Getting Caught Up

Editor's Note: As a result of a technology snafu, Mary Honrud's Green Spaces columns have not been published in The Glasgow Courier for a few weeks even though they were emailed. Below are three of Mary's columns that were not published.

Oct. 6 – Temporary Respite

While we have had a few frosts up here, north of the Middle of Nowhere, the summer-like afternoons have been most enjoyable. We do know those days are numbered. Dennis and I have taken advantage of a few of those nice days to get in some extra golf. I've been doing quite well at not feeling any guilt about those stolen hours of fun (but not doing so well at improving my golf "skills").

All my remaining tomatoes have been pulled from the plants and are residing in boxes in that cooler back bedroom. While I have separated the partially ripe ones from those still fully green, I do need to go back and put them into single layers. I like to put several sheets of newsprint (old Couriers) between those layers. It helps prevent the blemishes from causing rot on the whole batch of them. This might even be the year I test out the method my Hutterite friend Marguerite told me about. She says they wrap every tomato individually in plastic cling wrap. It slows the ripening a lot. She said they enjoyed their last "garden fresh" tomatoes in January.

I haven't yet dug either the potatoes nor the carrots. There are enough smaller beets still in the ground I'll be able to enjoy several more batches of the sugar-free pickled ones (recipe shared recently). And I know I'll make more of them using this recipe.

Spicy Beets

3 Tbl butter

2Tbl prepared mustard

1 Tbl honey

1 tsp Worcestershire

Salt to taste

2 C hot cooked & drained beets

Bring the first 5 ingredients to a boil. Pour over hot beets & serve immediately.

I made these beets to go with the following recipe. Dennis, of course, had microwaved purple potatoes instead of the beets. And bless him, he didn't drown his chicken in his favorite barbecue sauce. He wasn't overly fond of chicken fixed this way, but he didn't complain - much. I rounded out the meal with freshly baked whole wheat bread.

Lemon Pepper Chicken

1# wings (or drummies)

Olive oil spray

1/2 tsp salt, divided

1 tsp pepper, divided

2 cloves garlic, minced

Zest of 2 lemons

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, optional

Lemon wedges, for serving

Oven at 400°. Line rimmed sheet with parchment, or use a wire rack. Pat chicken dry, put on paper or rack. Spray with olive oil, sprinkle with half the salt and half the pepper. Bake 20 minutes, then flip pieces. Spray again and sprinkle with remaining salt and pepper. Bake another 20 minutes. Toss with garlic, zest and juice. Broil on high 8-10 minutes. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes if desired. Serve with lemon wedges.

I used regular drumsticks, and baked an extra two minutes on each side. And I didn't broil them. Maybe if I make this again with wings, I'd broil them, but farther from the heat, or for less time. I did squeeze extra lemon over my serving. Dennis didn't. I skipped the red pepper flakes too.

My various squashes are still in the garden. In fact, they're still under several layers of old blankets. The wind did its best to uncover them, but since the plants are short and just to the east of the raspberry canes, it didn't fully succeed. And there was minimal frost that night. I plan to pull all the squash before I have to write my next column. If I follow through on intentions, I'll have several packages of shredded crookneck (yellow summer squash) as well as zucchini in the freezer, ready for baking brownies and lemon muffins or cakes this winter.

Speaking of raspberries, this is the first year I've been able to harvest fresh raspberries this late in the year. Some of my canes will flower a second time, and try to set fruit long after the first picking. Usually those late developing fruits end up freezing before ripening. Of course, these are always at the very top of the canes. The weight of them causes the canes to bow down, and so the fruits are near the ground, making picking them a pain. But they are worth the pain, especially since my first pickings were so scant.

Oct. 13 – Seasons End

We've finally had our hard frost. Our thermometer only showed us dipping to 26° early in the morning of Oct. 13th, while neighbors (a loose term as they live miles away) claimed a low of 21°. I'm satisfied our temperature didn't drop that much.

Knowing the cold was coming, I'd dug all my carrots. Digging was the easy part. I snapped off the tops, then tossed them gently into my garden wagon. After hauling them to the lawn, they were spread out in a single layer, and hosed off, rolled over, and hosed again. It was fairly warm and there was a nice breeze, so they were mostly dry by the time I bagged them up. I finally finished off the huge supply of Bunny bread bags my father had supplied me with so many years ago.

I separated and bagged up two sacks of the tiny carrots to use up first. I gave one of them to our local daughter. I poke hole in the bags to let them breathe and to help reduce the risk of rotting. Then the bags go into the fridge. We'll still be having "garden fresh" carrots almost up to the time next springs' planting is ready for thinning. It really helps we have a second fridge available for this as I have another five bread sacks full. I really shouldn't plant three packets of carrot seeds next year. (My extra zucchini's are in that same fridge for now as well.)

There was another marathon day on Saturday the twelfth as I knew the cold would hit that night. That day saw us digging the remaining potatoes. Dennis manned the garden fork, while I crawled the ground pulling spuds from each hill. After the digging, I brushed dried dirt off (lack of rain and no watering for a while helps) and stacked each variety in little pyramids to dry a bit more. I have deep purple-fleshed spuds, red-fleshed as well as regular red spuds, some russets, and Russian fingerlings. Each type was bagged separately. The tiny ones as well as the few Dennis stabbed were pulled off to use up first. He did really well this year, only managing to mangle about three large spuds, and slightly poking a few more. The bags are in styrofoam coolers, up in the farm's shop. That building is kept at 40-45° all winter, so I use a portion of it as my "root cellar".

Sunday afternoon, the 13th, was a mini-marathon. The tops were finally trimmed from the glad bulbs, and dahlia tubers, as well as the few other tender bulbs I plant that won't survive our winter in the ground. The tubers and tender bulbs are sandwiched between burlap bags in another styrofoam cooler, while the glad bulbs are piled atop the dry potting soil in two large planters. Those are also stored in that shop. I'll pop the lid open on the tubers so they will stay dry.

The rest of my yard decor and the other large outdoor pots are put away in my (shipping container) shed for the winter. I pulled the outdoor chair cushions although I really should discard them and purchase new next year. The tomato cages, pepper cages, & cucumber trellis are stacked and stored. I even put away our milk crate of golf balls and the mat we use for driving practice from in front of the garage.

All the blankets I had over the squash are folded (unwashed) and in my shed. The mice really appreciated the warm covering over their treats. They were chewing bits off the blankets and digging nests into the ground under there, and nibbling on a few of the squash to sustain them while they toiled. Ick! Luckily they seemed to concentrate their nibbling on those few squash. The rest of the squash got a nice bath in bleach water and a good scrub with an old (now discarded) toothbrush. Those are in that cool back bedroom for enjoyment at a later date.

The tomatoes are all ripening at an alarming rate. Obviously this isn't the year I'm going to try the Hutterite method of delaying ripening by wrapping them individually in plastic wrap! I'm freezing them rather than canning.

Nov. 2 - Not a Guru

Just a few days ago, I was consulted about how to process horseradish. I had to confess I had no idea, although a former co-worker at The Lefse Shack had done some years ago, and he told me it made his eyes burn. I don't think he's still in the state or I'd direct the question to him. My friend was surprised that I didn't know. She'd assumed I'd be sure to have this info since "you've done everything". Alas, as I've written before, I love to garden, but am no expert. But I do know how to construct a sentence.

Our trip was to southeast Missouri, to the towns of Cape Girardeau and Jackson. My two younger sisters reside in those towns, along with numerous nieces and nephews. My youngest sister was recently diagnosed with celiac disease, so is busy relearning to cook, making meals she can safely digest. Charlie's shared a pie crust recipe she used for a quiche, which she said made her tummy happy. I've made the dough, but haven't yet rolled it out. It can sit in the fridge up to two days so I need to use it today. Once I've actually given it my approval, I'll share it.

We've had out-of-state hunters arrange (long in advance of the season) hunting trips on our land. They're after antelope, and if you know Dennis, he hates those animals. His attitude is, "if you take one, you need to take them all". These hunters are not about to do anything illegal as they want to keep their hunting privileges. They've been here before and are very appreciative of our permission to hunt our land. They arrived bearing gifts: bags of three kinds of apples, cashews, applesauces, candies, and a huge hunk of dark chocolate for baking. All of these were from their area of Michigan. I haven't yet used any of the baking chocolate, but I did make this recipe:

Apple Crumble Bars

Crust & topping:

2 1/2 C flour

1 1/2 C old-fashioned oats

1/2 C brown sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 C cold butter, cut into small pieces

Combine the dry ingredients, then cut in butter until crumbly. Reserve 1 C for topping. Press remainder into a greased 9x13" pan. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.

Filling:

4 medium apples

1/2 C brown sugar

2 Tbl butter

2 tsp cinnamon

Core, peel and chop or slice apples. Combine with rest in skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring, 10 minutes, or until soft and bubbly. Spread over cooked crust. Sprinkle with reserved topping. Bake 45-50 minutes until edges are golden brown. Cool in pan 15 minutes before cutting.

(Dennis said it needed more filling, so I'm amending my copy to say 6 apples. And I'll up the sugar a bit.)

As far as gardening /yard work, I've been dealing with the glut of fallen leaves. Using my old riding mower with the grass catcher bags is so much easier than raking by hand. Of course, the bags fill up quickly, so there's still a lot of physical labor involved in emptying the bags. I'm emptying them in places I hope the wind can't reach. I don't need them redistributed onto the lawn. The mower doesn't get close enough to my flowerbeds or other edges of the lawn, so I'm using my battery-powered leaf blower to shoot them out and away from those edges so the mower can work its magic. I'm all for labor-saving devices,

Oh, and I've just planted a hunk of ginger. My sister Cece had some started. She showed the pot to me, and I agreed with her: it looks a bit like bamboo. I hope mine grows as well as hers. I bought a chunk of fresh ginger at the grocery store. I filled a fair-sized pot with damp potting soil, placed the ginger flat atop that, and then lightly covered it with more soil. It's sitting back a ways from the south-facing window in my kitchen. I'll try to keep you updated on its progress - or lack thereof. (So much for having fewer plants needing watering through the winter. Oh, well.)