the first cold weather and frost warnings: it happens every year

[Blackdog Lin]

I HOPE we get through tonight, forecast is for 37 degrees, so didn't make it a priority to stay home and take care of the garden - we went out per plans we had already (area town festival, parade and running into people you went to school with 35 years ago and eating ridiculously high-priced unhealthy fried foodstuffs - it was fun and good for us to get out) :)

But forecast tomorrow night is for 34 degrees - so gotta get into the garden tomorrow. Lots of green tomatoes to pick. Thinking of trying green-tomato relish canning - we've never done that. And gotta get the brussells sprouts plant (in a pot) loaded up in the wagon to take into the garage (we're looking at ONE more good fresh meal from them if we can just get another week or so). And there's the first ever fall garden we've ever put in: broccoli and romaine and radishes. DH pulled out a bunch of large pots and buckets and already has them setting out by the garden - I assume we'll be placing them tomorrow evening to try to save the late crops.

Anyone else freaking out with trying to deal with/save the last of the gardening season?

[Tussiemussies]

Didn't have a garden this year, but I hope you get all of your produce in on time!!!

[Mrs-M]

No scrambling or freaking out here! LOL! Usually, by mid/late August, our garden is fairly bare, and whatever else remains (past first/second week in September) stays until the next growing season. Not wasteful, just a few odds and ends that turn-under in the Spring, making for added nutrients and food for the garden in the new year.

We've been getting heavy frosts and lots of minus temps for weeks now, so our growing season ends much earlier (I'm assuming) as compared to many (like yourself, Blackdog Lin), who reside in the States/elsewhere.

[peggy]

Going through the mental checklist here as we have a freeze warning for tonight. Hoses disconnected, house plants all taken in, everything else will just have to adjust to the changing weather as they are outside plants. Of course i think of my tender new little fruit trees, but ultimately they need to 'put on their big boy pants' and be one with the environment. I have spent so much time this summer getting these trees through the worst drought we have had since the dust bowl, it's kind of hard to just let nature take over, as she must. We have been getting a little rain periodically, and enough to take these babies into fall. It's just hard...

[Blackdog Lin]

Peggy - I so understand about your baby trees. I planted several babies when we first moved out here, and struggled with how much care they should have before I let them live-or-die-on-their-own.

My little update: picked scads of Juliet tomatoes, green tomatoes and green and red bell peppers, and yesterday processed 12 pints and a quart of our first ever picallily (however you spell it.). It turned out really good, and used up most of the green tomatoes and 50% of the peppers. I now need to freeze the rest of the bell peppers, make a big batch of pico de gallo to use up Juliets, and figure menus for the next week to use up the rest of the regular tomatoes - we picked a fair amount of reddening ones.

We were only able to cover half of the broccoli plants, but they all seem to have weathered the frosts well - the uncovered ones don't look much worse than the covered ones. We covered what little lettuce was looking good and it did fine. And the weather forecast looks good for the next 10-14 days - so still hopeful for a little fresh lettuce and a bunch of broccoli.

We've never grown broccoli before, early OR late. The seeds were given to us free, DH babied the seedlings in cups on the patio for weeks, transplanted to the garden, and they've just done so fabulously we can't believe it. Every seed came up, and the plants are lush and large in the garden. That's why we've been worried about losing them, 'cause they've done so well for our first try.

[CathyA]

I covered all my tomato plants several nights when there was to be a frost or freeze.........but the tarps touching the leaves actually killed them. Still have tons of green tomatoes, which I'm picking as much as I can and making a green tomato casserole. some are just going to have to die.

Picked the butternut squash and its curing on the covered porch.
If you do cover things in the garden, make sure they aren't touching the plants.........which is sort of hard to do.

Sometimes people with winter squash and pumpkins think its okay to leave them out for frosts........mainly because of the poem "When the frost is on the pumpkin.................", but actually it can kill them.

Its hard to let the garden go when the foliage and young fruit are doing so well.........but sometimes you just gotta let nature have at it. Put it all in your compost pile and it will give back.

[CathyA]

Blackdog Lin.........here's a great recipe for green tomato casserole:

6 medium green tomatoes
1 and 1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 (or more) tsp salt
pepper
3 cup soft bread crumbs (about 6 thick slices of french bread crumbs (just grind them in a food processor))
1 and 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 Tbsp butter

-Slice tomatoes 1/4" thick and line some of them in bottom of 2 qt casserole dish
-sprinkle with 1/3 of the salt/sugar/pepper/breadcrumbs cheese
-repeat layers, but on top don't use cheese. Cover with breadcrumbs and dot with butter
-cover
-Bake in 400 degree oven for 1 hour. Remove and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

We love this recipe and have used quite a bit of our green tomatoes in it.

[Blackdog Lin]

CathyA - I was reading your first reply and thought "I gotta do a reply and ask her about her green tomato casserole! I need that right now." And so many thanks for your posting of it.

I got all of the peppers in the freezer this afternoon. A big batch of pico de gallo will take care of the rest of the Juliets, along with some peppers I saved out for it. I'm down to 10-15 green tomatoes, and 10-15 red or reddening tomatoes. Fixing fried green tomatoes tonight, and have a plan for using up many of the fresh red tomatoes in the next 3 days. (If I can con/persuade DH to prepare them - he's the tomato boiler/peeler in the family - I hate doing up fresh tomatoes for a recipe, even though I love the results.)

Now thinking of a Saturday night meal of sausage patties and fried green tomato casserole. Really looking forward to trying it!

(and yeah, I kept telling DH "let's just tarp the whole row of broccoli, it'll cover them, it'll work". And he said no it wouldn't, you can't tarp rows without a bunch of clearance, something to hold it up, and we don't have enough stuff to do it right.....)

I hate it when someone validates that he was right, and I was wrong.....