Jessica Walliser
It ’s official . We ’ve had our first frost here in western Pennsylvania , and while it ’s always sad to see the end of another summer , there are still a lot of beautiful and yummy thing happening in the veg garden .
Harvesting Cool-Weather Crops
Although I harvested the last of the Lycopersicon esculentum and black pepper yesterday afternoon , a plethora ofcold - tolerant , homegrown veggiesstill remain in the veg patch . The endive is ready for harvest , as are the French Breakfast radishes I planted in mid - September . Other root crops , such as beet , turnips and carrots , are now snug under the protection of a layer of fabric row cover . I ’ll be harvesting them as - needed from now until the arrival of the new year .
I ’ll also be reap a mixture of baby greens . I have new Swiss Swiss chard , cabbage , mache , arugula and spinach ready to pluck for salad and braising . I ’m particularly adoring of Winter Density lettuce for fall and wintertime harvest time . It stands up beautifully to these cold temperature with nothing more than a recycled milk jugful cloche for protection .
Preserving Squash
I ’ve tugged out all my winter crush and pumpkin vines and moved the fruits into the basement forstorage . This week ’s to - do lean let in a roasting fest for some of those pumpkins and crush . I always halve and de - seed several of the fruits and then roast them in the oven — on a baking sheet , make out side down — until the chassis is soft . After they cool , I scoop out the build and carry it in zip - top plastic freezer bags . I use the mash in soup and stews and adust goodness all wintertime long . I attempt to have two or three dozen bag of it in the freezer and quick - to - go every wintertime .
Final Parsley Harvest
Another pending task for the vegetable garden now that frost has get is my finalparsley harvestof the time of year . For some cause , my family uses a lot of Petroselinum crispum , and I care to have plenty of it on - hand year - round . It ’s a tradition of sorts to head out to the garden soon after the first freeze and snip off most of the parsley . I then convey it in spite of appearance , wash the leave , and pack them into pronounce freezer bags . I toss the frozen leaves into can pie , stews , and soup , and really enjoy the “ gullible ” look they bring to these dish .
Harvest Bean Seeds
And my last chore in the vegetable garden for this week is to reap mybeanseeds . I halt picking my celestial pole and runner beans a few weeks ago to countenance enough of them to reach maturity so I can harvest the cum . bean are for the most part ego - pollenate , so seed from open - pollinated edible bean kind can easy be harvested and saved for planting next year . I ’ll save seeds from my French Gold pole bean and my Scarlet Runner bean by hook the dry out pods off the vine and let them sit down on a CRT screen in the service department for a few weeks . Once the fuel pod break open , I pick out the seeds and store them in labeled jars in the fridge .
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