Week 18 Final Harvest Day for 2014

Gourds stay dry inside one of the unheated greenhouses.

While Angie and I were picking grapes we interrupted this spider's day.

Which is larger, the spider or the grape? And did this spider just eat a grape??? :)

Angie and her daughter head out with the cart to pick tomatoes. This path was supposed to be wide enough for the golf cart but the plants grew wider than predicted. So only the hand cart will fit.

Angie, Florencio and his brother try to set down a huge pumpkin gently.

It hasn't rolled over anyone, yet!

Success. Safely on the ground. It is important to keep pumpkin, gourd and winter squash stems intact as it helps their storage longevity. 

Florencio's son poses in front of the pumpkin.

Week 18's onion harvest.

A few pumpkins and winter squash for this week's boxes. Oh, and green bottle gourds on the back right. These were harvested, washed and allowed to dry in plenty of time for week 18 pick up.

Front to back: Turban squash and white pumpkins are both orange on the inside.

Turban squash are edible and can be baked or steamed or roasted.

White pumpkins are pretty for carving and then may be cooked.

Butternut squash are considered a winter squash. They have a hard exterior which makes them a good storage squash. You may cut them in half, scoop out the seeds and bake or cut into squares and roast. Yum. Some people drizzle with maple syrup or honey. Others melt butter and put brown sugar on top. They are also great in soups.

Bottle gourds or birdhouse gourds, once dry can be turned into bottles or birdhouses. Florencio's grandmother used them to carry water on a daily basis in Mexico.

Baby Boo mini pumpkins are wonderful to decorate with and even are edible like full size pumpkins.

Acorn squash. I love these! Slice in half, if you and your knife are strong enough, place cut side down in the microwave for enough minutes to get them fork tender. Or bake in the oven. Then put in a bit of butter and brown sugar. This is MY dessert this time of year. Ooo la la! And they store well.

Two varieties of delicata squash, light colored and tan between the green stripes. These are wonderful, too. Grams' favorite winter squash. 

New to us this season are orange acorn squash. We haven't eaten one yet but assume they are the same as their green relatives.

Beautiful dark red dahlia after our showers today,

One of the new dahlias from Swan Island Dahlias Lisa and I picked out last fall. So delicate looking and also great for bouquets.

Mom passed away a little over ten years ago, her sign still holds true here at the farm.

Cinderella pumpkins rest on the black walnut log. They are edible and a bright orange inside.

Today's carrot selection that Angie and I dug and washed. I think we may have gotten as wet as the carrots did.

Scott and two of his and Anna's cherubs are harvesting the summer squash, zucchini, yellow crookneck and patty pan. She appears to be getting tired. Sweet girl! The little man just marches along. :)

Lisa cut some of the first pampas grass from out by the highway today. Dad planted these from seed the year before he passed away. He had Florencio plant them alternating a white blooming one and then a pink blooming one like this one. They have grown tremendously and he would be very pleased.

A wide variety of sunflowers from the second planting this summer. The first planting has finished and these are ready for bouquets.

These pink pampas grass drape so beautifully. And they are silky soft.

The tall orange marigolds that are planted among the peppers and tomatoes pull double duty today as they will be placed in bouquets.

This little black and green cucumber beetle has caused much damage to our cucumbers and even to some flowers. They gnaw on things and wreak havoc. If you've had a sunflower with nibble marks, chances are this was the culprit. 

A honey bee investigates this sunflower's center. These guys we love to see!

Scott and cherubs continue. His cherubs are now riding on the cart. Scott is tireless and pushes on.

She watches from inside the box which apparently tastes pretty good. He is guarding the box so it doesn't tip over with his little sister inside. Precious.

Angie searching as she harvests cherry tomatoes.

Helping pick cherry tomatoes to go into our lunch time goodies. He keeps up a running conversation while picking.

She is helping pick cherry tomatoes, too. On the farm, everyone helps out. For being a very young lady, she is pretty good at this!

Jan on the left and DiAnne on the right came out to help harvest today. They are settled in to pick cherry tomatoes for the boxes. This is one of our most time consuming activities this time of year. Also one of the most fun as chatting frequently occurs. 

Apparently some taste testing occurred while the little one was IN the box on the cart. This zucchini has tiny teeth marks. She does love eating just about everything on the farm. You might remember she taste tested hot peppers by mistake a couple weeks ago.

Lisa's flower shed is full of posies in their buckets of water. Each harvest box person will also be able to take home corn stalks to decorate with, if they so choose.

A different view of the beautiful bounty. 

Lime green zinnias, Queen Lime zinnias with pink around the edges, orange and purple zinnias, too.

Coral colored at the bottom, nearly white to the right, Binary purple zinnias and other colors. I am hard pressed to not love them all!

Purple heliotrope has a marvelous fragrance. It reminds me of baby powder or vanilla.

Pretty pink pampas grass drapes among the other flowers.

Bright yellow and orange zinnias look just like the colors of fall leaves on many of the trees.

We love this "new to us" dahlia from our sister-in-law Denise's yard. It has a beautiful blend of colors. Thanks Denise!

A delicate blend of pale colors in this dahlia.

The inside of a Cinderella pumpkin. This one will provide us with multiple uses. Stay tuned.

Colorful mini-bells. Red noodle beans off to the left.

A few grapes for this late fall day. Hopefully the spiders are elsewhere.

Asian pears that look kind of gnarly. They are all bumpy, but that's just a trait of this variety.

Pablano peppers are changing from green to blackish to red. Their natural color progression.

Lisa made this absolutely delicious fig crumble bar. Oh. My. Gosh. It was so very good. Makes my mouth water as I am typing.

These summer squash fritters with zucchini and yellow crookneck squash are as good as cookies to pick up and eat out of hand. Oh yes. And they have parsley from the garden.

Today's pasta salad was full of vegetables as usual. Tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and cucumbers. Notice Anna is going "healthier" on us by using some whole wheat noodles, too. Delicious.

Oh, have you ever tasted pumpkin fudge? This was amazing. Anna will try about anything and it is always delicious. Or beyond delicious, like this was. Creamy and delicious.

Homemade fig newtons using figs from the orchard. I made these, this recipe was okay, but Anna's pumpkin fudge and Lisa's fig crumble bars were much better, hands down.

Anna on the opposite side of the row, is picking the red noodle beans, carefully. She discovered small wasps like to hang out at the point where the beans are attached to the plant. And yes, she found out the hard way, she did get stung.

The patchwork quilt bed of lettuce.
You might notice it is getting darker outside. Dark clouds are looming and pouring rain is about to begin.

Jan and DiAnne are separating the dry bean pods from the dry bean plants that Florencio pulled to finish drying in the greenhouse. When the pods get dry out in the garden they start to naturally shatter to scatter their seeds like mother nature intended. Florencio pulls them so the dry beans wouldn't be lost in the garden and they are allowed to finish drying on the tarps in the greenhouse. Scattering on the tarps is permitted. :)

Cabbage maturing near the corn. This part of the property has gravel mixed in with the soil as there is a gravel roadway near here. These are a few of the crops that don't seem to mind the rockiness. Other crops will not grow here. 

These tall and short sunflowers are blooming their heads off. I find all the different colors of green in the garden to be so pretty.

Angie just finished picking kohlrabi from the row to the right. I was picking corn, peeked out and she was already finished. It was raining so I don't blame her!

Inside the corn jungle. It is important to me to wear long sleeves and long pants as corn leaves are sharp. And today they are also wet.

Dad would have pushed the wheel barrow down between the rows. I, on the other hand, push it on the outside and fight through the corn rows to put the corn in the wheel barrow. Both seem to work. I also don't have to pick 100 dozen a day.

The little red dot on her middle finger is where the little wasp stung Anna. Not a large mark, but for the first couple minutes it hurts like heck. I was stung last week while picking zucchini of all things. 

Red noodle beans can be very entertaining.

Our tall orange marigolds look lovely mixed with the purple asters and purple zinnias. Stunning!

Red noodle beans breaking out of their box.

Green onions before Angie and I wash the soil off and trim up the roots.

Angie proudly carts in our clean and trimmed green onions and lettuce. Today we did more picking and washing as Florencio was off harvesting grapes elsewhere for the day.

Brussels Sprouts in all their glory. One of the things we like to do is help people understand about things in the gardening world. Several people at pick up time mentioned they hadn't known how these actually grew. 

The bottom Brussels Sprouts on the middle stem are larger than the top ones as we had taken off the lower leaves a few weeks ago. That provided the plant more energy and therefore those little flavorful nuggets grew larger than the ones sharing energy with their leaves higher up on the plant.

Today's crew during nap time and after the rains. The camera, you might notice, even had a couple raindrops on it.
Left to right: Lorrie (me, the blogger), my sister Lisa, friend Chris, cousin Faith and her Bill, Angie who is our niece, friend Jan, and decades long friend Other Mary.
Front row left to right: my niece and Lisa's daughter Anna who is the mother to the little cherubs here at The Farm and my very helpful mother-in-law Mary.

Cherubs after their naps enjoy good times among the corn stalks.

Still hiding behind flowers and corn stalks. Love her boots.

Fountain grass with maroon and white dahlias and pink Sweet William.

Red and white dahlias with red zinnias and white asters.

The littlest one has joined her siblings in the corn stalk teepee hiding spot. Adorable.

Brother and sister help arrange the table of squash right before pick up time. Many choices for people to select from. Today's box will not hold all the bounty. People will be selecting either a white or Cinderella pumpkin. Each box will also be able to take one of each of the other varieties on the table. See why they won't all fit in the box today? :) 

Siblings this harvest season. Next year they will have another one in the picture!

They love the farm AND hot apple cider. Love each face...

Melissa likes her corn stalks!

Goodies to nibble on. Left to right: fig newtons, pumpkin rolls with cream cheese frosting, chocolate zucchini cake, hot apple cider. All made with items from the farm. Our brother has a cider press and our family presses cider each fall. Anna donated some of her cider to our year end harvest day.

Lisa has de-seeded this Cinderella pumpkin and placed a mason jar is inside as the actual vase for the flower bouquet. She is preserving the inside of the pumpkin from contamination as the pumpkin will be cooked for later use. The pumpkin came from the collection on the log in the background.

This would look very cool all by itself on a table or counter.

Weight lifting competition with delicata squash. Who knew???

Lisa organizing flowers while it pours outside her flower shed area.

Lisa brought orange lights to jazz up the place and help celebrate. The little one casts a shadow as it is getting dark. The harvest box people have come and gone, but we don't want to leave just yet.

Another view of Lisa's flower area after our harvest box people  have come and gone.

There are some flowers left so we will be able to make our own arrangements to take to our own homes. Peaceful here at The Farm in the rain and the dark.

Lisa, Anna and Anna's youngest. Three generations along with Lisa's dog Sophie. We think Mom and Dad would be proud of what we have done here at The Farm. 

Shady Maple Farm harvest boxes have been returned and will await next year's harvest. Thank you everyone!

As we put the garden to bed this fall, we will keep you posted with images from Shady Maple Farm.

Goodbye until next time, Lorrie