Pumpkins and Asparagus, Raspberries and Blueberries Fall Update

Will they ever turn orange?

The early frost this month killed the leaves on the pumpkin vine.  I checked several university agricultural sites and they all agreed that I should cut the pumpkins off the vine and allow them to ripen on their own.  The yellow you see on them is where they lay on the grass as they grew.  Halloween is now less than a week a way and I'd love to have them turn orange by then, but somehow I don't think that will happen. Considering that this was a volunteer plant that didn't set fruit until August I guess I shouldn't complain. Will keep you posted.

Asparagus starting to turn color
 

The asparagus is starting to turn color from green to golden.  When its totally turned brownish its safe to cut it down and throw the fronds on the compost pile.  Most years I let it stand until spring - but last year I had the big Bush Hog style mower on the tractor most of the winter, so I mowed it down in December.  That was probably a mistake because I had a lot more weeds and grass in the bed this spring.  I weeded a couple of times very early, but the grass took over and at one point in May I picked all the asparagus spears I could find and then mowed the patch very close with my lawn mower.  The ferns are very dense and I'm hoping if I leave them in place all winter they will smother out some of the weeds and grass. 

Red Raspberries still producing as are the weeds!

This is my first year for raspberries.  My brother gave me six plants last fall. I planted them carefully in a slightly raised bed with good drainage, but alas, only three survived.  However, those three have been super producers. I'm still getting a hand full of delicious ripe fruit every other day. In September I was getting about a cup of fruit a day from the three plants.  I have a lot of work to do on the raspberry beds this fall, but I'm encouraged to buy some more plants and expand the patch. Red raspberries are one of the most nutritious fruits you can eat, and are considered the highest in fiber of all the fruits.

The little bit of red color at the base of the trees is a blueberry bush. With the near record September rains and mild weather the weeds have taken over yet again. It's really a good thing we have a killing frost on the way. I'll hopefully have to weed just one more time this fall. These plants were all heavily mulched in June!

Several years ago my garden club visited Marvins Organic Gardens in Lebanon for a gardening talk. Marvin is a great garden information resource and we all enjoyed his presentation very much. At the end of his talk he gave us each a plant. He's also a very generous guy donating whole yards worth of landscape plants to Habitat for Humanity and other worthy causes. 

I received a low bush blueberry plant from Marvin and for the first couple of years it sat in its big gallon plus plastic pot among the ivy and the dogwood tree on the east side of the house. I wasn't too inspired to plant it  because I've always understood that blueberries need a lot of acid in the soil to produce fruit and our soil in very alkaline (high PH). Asparagus does well here because it really likes a high PH.  I kept the blueberry  watered and it had a nice sheltered location, but of course it needed to be planted in the garden.

Finally one spring I got it together and dug a blueberry bed, planted the plant from Marvin's and purchased three more blueberry seedlings, mail order to join it. Since the potted blueberry had continued to grow in its pot, I didn't amend the soil for the PH.   After two years the seedlings gave up and died, but the older plant hung in there.

Last year I converted the blueberry bed to a tree nursery, but kept the one blueberry plant in place. I had purchased a couple of yards of mulch from Tony at Cardinal Landscaping and that gave me plenty of mulch for the garden plants as well as the flower beds around the house. Weeds were out of control this year so  I mulched the raspberries, the tree seedlings and the blueberry plant with the purchased mulch. All of the plants did very well. I haven't tested the soil around them for PH but I suspect that the mulch raised the PH enough to make the blueberry happy because this year, for the first time, the blueberry bore fruit.  The fruit was large and sweet and I am inspired to get back to Marvin's this spring and purchase more of this type of blueberry plant. If all goes well I'll have a good blueberry crop in a year or so.  The leaf color on the plants is also very attractive and will be a stricking backdrop for fall flowers.

Baked Apples

Baked apples are another good, wholesome and very delicious dessert.  There are lots of variations on baked apples but I like my mother's recipe the best. It includes raisins and butter and brown sugar, so it has to be good.  Her secret special touch is a slice of Pepperidge Farm raisin bread.

Choose an apple with a little red color for a more appetizing presentation.

The recipe is simple and traditional except for the raisin bread. Instructions here are for one apple, so multiply the directions for multiple apples.

So to begin, thoroughly wash and dry an apple, and core it using an apple corer or a melon scoop, just be sure to take out just the core so you keep the apple flesh.  Core all the way through the bottom of the apple.  Spray a little cooking spray on the bottom of your baking dish and line the dish with a slice of raisin bread.  Mix two teaspoons brown sugar, a teaspoon of raisins and a pat of butter together rubbing the butter and sugar and raisins together with the back of a spoon to form a paste, sort of.  Peel one ring of skin off the top of the apple with a sharp knife. Stuff the cored out cavity of the apple with the sugar paste.  Bake in a 375 degree pre heated oven for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the apple. You can test for doneness by piercing the side of the apple with a sharp knife. Let the apples cool at least 15 minutes to an hour.  Serve just as they are or add a little buttered pecan ice cream or whipped cream. The butter and sugar mixture will seep into the raisin bread and caramelize, giving you a sweet, chewy bit of toasty bread with every apple bite. The nutrional info for this dessert is at the bottom of this post. Check out all the great fiber content!

Don't get stuck on the idea that only Granny Smith or Golden Delicious can be baked.  Try Jonathen or Jona Gold or one of a dozen other varieties of apples that are good for baking as well as eating out of hand.

This is Melrose, the state apple of Ohio.  I just purchased a 1/2 peck of these from Irons Fruit Farm, and love them for a good all purpose apple. I use them cut up in salads as well as a snack. They also make a lovely baked apple.

Nutrition Facts  for the Baked Apple recipe above.

Serving Size

11 serving (146.8 g)

Amount Per Serving

Calories

238238

Calories from Fat

5050

% Daily Value^*

Total Fat

5.6g5.6

9%9

Saturated Fat

2.6g2.6

13%13

Cholesterol

11mg11

4%4

Sodium

129mg129

5%5

Total Carbohydrates

48.1g48.1

16%16

Dietary Fiber

5.7g5.7

23%23

Sugars

32.4g32.4

Protein

2.1g2.1

Vitamin A 3%3	•	Vitamin C 34%34
Calcium 0%0	•	Iron 16%16

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Plant Trees in November

A sweet gum and a Washington hawthorn still in their 2010 nursery bed. I'll be transplanting them into the landscape in November. The nursery bed will then receive a new shipments of oak seedlings.

 

How can your turn $10.00 into a $1000 in just three short years?  Join the Arbor Day Foundation.

 

Flowering crab, red bud, sycamore and Washington hawthorn  still in their 2010 nursery bed. I'll be transplanting them into the landscape in November..

Joining the Arbor Day Foundation for just $10 (six months membership) or $15 for the whole year means you get to choose a package of 10 free tree or flowering shrub seedlings.  Plant the seedlings in a nursery bed and within a year  you have nice young trees to transplant into your landscape. Within three years from your first planting your trees will start to increase in value and add beauty your property.

 

You can choose from a variety of packages. Some years I just get a mixed package - like those pictured above.  This year I've opted for a package of oak trees, at least four different varieties. 

 

The oaks seedlings - and I do mean seedlings - will arrive after November 1, so I have time to prepare a nursery bed for them.  They will arrive looking like a collection of dead twigs, most not more than 12 or 18 inches tall.   Plant them carefully and water them at least once a week until the ground freezes, usually in late December or early January here in southern Ohio. Then mulch with straw or other mulch and wait for spring. 

 

You can transplant them next November but I didn't get around to it last year so the trees pictures are two years old.  I'll transplant all but the red buds. They only like to move in the spring. 

 

The Sweet Gums will give me great fall color when they mature a little.  The crab and Washington hawthorn bloom in the spring and provide fruit for wild birds.  All these little trees will add tremendous value to my property and were worth way more than the $10 I spent to join the Arbor Day Foundation.

 

 

Visit the Arbor Day Foundation at www.arborday.org and join today!

 

 



Bulls for Sale for Fall Calving

In Focus, Black Angus Bull born March 2011

Cows can have their calves (calving)  at any time of the year (females cycle every 21 days and take nine months for gestation). Traditionally farmers breed their cows to calve in March.  The idea being that the cows will nurse their calves on spring and summer pastures when forage is abundant.

The problem with spring calving for me is wet, chilly or muggy weather that can kill even the hardiest calves.  The result is many farmers delay calving until April and May which means smaller calves when its time to sell them in the fall - a traditional time to sell calves. That means less money for calves, though the cost of keeping the cow doesn't change.  

As a result farmers have changed to breeding their cows for fall calving.  This means the calves are ready to sell in the spring when prices are often higher.  The calves come in good weather on dry pastures and usually the cows have enough nutrition rich forage in the pastures to get the calves off to a good start before bad weather sets in.

BTAP ZZ Tom, born March 15, 2012,  an exceptionally nice 600lb plus bull calf.

Cows nursing calves through the winter need extra nutrition, so feed costs are a little higher, but the extra cost should be offset by higher spring prices and less calf loss. 

Personally I like to breed my cows to calve in January and February.  Usually in those months we have cold, dry weather or some snow, but frozen ground.  Disease can't get started and as long as the cows are well fed and producing rich warm milk, the calves thrive.  I provide a calf pen in the barn that only the calves can access so they get shelter from wind and storms and are safe from the big animals laying on them or stepping on them.

BTAP Thor, born January 2011 in an ice storm.
 

Usually, I'm pretty sure when a cow is going to calve and I keep her near a barn where I can watch her.  I prefer the calves be born on clean pastures to control any threat of disease and mostly the cows like to calve outside as well.  It's important though to provide barn access and most cows who calve outside in cold weather will bring their calves into the barn after the first six hours or so.

The exception was BTAP Thor (pictured above).  His mother, Valentine, (born February 2000) is my oldest cow, the first Limousin ever born on the farm.  She had not had a calf in 2010 after giving birth to twins in 2009, so I was caught off guard when she didn't come to the barn for feeding time one January afternoon.  I found her back in the far woods obviously in labor with an ice storm just starting to pelt us.  There was no time to move her almost half a mile to the nearest barn so I brought her straw for bedding, hay and grain to eat and she chose to keep her calf under a large evergreen wild cedar tree.  Every day for a week it rained or snowed and I worried about the calf. I brought Valentine more hay and grain each day and thought I would surely find the little guy dead of cold. But after a week she proudly brought him to the barn and he has been a strong healthy bull, breeding cows this summer and looking forward to his second birthday this coming January.

Apples Every Day

It's apple season and a great time to follow that old time advice, an apple a day keeps the doctor away.  So taking that advice to heart I made two apple recipes that I think are keepers. See what you think.  ( I really call this three recipes because the salad dressing is prepared separate from the salad but that's just me).

I also had a great walk through the back 40, up hills, through woods,across creeks. It was a beautiful day to be hiking the property, though every where was strangely quiet - no deer, no turkeys, no hawks screaming.  I snapped this picture of CEH In Focus (Bobby). He's coming into his own after a summer on pasture breeding cows. With his sweet disposition and projected calving ease family history he should be a super herd bull.



CEH In Focus, I call him Bobby. Isn't he gorgeous! Alas, he is for sale.

 

Apple & Cabbage Salad with Apple Cider Vinaigrette

 

I'm still getting some good leaf lettuce from the garden but this time of year I like to add some raw, green organic cabbage (from the grocery since mine was eaten by the deer).  Rough chop about a cup of cabbage to toss with a cup or more of salad greens. Then dice a rib of celery, a Gala apple, a tablespoon of raisins or cranraisins or dried cherries (or a little of all three), a tablespoon of chopped walnuts or pecans and a good pinch of shaved Parmesan cheese ( a good salty one). 

 

For the dressing, in a glass jar with a  tight fitting lid, put 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (not flavored, use the real thing), a tablespoon of sweet apple cider, a tablespoon of maple syrup (use the real thing or substitute honey), a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper and a pinch of dry mustard (I like Coleman's).  Put the lid on the jar and shake well.  Then add four tablespoons of canola oil, put the lid back on and shake very well until the dressing is emulsified.  Pour the dressing over the salad and toss. Enjoy.  This salad always makes me feel so healthy and it tastes great too!

 

 

Roast Chicken Sandwich with Apple 

 

On the bread of your choice, a little mayo, some lettuce, sliced roast chicken breast, sliced apple with peel left on (I like Gala but any good eating apple works well). A little salt and pepper.   Top with another slice of bread and enjoy.  You can also add a slice of Swiss or Cheddar cheese and grill the whole thing. Very good.  I was happy with just the chicken and the apple on a good country white bread - mayo and lettuce, salt and pepper. Yum. 

 

 





Golden October Days

Golden Days

St. Luke's Little Summer

Lovely, summerlike days that occur around October 18 are called St. Luke's Little Summer in honor of the saint's feast day. In olden days, St. Luke's Day did not receive as much attention in the secular world as St. John's Day (June 24) and Michaelmas (September 29), so to keep from being forgotten, St. Luke presented us with some golden days to cherish before the coming of winter, or so the story goes. Some folks call this Indian Summer, but that officially occurs between November 11 and November 20.

From the Old Farmer's Almanac at www.almanac.com.

Hill top tree tops glow in the morning sun,

I woke to an owl hooting in the woods outside my bedroom window.  It was seven o'clock and I was surprised to hear him so late in the morning. By 7:30 I stepped out of the mudroom door on my way to feed calves and chickens and was treated to one of the most beautiful sunrises I've seen all year.  The eastern sky was painted in shades of pink and gold and the whole landscape glowed.  By the time I'd finished my chores the sky had changed to a soft glowing gold and the sun, though not yet breaking the horizon was arcing light across the sky to touch the tops of the maple trees and set them on fire with light.


The opposite hill. This woods is oak, maple and hickory.  The understory of Korean honeysuckle gets no light.

My brother has been out in the woods digging up maple seedlings to transplant  along his pasture fence lines.  He has no animals at present so no one (except deer) are likely to chomp on the trees. This is a very good time of year to transplant maples and most other hardwood trees. They will  stay dormant over the winter then awake in place for the spring and hardly know they were moved. It's also a good time to see what fall color the trees produce so you can get trees that will give a good fall show. I love seeing the maples all red and orange - in the woods where I don't have to rake their leaves.  Most of my yard is either locust or ash both of which have small leaves.  We've also planted a few oaks - they keep their leaves until spring when they will be chopped up in the first spring mowings.   I'm sure I'll loose most of the ash eventually, but I'll replace them with small leaved trees that are easy to chop with the mower and collect.

When the Frost is on the Pumpkin

My pumpkins are still green but the leaves have been destroyed by the recent frost.  The vines look OK. I keep holding out hope that these pumpkins will eventually ripen and turn orange.

WHEN the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then the time a feller is a-feelin' at his best,	5
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

A few lines from the Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley.  Some how I had this in my head as being a Robert Frost poem - maybe it was the word frost in the title that threw me.  Anyway, I can completely relate to Mr. Riley's poem.  The frost sure is on the pumpkin and we have a flock of turkeys ranging the woods and pastures - the first flock we've had on the place.  Certainly the fodder's in the shock - everyone is busy combining beans and picking corn and soon all those golden fields will just be stubble, but until then the deer and the turkeys are having a good time eating up the farmer's profits.

The weather has been beautiful and the sassafras trees have some of the best color I've seen in years. 
This picture of Jealousy with sassafras trees in the background isn't very good. It doesn't show the intense and varied shades of red and orange leaves that produce that color.  When we were kids we used to collect the sassafras leaves, looking for really good reds and oranges. Then we would press them between the pages of old books. Later in the winter we'd find them in those books still strongly colored but flat and dry and we'd enjoy the an impressionist painting.

Can you see all those holes in the kale leaves?  Kale is of the cabbage family and this kale was attacked by green cabbage worms!  I finally was able to pick enough to cook up for supper tonight. I sort of stewed it with some smoked sausage and it was very good. This bit of kale was very easy to grow, and except for the cabbage worms, rates high on my list of seeds to plant next year.  The Swiss chard in the background, which I like much better than spinach, does not seem to have any worm problems. 

Pumpkin Brulee

I'm always looking for ways to take an old favorite and tweak it a little to make it maybe more healthy or tasty or both.  It's my turn again to make dessert for the family's Monday night get together and my Mom and Dad requested pumpkin pie.  Pumpkin is very good for you, loaded with vitamins and beta carotene.  The filling for a pumpkin pie is really just a pumpkin custard, so I often make the filling and bake it in custard cups eliminating the fat and calories of a crust. But for the family get together I thought I'd fancy it up a bit and  give the individual custard portions a brulee topping.

One large can of Libby's pumpkin makes nine servings of one cup each. You can see the white sugar on the custard with the pecan half.  Don't put the pecan half on the top until you have completely melted all the sugar and there is no white showing. The pecan will burn right away.

 

It takes a good minute to caramelize all the sugar. You have to move the torch around a lot so you don't burn the sugar - even though that's what brulee means in French.  You just want all the white color gone from the sugar.

The sugar is all caramelized and I've added the pecan for decoration (and to hide where I stuck a table knife in the middle to check for doneness)  Of course, the caramelized sugar is the same color as the pumpkin so you don't see it like you would on creme brulee. It will be a nice surprise when the family starts to spoon out the first bite.

A note on the recipe:  I use Libby's pure pumpkin and add my own sugar, eggs and spices. It's a simple recipe and always works very well.  The only alteration I make is to halve the amount of ground clove.  The recipe calls for half a teaspoon and I cut it to one quarter of a teaspoon. Otherwise, I follow the recipe on the label.  I plugged the recipe into an online calorie counter and here's the nutritional info. The eggs and milk contribute to the fat content, but I like the fiber number per serving. I love that high Vitamin A number and the calories at 268 for a one cup serving are not half bad.  You could make the recipe out of the smaller can and use 1/2 cup custard cups and save even more calories.  I did not include the pecan in the calorie count. And you know I will be adding real whipped cream to the top.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size

11 serving (286.2 g)

Amount Per Serving

Calories

268268

Calories from Fat

4444

% Daily Value^*

Total Fat

4.9g4.9

8%8

Saturated Fat

2.7g2.7

14%14

Cholesterol

96mg96

32%32

Sodium

338mg338

14%14

Total Carbohydrates

51.2g51.2

17%17

Dietary Fiber

2.7g2.7

11%11

Sugars

45.1g45.1

Protein

7.1g7.1

Vitamin A 220%220	•	Vitamin C 6%6
Calcium 16%16	•	Iron 6%