Fall list to do

1. Make cuttings
2. Wash all pots and flats before storing for winter
3. Submerse all plants before bringing in for winter
4. Cut back all plants and spray down with water
5. Isolate plants and watch for bugs after a summer outside
6. Collect ripened seed for reseeding annuals and store in refrigerator after drying
7. Buy a bale of straw for covering plants when ground freezes.  Use for fall decoration in meantime.
8. Collect soybean seeds for next year crop when dry on vines
9. Dead head the ugly stuff and let the flowering kale give its show for fall.  
10. Place remaining pots of flowering kale in bare spots
11. Rake and dispose of black walnut leaves rather than compost. Do the same with shells the squirrels have left in garden.
12. Enjoy the last beautiful days of the season with a beer in the lawn chair as often as possible.

Cutting flowers, keeping them growing

It has become my challenge to cut and dry the flowers that are ready for the wedding.  It has also been a challenge to keep up with dead heading and keeping the fresh flowers looking fresh.  Taking a week away from the garden made that job a little tougher, but I do not regret a week of camping during the beautiful fall weather.

Some things that have dried nicely so far are statice, hare's tail grass, and straw flowers.  I also dried some bells of Ireland and the dried effect is pretty nice.  I have hung up hydrangeas but the ones kept in water in an upright state seem to look better as they dry.  I cut some of the Autumn Joy sedum tonight in hopes for something interesting.

The zinnia crop is still looking good on the fresh cut end.  Some varieties are getting powdery mildew while others are not as bad.  The cosmos looks pretty good, but it wants to go to seed and keeping up with dead heading is becoming tough.  I would like to have some seed for next year, so it may not be in the flower arrangements.  If we have nothing come through, it really doesn't matter as the florist will just go with what we ordered in the first place.

I have a veil to sew, so I better get to it.

Flower Garden Pictures

This garden has asters, Alysum, larkspur, and cone flowers that reseed themselves

I potted up all the flowering kale and assembled all for easy watering.  My husband commented that he liked it all together.

Three Mandevilla vines grow as one.  These I take in for the winter.  Cut back hard for easier storage.

Half of the Thunbergia vine in my garden is from gathered seeds. The Hydrangea is in glorious bloom even after taking off many for drying.

The wedding flower garden got a bit of a hair cut to make more light for the varieties I am trying to encourage more.  It is still beautiful and the hummingbirds don't seem to mind.

My grandmother's garden before I came along.  I love this picture of my older sisters.

Dried flowers

Some of the flowers I put in are ideal for drying.  I have straw flowers, Statice, Celosia, and hare's tail grass in the annual bed.  I also have a Hydrangea which is in beautiful bloom this year.

My preference for drying is to bind bouquets of the same flowers and colors with rubber bands near the bottom.  I hang them from my clothes line in the basement upside down.  The rubber band is the best fastener as it contracts with the shrinking stems as they dry.  String and wire remain the same size and flowers can start dropping out when the loop loosens up as the stems dry.  I use spring-type clothes pins to fasten the rubber band to the line.

I have also dried flowers in a container filled with borax.  This is good for flowers that are not ideal for drying.  Some flowers will droop and sag.  In borax, they stay flat (like daisies) or round (like roses) as the powder holds them in the original shape they you picked them in minus the water.  You do have to carefully take them out as they are brittle at this point.

One other method for drying flowers is a flower press.  Two boards of the same size, cardboard cut to fit, and paper towel to absorb the moisture.  Bind the boards together with strapping or belts that can be tightened down with a friction type latch that will hold them tightly together.  A heavy weight on top will also do the same thing just not as portable.  A more elaborate set up would be long bolts on each corner with washers and wing nuts to tighten it all down.  You can pull the petals from flowers with a large center to use in cards and pictures.  A bit of clear drying glue or laminate will keep them beautiful for a long time.

Seed catalogs often have a separate category for dried flowers.  If you are a crafty person who likes to garden, this can combine two hobbies into one.  Check out different kinds of plants to see what works and rule out those that aren't your style.  The hare's tail grass was something I had never seen before.  It has been a pretty little addition to the garden and has dried very well.  My hope is to incorporate some of these dried flowers into a floral arrangement at my daughter's wedding.

Salsa for canning

I have been tweaking my recipe for canning every year I make it.  I am very happy with my batch this year.  I have about a third of my tomatoes are paste tomatoes and the rest are a variety of salad and slicing tomatoes.  I do not use cherry tomatoes even if there is a surplus as it is just too many seeds for my liking.  At any rate, here is my latest version of salsa for canning.

Salsa for canning

Ingredients:
Tomatoes, Peppers (Jalapeno and green), onions, garlic, cilantro, salt, pepper, vinegar, limes, and tomato paste.   For every 4 cups of tomatoes use one or two hot peppers depending on how hot they are (jalapenos do change with different weather conditions).  I will sometimes substitute half of my fresh hot peppers with my roasted and dehydrated jalapenos which is about 1 rounded tablespoon for every 2 peppers.  I use about one green pepper for every 8 cups of tomatoes.   One medium onion for every 4 cups tomatoes.   One clove of garlic for every 4 C tomatoes.   One or two sprigs of cilantro for same.   Cilantro usually ripens and seeds before the tomatoes are ready so I chop the leaves up and freeze it in bunches and chop off as I need it estimating for every 4 C of tomatoes.   Salt and pepper to taste.   I use tomato paste to thicken the salsa rather than cook it down.   It taste much better and the salsa doesn't get all mushy from so much cooking.   A splash of vinegar to add acid. Better yet, I zest and juice one lime for every 4-8 cups of tomatoes.   

Directions:
Peel tomatoes by immersing in hot water as you would to can them whole cutting out the core as well.   Dice tomatoes.   Seed and dice hot peppers.   Be sure to use rubber gloves during this process or your hands will be burning for days!   Little food processor works well for dicing all the ingredients other than tomatoes to make them finer.   Tomatoes you want to have chunkier than rest.

Heat the salsa before canning.   I use the pressure canner.   10 pounds of pressure for 25 minutes for pints (or half pints) or 30 min for quarts (which I don't usually do, too much for one use).  I also have started using a water bath when adding sufficient amounts of lime juice and vinegar which is 15 minutes for pints when it returns to a boil.  If your salsa gets too hot add canned tomatoes when you use it.   If it is too mild add hot sauce when you use it.

I was able to successfully can all my salsa outdoors this year.  I really like my new portable stove which is two heavy duty burners with wind shields and a wind apron around the top.  It hooks up to a 20 pound liquid propane tank.  The burners are so much bigger than my stove and heating up the outside air is so much better than my house.

I have also decided that when I cannot get to doing my tomato canning because time is shorter than tomatoes, I am cleaning, coring, and freezing them in gallon bags until I have the time to do my sauce.  I refer to this as deferred canning. I make my jam in the winter with this same method.

I hope you like making your own homemade salsa as much as I do.  I do large amounts as it is my winter time trading commodity.  I got raspberries, homemade maple syrup, and help with canning in exchange for jars of salsa.  The possibilities are endless.

Roasting peppers and sauerkraut cutter restored

I'm all "geeked out" over the fact that I got the sauerkraut cutter cleaned, refinished, and sharpened.  It is in beautiful shape again.  The pounder had some dry cracks in it, but I used the mineral oil/carnuba wax to penetrate and protect.  This is going to make the job of cutting cabbage and pounding it down so much easier than last year.  Take a gander at sauerkraut production 2012 and see how I improvised these tools last year.

As you can see, the cutter is essentially a four foot long mandolin.  The pounder has a nice long handle so I will not have to get inside my bucket so far to press the water from the cabbage.  The other exciting part is that I can use the same tools that were used for years by my own family.  There are lots of memories attached to this baby.  Now I just have to wait for the fall crop of cabbage, preferably after all the wedding plans are done so I can attend to the kraut.

I also got busy with peppers from the garden.  I roasted up a bunch and did some freezing and dehydrating.  I have two good batches of ancho peppers ready for a chili relenos casserole that I am planning on creating.  I also have dehydrated my jalapenos for making a smoky, hot powder that is good in so many thing.  I got some really hot peppers from a friend that I roasted and dehydrated, but he is getting those back as they are too hot for my taste.  

The other thing that I was able to get for a good price was a portable gas stove that I can do my canning on outside.  This will be a nice relief from the usual hot, steamy kitchen that I usually have in fall.  I have set up operations in the garage so I am ready to roll.  Now I just need the time and energy.