchased! So I painstakingly cut all the flower heads off the flowers, put them into baggies, and am doing research on what each flower is. I actually have no idea on a lot of them so I thought I would just plant them in the spring and see what happens. I did purchase some seeds for things that I know I want–mainly calendula and sunflowers. Then I’ll try to remember next fall to save some of those seeds. I’m hopeful I’ll have somewhat of a cutting garden next year.

In other gardening news, I should have mentioned above that I decided to move the garden. After realizing that the garden didn’t do as well as I’d hoped I had two choices. First, I could spend the money to add a layer to the raised beds. Or. I could move the garden and expand it for little cost. I chose to move it. There were several reasons for this, but mostly I wanted it closer to the house and the chickens. The garden and chickens were such a big hit this year with the fly fishers and all the guests and I envision having this neat and tidy garden next to the chickens. Our biggest expense will be fencing it in but I’ll put some money aside so we’ll be ready to rock and roll in the spring. I’d rather spend my money fencing the garden in in a new spot and having more room for growing rather than adding a layer to the existing beds and not having more room. If we left the garden on the tennis court I would not be able to have my cut garden. So we measured and staked off the new garden and I drew up plans. I’m so excited. I’ll share more details as we get closer to the season.

I also moved all the cranberries and the blueberries to the new garden area. Did you know that you can grow cranberries without a bog? Cranberries happen to be one of my absolute favs (just ask the Mister) and there’s a cultivated version called the “American Cranberry” that grows like strawberries. You plant them in acidic soil and give them room to spread. Then in the fall they will produce cranberries. Cranberries are native to North America and are generally grown in bogs, in Massachusetts. You can actually tour the bogs on Cape Cod. I tried to set up a time to visit this past September but the tours were full. I’ll save that for next time. Anyway, here’s some more info on American cranberries, should you wish to know more.

I still have a lot of food processing to do this winter, but so far we’ve inventoried the freezers, spices, baking pantry, and the pantry itself. I just need to fill in some holes now. I decided a few weeks ago to try the Misfits Market boxes. Misfits is a delivery service offering ‘seconds’ on organic produce and products. I thought we would give it a try so we don’t have to go to the store as much during the winter and certainly during the surge in Covid cases. Our grocery store in town is not the best and is certainly lacking in local and organic products. There’s a good grocery store about 30 minutes away that has a much better selection but it’s not always feasible to drive the 30 minutes. So Misfits seems like a good alternative. So far we like it. There have been a couple of issues but nothing that’s making us second guess our decision to use them. If you’d like to try them and want 50% off your first order, use this link.

So, I still have some processing to do. Here’s my list:
1. can venison broth (I harvested a deer this year. More details on that in a different post)
2. turn blueberries into something (blueberry chipotle compote? blueberry port compote?)
3. turn cranberries into something (I have bags of cranberries from last year. Cranberry ketchup? cranberry bread?)
4. turn cherries into something
5. render lard
6. process leftover fall pumpkins
7. make soap with frozen goats milk
8. what to do with ham hocks? stock? something else? must do research

Before I go, way back when I promised an update on how our monthly food budget was going. Well. Here’s the 411:
October: groceries and supplies: $526.49; eating out: $115.56=$642.05
November: groceries and supplies: $238.97; eating out: $101.75=$340.72

You can see that we started going out more but now that Covid cases are on the upswing we are not going out at all. So I think you’ll see the eating out numbers fall and probably the grocery store numbers rise again. My goal would be to have both at a minimum for the winter. I’ll try to keep you posted as the months move along.

And I’ll leave you with a little note about tooting your own horn! I saw a post about being featured in Backyard Poultry Magazine’s “Flocks to Follow” and how you could nominate yourself or someone else. So I figured no one else was going to nominate me so why not just nominate myself? Sometimes we have to toot our own horns. And it worked! I got a nice note from the peeps at the magazine and sure enough I was in the December2020/January 2021 issue! It’s on newsstands now so pick up a copy if you haven’t already.

’til next time
-k
xoxo