Winter Landscapes

Potato Party

Well this post is a little late, but I figured better late than never. Back in September we were blessed to have the help of friends, family and neighbors to get our potato crop out of the ground. We made it into quite a party. In the evening we all had a harvest dinner of potato soup and Asian cabbage salad. We also celebrated David's 4th birthday with a some cupcakes, balloons, and gifts.

The Potato Harvest Crew

Matthew Helping Sort Potatoes

Picking up Potatoes

Potatoes

Happy Birthday

David Turns Four

Morning Sunshine

This morning I went out to the garden early in the morning. The sun was shining and it was already beginning to warm up. It was so peaceful and fresh out there. First I fed all the chickens, then watered some seeds we planted recently. A pair of honking geese flew overhead. I think I need to get up earlier more often and enjoy the fresh new mornings.

Planting Garlic

This fall we planted a large area of the garden to garlic. We have ten beds, one hundred feet long with four rows in each. It was quite a bit of work to get it all planted but we did it. It was just in time too, before the ground began to freeze and snow stared to fall. It looks so nice all planted and mulched.

Picking Sunflowers

Pumpkins and Squash

Cinderella Pumpkin

I love growing pumpkins in all different shapes, sizes and colors. Here is one I grew this year that I think is just beautiful.

Sweet Melon

A melon from our garden. I can actually grow melons in our cool spot but they are late and might not ripen. So you won't be seeing any of these at the market, because I just grow a few for fun. This is a French Charentais melon and was very sweet and delicious.

Garden Fresh Tomato Sauce

Yum...

Sunny Sunflowers

I love sunflowers! They are so cheerful and summery. This year I have to rows of them one along the potato patch and one below the squash patch.

Italian Zucchini

Dill Pickles

The smell of dill and vinegar fills the house. It is late summer and time to make pickles again. I am slicing cucumbers with the sun streaming in my kitchen window. There is something so pleasant and old fashioned about making and canning dill pickles. I love being in the kitchen turning garden produce into something delicious to store for the winter. I love the beautiful jars filled with pickles cooling on the counter when I am all finished.

Flowers in the Garden

I love having a few flowers blooming throughout the garden. So this year I added some marigolds and nasturtium at the end of rows. I also have some flowering herbs like borage, along with a bed with cosmos, dahlias and other flowers.

Raspberries

I am starting to see a few ripe raspberries.

First Tomatoes

I picked the first ripe tomatoes out of the hoophouse this morning! I am so excited.

Morning Light

Radish Pickles

We had lots of extra radishes a while back. So I tried a new recipe for refrigerator radish pickles. They were actually pretty good but quite different.

New Potatoes

We have been harvesting new potatoes the last couple of weeks and bringing them to market. It is so amazing to have them already. These are ones we started in March in the hoophouse. Then later after we stopped having frost we moved the hoophouse off and put tomatoes in it.

Green Strawberries

Hopefully we will have ripe strawberries soon. I can't wait. They are blooming really well this year.

Zucchinni

We brought our first zucchini to the market on Friday! These pictures were taken a few days earlier.