Quote of the Day: Albert Comus
“Autumn is a second spring, where every leaf is a flower.”
-Albert Camus
I think peak leaves will happen this week here in NE Ohio, too bad they’re calling for gloomy, rainy, snowy weather. I love the changing of the leaves because it helps make this season a little more bearble. It’s tough because you know soon enough all life will be dormant and everything will be brown. But the explosion of colors really helps brighten my mood!
What do you enjoy most about the changing seasons (or do you have them where you live)?
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The Last Ripe Tomatoes of the Season
This past week I went out and picked the last ripe tomatoes of the season. With lows in the mid 30’s tonight I think it’s the end of tomato season. I still have some green ones to get out and pick later today, but I don’t think I’ll find any more red ones on the vines.
These tomatoes aren’t as tasty as the ones that ripen in the warm August weather, but they’re still better than the supermarket variety! I’m very sad to see tomato season over, it seems like it flies by so fast.
Have your tomatoes come and gone, or do you still have some in the garden?
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Vote for Me
I just noticed on the Fennel & Fern blog that one of my pictures is in the running in their contest. Head on over there and vote for me. I had no idea until today that they had chosen one of my photos, is is one of my favorites from this summer.
Do you have a favorite photo from you garden this summer? If so post it on your blog or photo sharing site and add the link to the comments, I’d love to see them.
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Baby Black Rat Snake
On Wednesday evening I found this little guy in our driveway. At first I was very excited, as I’ve never seen a snake here at Chiot’s Run. I’ve always wanted to find a big black snake in my garage, but sadly that has never happened. After looking closer I realized this little guy was dead.
I grabbed him and examined him to see what had happened. I came inside and searched on-line to try and identify what kind of snake it was. After searching I decided it was most likely a baby black rat snake. He was about 15 inches long, which is about how long the baby ones would be this time of year for the reproduction cycle of black rat snakes. The markings on his back & belly are consistent with some photos I found on Flickr. I found this great blogpost about baby black rat snakes, there are even photo of the eggs!
Black rat snakes hatch out at 11-16 inches, which means this little guy was very young. They often nest in tree cavities where other nesting animals have been. Since I could see no visible injuries, I think perhaps it fell out of the big maple tree beside the driveway.
It’s kind of sad to find my first snake and have it be dead. However it’s not really a sad story, a baby snake in the garden means there’s a mama snake around. I think this is good news for my overpopulation of chipmunks! Black rat snakes are considered one of the most beneficial snakes in Ohio. They can live up to 20 years and are prolific eaters of mice, rats, chipmunks, rabbits, other small rodents, birds and eggs.
I put him on a rock in the garden and he’ll probably become food for another small animal. Perhaps I’ll spot mama in the garage someday soon!
What do you think, do you want snakes around or do they give you the heebie jeebies?
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September 2009 Harvest Totals
September is the month when things start slowing down here in Ohio. We had scattered frost the last week of September, which is a few weeks earlier than usual. The weather has been very cold and very cloudy and dark, which significantly slowed down the harvests from the garden.
I harvested my onions, which was very disappointing. For some reason onions do not do well in my soil, I don’t know if it’s the acidity or the lack of sunlight in my fairly shady gardens. I’ll be growing the majority of my onions at my mom’s house next year and I’ll experiment with a few new locations here with more sun.
I didn’t get around to planting any lettuce in late Aug/early Sept as I wanted, so I don’t have any lettuce from the garden at the moment. I also got my fall cabbage & broccoli started a little too late, that coupled with the early cold weather will mean I will not be harvesting much from my fall garden. I do have spinach, chard and mache in one bed that will be ready for early spring harvests next year.
The longer I garden the better I’ll be at planting things at the right times to ensure better fall harvests. I should have a decent October harvest with all the squash and popcorn and hopefully I’ll be harvesting lettuce and other green towards the end of the month. I was also able to can/freeze/dry a lot of food for this winter not just from my garden but local food from the farmer’s market as well.
In September I was able to harvest:
44 lbs of tomatoes that were canned in chunks for winter sauces & soups
40 lbs of pears from my mom’s tree
43 lbs of pumpkins & squash that will be made into pies and other goodies
5 lbs of small onions that will be used up this winter in all kinds of dishes
4 lbs of green beans that were steamed, drizzled with olive oil and enjoyed
3 lbs of melons
2 lbs of crabapples that were used to thicken my elderberry syrup
2 lbs of peppers, mostly cayenne that were dried to spice up soups & sauces
2 lbs of celery that was used in chicken soup when I was sick and other dishes
.5 lbs of garlic that I found in the garage that was actually harvested in July but somehow got misplaced
Lots and lots of herbs that have been dried and stored for sipping in teas or spicing up dishes
Despite all the setbacks, it was still a satisfying September. I’d rather be harvesting a little from the garden than nothing at all, and I guess I keep track so that I realize at the end of the month that harvesting 142 lbs of food from my garden means that it wasn’t such a bad month after all. Besides, there are still tomatoes that are ripening on the vines and that makes me happy.
What were your September harvests like? Any standout producers?
