Pre Freeze Harvests, Row Covers, Last Winter Squash, Soaks

Starting the day off right is an important thing and we have slid nicely into our new routine. First thing in the morning we soak and last thing at night before bed. It's a good way to prepare my body for the day and to prepare it for sleep. I can say without hesitation that I am sleeping harder with soaking before bed.

The summer squash got a day break and popped back with a nice 37 pounds. I really should know better by now and take 2 buckets out with me so I don't have to go back to the house to get the other. I found a couple oops in the Table Dainty squash. One was on purpose to let it get big for seeds but the others were complete surprises. I have to say that the variety is a bit of a misnomer, they really aren't dainty at all.

The Armenian cucumbers are still producing despite the vines starting to turn. These 3 were ready t be picked and ended up weighing 4 pounds.

The cucumbers put off a nice batch of 35 with most being of a longer length. Only a quarter of them were on the shorter 6 to 8 inch side. This makes 684 cucumbers harvested this year so far.

The grapes were ready for another harvesting and I still didn't get them all since a lot are not ripe enough. I still managed to get 18.5 pounds between the Vanessa and Somerset. The Vanessa gave me a nice full bucket of plump juicy grapes.

It was time to empty the potato bags and harvest what I was able to grow. I am very happy with the potatoes that I got but I am pretty unhappy with how many. Even though I filled the bags with soil and the plants grew up they only produced potatoes at the bottom of the bag and none of them vertically along the stems. Something I am going to have to figure out for next year, but I do like the bags as it is pretty easy to harvest. I just dump the bag out into the wheel barrow and sift through the soil.

I ended up with 19.5 pounds total and only 22 pounds for the year. I have to figure out a better way to grow them so I get more each year.

While picking the tomatoes I had worked through the main garden and was in the pole garden when I noticed one of the Table Dainty plants had morphed. It's always interesting to me to see the plants do this and I haven't determined a cause for why they get so wide.

The normal size vine is on the left and the wonky one the right.

I found this monster hiding in the wires which is a 2.75 pounder. Another oops, but will be a good supply of seeds.

The tomatoes gave me 8.75 pounds and I picked pretty much anything that had color. With incoming frost I figured I might as well.

The afternoon was centered around getting the row covers up on the important rows. The tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers in the main garden all got covered.

Then we got the cucumbers and most of the Table Dainty plants covered. I have a ton of squash growing but only limited cucumbers so my preference is to try and save them.

After a bit of indecision I gathered the last of my row cover and a couple of boxes then drove up to the winter squash garden. I covered all the melon plants and picked the few melons that were ready. There are about 15 melons left that I am really trying to let ripen on the vines.

While there I picked the last of the butternut to put with the rest for delivery tomorrow to the co-op.

It was only 41 pounds of winter squash yesterday and it puts my total for the year at 1207 pounds, well past the 850 I did last year.

I have quite the pile of squash on the patio. I have no clue what I am going to do with it all but I have it.

We had a pretty vivid sunset in the evening before we all headed out to the tub to soak and watch some Rick and Morty.

Today I have to pick beans for my order tomorrow, uncover all the rows and check for any frost damage which I doubt there will be since it only hit 34F for less than an hour, the freeze dryer is just about done FINALLY after over 80 hours so we will want to get it reloaded with the grapes or cucumbers. The recent winds have dumped a thick layer of pine needles that the trees have lost during the drought and I want to get a bunch raked up to use for a mulch around the farm. The hops are needing to be cut down and picked before they dry out and I think there are a couple of nectarines that actually grew on our trees this year that I should pick as long as the birds haven't devoured them.