Frost

Below freezing last night, for a few hours.
Will check on the garden tomorrow

Seed saving

An important autumnal task was collecting seeds so that there would be enough to plant the following spring. Here are garlic chives gone to seed, they are just beginning to open

So we collect these pods, and roll them to get the seeds out.

Clay progress

So some of the jugs had cleared so the clear water was poured off. Of the black, there is a very runny puddle of mud, and a ball.

Today I mined from three places. Site A was farthest upstream. The bank there had been eroded oddly, and while the stuff didn't feel very clay like it was holding up against the water so I grabbed some to try it. Mixed with water and pulverized it came off very sandy, but also made an orange mud, which will be left to settle.

Site B was above the waterline, and was that gray/black stuff that was a bit slippery. So that goes into the tub. Then a bunch of water is added and the whole thing mixed up good. You want to beeak up all the lumps. Then the slurry is poured through a screen into another container, and everything that doesn't get through the screen is discarded. The slurry is then left to settle out, the clear water can be poured off.

Site C was stumbled upon, quite literally. Climbing up out of the river I slipped on some slick earth. I shoved my fingers Ito it and it was slippery and smooth so I pulled up a bunch of it. It is full of organic matter, leaves and so forth.

In the time it took to process B and C, A has already begun to settle out...

Olives - and limes

An oiled jar, layers of olives limes and thyme. Then water to cover.

Chard

10 min from plant to pan. It can't get fresher without a stove in the garden!

Olives 5 cures

So I'm trying five different cures, in oxymel, in honey, in must, in brine, and with limes. Each jar is labelled and date on the lid and is accompanied by its recipe.

Olives- in honey

In putting the olives into the honey, I used a stray to let the air out, as the mass of honey formed a seal. Even so it took several pours with time for settling in between.

I did not cut them as I should have. It will probably take a lot longer for them to cure... Damn.

Olives

So the olive cures I have involve some ingredients that are recipes into themselves. One is grape must, and the other is oxymel. Grape must is the grapes as they are usually prepared for winemaking, that is, crushed. So I made two, with the two different grape varieties immediately available, red seedless and concord. Neither of these is really right, but it's close. These still have the skins and seeds all in them.

The oxymel is vinegar and honey. Dioscordes recommends 5 k vinegar, 1 k water, 1 lb salt and 10 lb honey. I wanted about enough for a qt so I divided that by 15. I used Braggs apple cider vinegar and raw honey from Dale B Hills Apiaries as they are both unfiltered.

So with my sub-recipes complete I'm getting ready to tackle the main...

Frost

The pumpkins have perished, and the basil mostly too, two plants have a leaf or two remaining. The transplanted chard is looking up, the volunteer tomato did well, whether covered by cloth sheet or plastic tarp. the deliberately planted ones survived as well.

I've built a small brick enclosure for the rosemary...

Frost

The pumpkins have perished, and the basil mostly too, two plants have a leaf or two remaining. The transplanted chard is looking up, the volunteer tomato did well, the deliberately planted ones survived as well.

Temperature

Temp this morning is 30.8 F

Improvised loading dock

10/18/14

Sometimes you think I something that is such a good idea, you can't believe you didn't think of this sooner.

Equinox

9/23 Today is the equinox, the day is as long as the dark. On honor google has a depiction for "first day of autumn" which is actually demonstrating pollarding, which is a medieval forestry technique.

Olives

My climate is not favored by the olive tree. But Galefridus got a box from far away lands, so now to try different cures

First, to wash them

Cold is coming

So a couple o things. Plastic sheeting over a low frame for the basil, garlic and one of the new colewort.

Plastic sheeting and tarp for the tomatoes and this years colewort. I'm pretty sure the duct tape won't hold, but it's all I have right now so we will see.

Sheet and plastic tarp for the volunteer tomato

Inverted pot for the rosemary

Autumn

Transplanted some coleworts (Portuguese kale) today. They had come up from seed from last years plants. Watered and mulched with lawn clippings, they aren't too happy right now. I hope they take. There's eight, but the one wasn't moved. The basil yet lives but it is spotted and weak. The wormwood and tansy are doing well, as is the feverfew.

Today's harvest

I'm a bit under the weather so wasn't able to do much. But did get tomato rosemary cucumber pepper basil and strawberry. The rose from Merlinia gave two flowers!

There's another pumpkin and seeds from asparagus and marsh mallow but they will have to wait. Time for another nap

Cold

Got down to 35.7 last night.