September 2008

We have three apples trees. They came with the place. That is how I know the secret to good apple pie and crisp is to start with delicious baking apples. When I started using these apples in the same recipes I'd always used, the compliments increased dramatically: "This is the best apple pie (crisp) I've [...]

Carol over at May Dreams Gardens advises us to Embrace The End of The Growing Season For A Happier Life. She says, "Save yourself both time and worry and forget about covering plants in the fall." Well, yes and no. We covered some things for our first frost. Yes, we already had it! From experience [...]

This is not winter squash:One advantage of homeschooling is that faced with too much zucchini, yellow crookneck, patty pan, and kousa squash, you just bring out the butter knives and conduct art class. Wait to harvest winter squash I had to share that with you, because I don't have any pictures of winter squash. We [...]

The growing season gets a slow enough start around here that many annuals don't really strut their stuff until September. This is a real liability for the frost-sensitive ones like cosmos. I learned to seek out early blooming varieties because the old-fashioned ones often only had two weeks of bloom before shriveling in the first [...]

When we moved to this land, there were some grape vines already growing here. They were slipskin grapes, and if they weren't Concord grapes, they certainly were similar to Concords. That's not too surprising, since the hardiest grape species are slipskin. But you know what? Those kinds of grapes are too tart for me. They [...]

The winners of the Plant Identification Contest have been chosen. Two commenters each won a hand tool I know you want to know if you've won, so let's get that out of the way first. I used a random number generator to pick the names for the two hand tools. The comments are numbered, and [...]

Yes, I've been blogging here for six years, and this is my 800th post! I thought this year I'd throw you a challenge. I've got four plants that I bet you can't identify. I'm going to let you have fun trying, but I want to keep it interesting. The two prizes below will be awarded [...]

Blueberries and blackberries are done for the season. Peaches aren't really local, and apples aren't ready yet. But all those berries in the freezer, well, we're not just going to let them sit there! Fresh or frozen, this cake complements almost any kind of berry, cut up and sweetened to taste. Try it instead of [...]