Hello September
A late summer sunset.
Where did the summer go?
As much as I hate to admit it, I am usually glad for September to arrive, even though it means winter is just around the corner. We will no longer be picking and weeding for hours on end. We have a month left of the farmers market in Billings. The growing season will be ending soon. How soon? That’s up to Mother Nature. We usually have a killing frost two out of three years in the first two weeks of September. It depends upon the day (and our mood) as to whether it is too soon or not soon enough for the season to end.
This does not mean we are done; we will be out working until we get that hard freeze. The fall raspberries are just hitting their stride. They aren’t as prolific as the June raspberries but we’re out every night picking. We have yellow raspberries and it’s fun to see people’s reaction to those. They have a milder flavor compared to their red cousins.
With the cooler nights, our warm weather vegetables are slowing down or just giving up. We will be finished picking beans this week. Zucchini and cucumbers are producing a fraction of what they did in August. Last week we started cutting all the new growth off the tomatoes to encourage them to start ripening the tomatoes they have set and to quit making new ones. We should have done this a few weeks ago.
While we do not tend to sell tomatoes, we do raise quit a few for our own use. We can, freeze and make paste. We try to put up enough to get us through to next year. Some years we do and some we do not, this year we only have a few jars of paste left.
We usually pick our winter squash with the first frost of the year. We have had requests for winter squash so this year we are growing some early maturing varieties: acorns, delicata, butternut and spaghetti. In addition, we also grow our favorite winter squash, Red Kuri, these are a hubbard type squash and take the whole season to mature.
The end of September and most of October are busy as well. We are trying to get everything put to bed and ready for spring. I used to leave all this year’s plants in the garden to hold the dirt and hopefully some snow as well and then rototill it all in the spring. For the last several years the springs have been too wet to get out in the garden to do this. I would stress trying to find a time when all the pieces came together. The garden dry enough to work, time to do the work and not too late to plant. I switched to prepping the garden in the fall. While this adds to an already busy fall, I don’t stress about getting the garden ready in the spring. I think I have mentioned this in the past but for the last year or two I have only been working the soil in the strips where we plant. This frees up several hours, is easier on me and leaves most of the soil untouched.
While this year’s garden appears to be coming to a close, it really isn’t. We are thinking about what we did this year and what we may do differently next year.
We are also thinking about the fruit orchard, our real love. We still have some decisions to make about what to replace the grapes with and a time line for it. Next year will be a better year for the place. Hopefully no hail, more mature plants, no late frosts and more fruit to pick.
Recipe:
Delicata is one of the few winter squash that you can eat the skin. Because the skin is softer they don’t have as long of a shelf life as other winter squash. A tasty way to eat delicata is also a pretty easy way to fix them.
Roasted Delicata Squash:
Delicata squash, ends trimmed, halved length wise and seeds removed.
Salt
Black pepper or Cayenne if that’s your thing
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (makes for a quick clean up)
Cut the squash halves into 3/8 inch rings (technically a half ring)
Put the squash rings in a bowl, drizzle with oil and add salt and pepper, make sure the squash is well coated
Arrange the squash on the baking sheet in a single layer
Bake the squash until the bottoms are brown and the squash is tender, about 12 to 18 minutes.