If you are still staring at the pumpkin you purchased for a decoration, and really don’t want to carve it, then watch it deteriorate into a moldy pile of goo; paint it!
If you use non-toxic paint, you can even convert the pumpkin to homemade pumpkin puree when you switch out the fall decorations for Christmas ornaments.
What do you think? I love this idea; I can have my pumpkin and eat it too!
Yes, it’s November already. I finally got my collards and kale into the ground.
It was nice to have seeds still from last year. Germination rates were great.
Poor little root-bound souls. All the waiting was stressing them out. 🙂
Triple row of daikon radishes doing well. I have an easy daikon recipe that I posted earlier this year that featured this root vegetable.
So far the shed bed has the triple row of daikons, 2 wide rows of mustard, and a few straggling basil plants.
The large garden has been planted with onions, kale, collards, turnips, lettuce, and has a few summer crops remaining such as peppers, sweet potatoes, and zucchini.
This is what happens when you neglect a zucchini. Ordinarily, I harvest mine when they are much smaller, but I’m glad I have a good chocolate zucchini bread recipe to use!
Here’s my list:
1. Plant garlic in shed bed.
2. Harvest and cure sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving. Replace sweet potatoes with carrots, who should hopefully appreciate the loose soil.
3. Plant out broccoli, cauliflower, pak choi, and Swiss chard transplants.
5. Resow Brussels sprouts and spinach.
6. Sow in empty spots: beets, carrots, mustard, and radish.
7. Start putting flowers and more vegetables in flowerbed. It is part of my plan to mix flowers and vegetables for winter color.
8. Make pear butter. I plan to use a method similar to my easy Crock-pot apple butter recipe.
It’s nice to enjoy local produce, isn’t it?
With just a little work at the beginning, my winter garden should be a “set it and forget it” type of garden. How does your garden grow? Are you clearing it in preparation for the first snowfall? Are you sowing seeds for spring? I’d love to know!
Having the words “easy” and “Crock-pot” in the same sentence is a bit redundant, I know. This apple butter is really simple to make and is a great way to make a dent in a bushel of apples.
Yep, I bought a whole bushel of Jonathan apples! 40 pounds of apples for $17 is a fabulous price to me.
I have started to see the end of my homemade jam stash. I didn’t think we would go through so much jam, but when it tastes so good, you tend to try to think of excuses to eat your peach jam.
So, on to the apple butter.
Here’s what you need: approx 3 dozen apples, 1 T pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon, 3/4 cup brown sugar. Yield will depend upon how long you cook down the apple butter. You should get at least 6 half pints.
Here’s what makes this so easy (beside the Crock-pot)- no peeling! That’s right, with Jonathan apples you can skip the terribly tedious chore of peeling 36 apples.
I just used this handy dandy apple corer/slicer. Remove the cores and save them for your favorite chickens.
The hard work is done now. The Crock-pot does most of the work from here.
Place the apples and spices in the Crock-pot on high for 3 hours, then stir and cook on low for another 2 hours.
By this point, the apples will be very soft and the peels will be disintegrating.
Puree it in a food processor (I used my Ninja-it’s great for helping separate lettuce seeds too!). It will probably still be a bit too thin for apple butter, so take the lid off and cook it on low for another 2 hours or so to evaporate extra moisture.
Your home will smell so wonderful. Much better than fake apple pie scented wax, for sure.
Now taste the apple butter. I did not have you add the sugar until now, because once they cook down you may realize that you do not need or want as much sugar. Add about 1/4 cup of sugar at a time to taste. I recommend tasting it on a fresh biscuit. 🙂
You can store it in the fridge for a few weeks. I recommend storing a few jars for yourself, then making some friends by handing out the rest.
Who is that crazy lady eating it all now? Save some for Christmas gifts!!!
If you want to can it, now is a great time to do so. I canned mine in half pint jars for 15 minutes.
Maybe there will be some left by Christmas. I probably should just make another batch. I still have about a gazillion apples in my fridge, even after eating them fresh and making applesauce too.
Look for an easy applesauce recipe soon!
So, what should I make next? I hope you are able to take advantage of local deals on seasonal produce too.
My poor flowerbed looks pretty bleak in the winter. After our first frost, not much is green except the day lilies.
So, this fall, I am planning to plant snapdragons in that flowerbed, along with some herbs and leafy vegetables.
I saw this display of snapdragons and pansies last spring and it sparked a determination to have some of my own. Seeing something like this from my kitchen window would certainly make doing the dishes much more pleasant!
So, right now I’m considering snapdragons and Swiss chard for color, curly kale for green, and potted herbs for structure. Maybe some lime green Bibb lettuce too?
Keeping the herbs in pots also gives me the option of tucking them indoors in case of a nasty freeze.
What do you think? Can you think of any other vegetables or flowers that I should add? What survives the cold for you? I’d love to hear your suggestions and ideas!
Have you dreamed of starting a garden but been discouraged by lack of knowledge or experience?
Please don’t be intimidated by gardening. Now is a great time to start a little garden and to see if you like it. Florida fall and winter gardens are a wonderful place to start: the temperatures are cooler and the bugs are fewer.
If you really want to just try a little garden and just have a little time; buy a pack of collard or kale transplants for a few dollars, then poke them in the ground in a sunny spot. With just a minimum of care, you can harvest the outer leaves as soon as they are large enough and enjoy multiple harvests until the heat returns.
I am still harvesting peppers from my spring garden, but am now beginning to harvest green beans from my fall garden.
Turnips and mustard have sprouted! I’m trying ‘White Egg’ turnips this year.
My collard, kale, and Bibb lettuce starts are looking great! I’m glad I decided to try Swiss chard again, I’m thinking of mixing this pretty vegetable with some snapdragons in the garden.
I am ready for beautiful salads and for my favorite kale recipe!
Many of these starts are ready to go into the garden. With the cooler temperatures, it’s the perfect time to get them adjusted and to clear off my pallet potting bench.
Are you ready to take the plunge and try a garden? Fall is a great time to garden in North Florida!
Do you have questions about starting a fall garden? Please ask, I’d love to help!
Do you have other suggestions for super-easy fall crops? Kale and collards are my top 2 easy crops, but I’d love to hear your favorites below. We can all help each other-the gardening community is so friendly!
Let’s get growing!
I love the smell of fresh basil!
It is one of the wonderful smells of summer, but how can one keep basil’s pungency for winter sauces and dishes?
My favorite way to preserve basil is to make pesto, then to freeze it.
The only ingredients in my pesto are fresh basil leaves, garlic, and enough olive oil to make a paste. I blend these together, then freeze the pesto in ice cube trays or in one cup measurements ( for pesto pasta).
When I am making spaghetti sauce, I just add a cube or two of the basil pesto toward the end of the cooking time. If you like to add pine nuts to your pesto dishes, you can do so when you actually make the pasta dish.
This would also make a yummy dip- let thaw, drizzle with more olive oil, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and kosher salt, and serve with crusty French bread- yummy!
Dried basil is nice to have on hand too; I just dried mine on a cookie sheet in the oven. I never actually turned the oven on for it, but I was sure to put it back in immediately after I had baked. It made the house smell like basil and slow-dried the leaves at the same time.
Did you grow basil this year? Have you tried making pesto with it or do you prefer to dry it?
If you grew sweet potatoes this year, you probably have a massive tangle of vines overtaking your garden. Those sweet potato vines, in addition to being one of the crops that thrive in Florida summers, can be a tasty addition to the dinner table.
If you grow greens like kale and collards, you probably know that they are cool weather crops that tend to bolt as temperatures rise. Not to worry, sweet potato greens can take their place!
I like to snip some leaves and saute with olive oil and garlic, much like I do with kale. It is delicious served as a side dish, much like spinach.
Try not to harvest ALL your leaves, though, be sure to leave some to produce food to be stored in the sweet potatoes!
I think that I will have to try some in an omelet soon; starting kale seeds for my fall garden is reminding me of how much I miss kale with my eggs!
Have you ever eaten sweet potato leaves? If so, how do you prepare them? If not, would you be brave enough to try them? Let me know what you think!
Sweet potato vines aren’t the only green in my garden, the basil is still growing. Time to preserve some basil!
I think fall is really here! The temperature is cool and refreshing in the morning, and seems to be lasting for a while. I have been starting seeds for the fall garden: collards, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, Bibb lettuce, and Swiss chard. I planted 27 cells of each. If they all survive, that’s a ton of collards!!
At the same time, I am harvesting peppers: banana, jalepeno, and bell.
Southern peas are still growing from the summer garden, but I also harvested my first zucchini from the fall garden.
The large garden has been planted with beets, rutabagas, and some direct-sown cauliflower. The direct-sown cauliflower is a bit of an experiment; if it doesn’t work I have some seedlings started. The sweet potatoes will hopefully be bigger than last year’s potatoes.
The shed bed gets more sun in the winter months and greens did well here for me. I am considering just tossing some mustard and turnip seeds over this plot rather than organizing it into rows. I’d probably get a pretty good yield, but I’m not sure that I could endure the aesthetics of that.
I did notice quite a few bugs enjoying the mulch and thought how much my friend’s chickens would enjoy them. Then I realized that this garden would be a great spot for a couple of chickens in the summer! It is typically shaded by noon, so would be semi-cool during the summer.
They could work the ground for me, then move to a sunnier spot in September. I could let the ground set for about a month (mainly because of the chicken manure) then plant in October or November. Hmmm…something to think about for sure!
Here’s my list for this month:
1. Plant carrots, mustard, spinach, and pak choi, radishes, and maybe more turnips.
2. Freeze some of the bell peppers for winter stir-fries and spaghetti sauce.
3. Save seeds from four o’clocks and cleome to donate to gardenhoard.com’s free seed program. I have benefited from it, and want to give back. If you have a surplus of seeds, consider donating to them. What you may consider a rampant self-seeder may be #1 on somebody’s wish list.
It’s beautiful weather to be outside with your hands in the soil! If you have been considering starting a garden, why not start small and simple? Grab a 9 pack of some type of greens (kale, collards, lettuce, mustard) and find a sunny spot for them. You may just be pleasantly surprised!
How is your garden? Are you hoping that your tomatoes will ripen before frost or are you ripping up old tomato plants to make room for your collards?
If you are already breaking out the jeans and sweaters and thinking about the condition of your snow shovel, you may not want to read this post. One of the many perks of gardening in Florida(and what can create so much envy) is that we can garden all year long. The fall garden is really just as big as the spring garden.
I have started seeds for collards, kale, Swiss chard, broccoli, Bibb lettuce, and cauliflower. Soon I will be planting seeds of turnips, beets, rutabagas, and carrots.
At the same time, I have a zucchini that will be ready to harvest in just a few days. Isn’t that crazy?
My green bean plants are doing well in the mild temperatures and I hope to enjoy fresh green beans soon too.
This is the crop that I am actually the most eager to harvest- yard long beans, a.k.a. snake beans, a.k.a. asparagus beans. They have finally started to bloom and set pods. I am going to try to restrain myself and not eat the first few pods, as I want to save seed for next year. According to David over at Florida Survival Gardening, they are not only delicious, but they also grow well in the summer garden. His post on snake beans makes you want to skip traditional pole beans in favor of them.
Fall gardening is so fun! There is a lull in the heat and humidity, making it great weather for starting seeds and pulling summer’s weeds.The warm temperatures mean that your seeds will germinate quickly. The bugs will be scarce in the cooler months, so there will be less bother from mosquitoes and chewing caterpillars.
Let’s get growing! If you invest just a little effort now, your garden will reward you with nutritious and delicious vegetables this fall and into the winter.
If your sweet potato vines are overtaking your garden, don’t look at them as a nuisance, look at them as food! Post on that coming soon!
The fall decorations are up, and now it’s time for pumpkin spice!!
I can’t help but anticipate pumpkin desserts this time of year.
Sometimes ingredients just beg to be together. These three want to be made into a cookie with their good friend, Pumpkin.
Chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and walnuts-what a great combination! Mr. Quaker Oats wants to be in on the fun too, so I took the recipe for Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from the lid of my Quaker Oats canister and modified it a bit. Well, maybe I took quite a few liberties with what is already a yummy classic.
These cookies were fabulous! Creamy chocolate, sweet-with-a-bit-of-tang cranberries and toasted walnuts make every bite of these cookies delicious. Oh yes, and pumpkin spice too! There’s different textures too- soft chocolate, chewy cranberries, and crunchy walnuts, all in one cookie.
You will need:
1/2 cup + 6 Tablespoons of softened butter, 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, 2 1/2 cups Quaker Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked), 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 cup dried cranberries, and 1/2 cup of walnuts.
So much yumminess!!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat sugars and butter until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. Add the pumpkin puree. Wisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices together, then add to the batter.
By this point, your oven is probably preheated and you have to get the cookie sheets out anyway, so why not toast those walnuts? Put them on the cookie sheet and set the timer at 3 minutes. Mine took 4 minutes to get a light brown color, but definitely check on them after 3 minutes. You want them toasted, not roasted.
See how they are light brown? Take them off the cookie sheet to cool while you mix the chocolate chips and dried cranberries into the dough.
I had 2 bags of white chocolate chips with little random amounts left. They were bugging me. What can you do with a random amount (1/2 cup) of white chocolate chips? Toss them in too, of course!
Wow, these are going to be spectacular. Better get a glass of milk into the freezer now!
Mix in the cooled walnuts and place by rounded tablespoonfuls (or use a cookie dough scoop) on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Hmmm, better smush those down a bit, these cookies are stuffed with mix-ins. Bake from 8-10 minutes. I like my chocolate chip cookies to be pretty soft, but with these I waited until the centers weren’t glossy before I took them out of the oven.
Cool on tray for a minute, then transfer to wire rack. Put your second batch in, set the timer, grab that glass of milk from the freezer, and enjoy some spectacular cookies!
This is supposed to make 4 dozen. This number is highly variable, depending on how big you tend to make your cookie dough scoops. My scoops are pretty big, so I just made 3 dozen. If you think that 3 dozen cookies are too many to have in your house at once, you can try the tip in this other cookie post.
These are just the thing to make your house smell homey and warm and to welcome fall.
What do you think-can I eat these for breakfast too? Don’t forget to pin this recipe using the handy-dandy Pin It button below and to share it on Facebook with your fall-loving friends!
Maybe I’ll try to make a homemade pumpkin spice latte soon. Have you ever made one?
Coffee to Compost 