September rolled in and on the second day of the month it was as if someone flipped a switch and made it autumn. Hopefully we’ll get an encore of the nice weather, but given the course of this year so far it is not something I’d put money on.
On the weekend I dug up the carrots. The mouse I thwarted did not seem to have any pals, so the damage to the crop was limited to what was done a month ago. Still, tossing half the carrots because they had been chewed, gnawed, or otherwise contaminated was heartbreaking. The five to ten pounds that I did harvest were delicious, however, and the night of our harvest we cooked a delicious carrot soup — a soup that’s only really good with fresh garden carrots, and a soup that used up about half the crop. Well spent.
I also dug a couple hills of potatoes, and the results were sliced thinly and fried into crispy chips. I always plant potatoes, but they’re not my favourite. But I will say both myself and the family adored the chips that were made and the Kid cut more taters half way through cooking because her sampling of the final results made her insist that we should not skimp.
The cucumbers have been a regular addition to our meals as well, though the smaller pickle-sized cukes have a sweeter taste and a thinner more palatable skin. I’ll eat them no matter what, but the consensus around the dinner table has been to sneak them off their vines earlier than later. I suspect we have a couple more weeks of trickling harvest on that crop.
The biggest success by far however has been weed management. The extra time granted by working from home all summer has been to keep the weeds in check and while usually by this time of year we’re hacking through weeds to find the actual crops, this year it’s a small effort to keep the occasional invasive plant from taking over. Next year will benefit from this effort, without a doubt.