October 16 2015 - Harvest Madness at 1 AMFirst frost is likely coming in 30 hours (after the time in
October 16 2015 - Harvest Madness at 1 AMFirst frost is likely coming in 30 hours (after the time in the title), and first hard freeze by Monday. It has been crazy trying to get ready… while hosting a house guest who distracts V. I transplanted Bee Balm, ~40 baby broccoli (Dome 2 East bed), a mess of tiny brassicas around the new circular pond (Tiki Triangle Bed - trying to take advantage of microclimates). Just beyond this picture are the fruits of the Maypops (the best leaves are being prepped in the drying racks). The fruits are NOT ready, which means they are not ready for eating nor are the seeds mature. I have chopped the stems up and shoved the longer end of the stem in the aquarium in the Solarium in an attempt to for them to mature. The stems that I chopped too short in my fatigue are sitting in a bowl of water on a kitchen counter. It sounds crazy, but the aquarium method is actually how we ended up with viable seeds in the first place, years ago. We’ll see how it works, I probably have ~20 fruits I’m trying to mature, and thanks to the butterflies some have no foliage left.Also, you can see the latest batches of hot sauces, which will now go to a dark space to ferment. Those are wonderful half-gallon wide mouth jars. The center jar is Serrano-based, the outer jars are Habanero-based. I’ve learned that I can handle Serranoes with bare hands ok but I get into trouble with Habaneros. Since I was in the garden with bare hands again (I can feel roots so much better bare-handed!), and my hands were inevitably torn up, I opted to try gloves this time. At the store, V wanted gloves he could wear too, for concrete work. This meant the box of gloves selected were of course huge on me, but I muddled through. V has massive hot sauce needs, he can go through one of these jars in a week or so. He and his sister swear it’s medicinal. Note: we’ve learned that to ferment these, all one needs is this normal lid, but you don’t close it all the way. I’ve tried airlocks, but he actually prefers how they come out with this method which is fine by me. I do drape multiple dark towels on top of and around them, and put them in the guest bedroom. -- source link
#crittercove#harvest#food preservation#fermentation