Urban Update #1

I am hoping to do a weekly urban update to give you all a look at what we are doing here on our little 1/4-acre urban homestead. I have been wanting to start this for a while now but there is always a reason not to. I’m hoping this will also help me stay a little more organized. Sometimes you get caught up in all the daily activities and forget when and how things get done. My goal is to wrap up a weekly or biweekly post to recap what we did in the garden, kitchen, and life as it pertains to homesteading here in our Ohio growing zone 6A garden. Let’s dive in!

September 8, 2023

In The Garden

Potatoes

This week we finally dug all our Kennebec potatoes we planted May 6 of this year. We purchased 25lbs of potato seed and used half of that for ourselves. We gave the other half to my parents. This left us with about 12-13 lbs to plant here in our garden. Our total yield here was 80.2 lbs. which I was very happy with. We now have them in our garage drying on pallets with cardboard and heavy brown paper bags covering them. This is so they won’t be exposed to any light.

This is our first year of getting a good harvest. I am curious to see if this is a good amount for our family. Or if we will need to plant more to get us through the winter and spring until next harvest. We will be storing these in wooden crates in our basement. We have a room that stays pretty cold, and I have a humidity/temperature gauge so I can monitor the temperature. Again, this is all trial and error. We shall see.

Peppers

We picked some of our jalapeno peppers, but these plants did not do well this year. A lot of my plants developed a fungal disease early on in the season. This was a constant battle to keep the disease at bay. Therefore, a lot of my fruit from these plants are not what they should be nor the amount I would normally harvest.

With the peppers I did make an amazing jalapeno pepper ferment. This recipe I found in a new book I have purchased this year called Foolproof Preserving & Canning by American’s Test Kitchen. I was inspired to get this book after doing research on pickles last year. I came across a YouTube video from them on a low temperature way to preserve bread and butter pickles that maintains the crispness of the cucumbers. This led me to their book which has a lot of good information as well as recipes.

This jalapeno ferment has garlic, cumin seeds, and of course peppers! Smells amazing and I am excited to try this in recipes that would normally call for canned green chili peppers. The recipe states that the peppers maintain the crunchiness and texture that I am looking for in a preserved pepper. I will let you know how it turns out and what my recipes are that I will be using them in.

Tomatoes

This week I also pruned my tomato plants. This was a hard pruning because they also are struggling with the fungal disease and most of the plants are yellow, spotted, and wilting. I have tried to remove the diseased parts throughout the season hoping to prevent the spread, but the fungus won! We did get a harvest but not at all what I was expecting. I have left the green tomatoes on the vine with very little foliage, the fruit will continue to ripen, and I will get another harvest but not that many.

Underneath the tomato plants I have planted a Mighty Mustard Pacific Gold cover crop from Johnny’s Seed Company (pictured below). This is a fast-growing control for nematodes and soil fungi. I still have time to get this planted and chop it down to incorporate into the soil. This will allow for an over-winter decomposition of the greens from this plant which is what helps the soil.

One of the problems this year with causing all these fungal problems is we have noticed that our yard is becoming more and more shaded as these large poplar and maple trees become taller and taller. More shade with all the rain we have had this year has been a great environment for this fungus.

Another issue is crop rotation. I have been really good with other veggie but the tomatoes I always plant in the same place. Big mistake. This is an easy and safe place to put them. We struggle with deer eating everything and putting them in our fenced in garden just makes things easier. Next year we will have to put them in the back corner garden and hope for the best. I will probably plant potatoes in the fenced in garden next year.

Vining Crops

The pumpkin vines have also fallen victim to the fungal disease as well. We also battle with the squash vine boring beetles which always wreak havoc in my yard. I have decided to pull all the vines and put the pumpkins out in the garden (covered or the animals will get them) in the sun to finish ripening. This is not ideal, but I also want the space to plant a fall planting of spinach. We were able to harvest 11 pie pumpkins from the back garden. I also have planted the New England Sugar Pie Pumpkin and the Long Island Cheese Pumpkins up in the fenced in garden. These are a little later in maturity and the plants look a lot healthier. All in all, though I do believe we will have enough pumpkin to last us this season.

Our cucumbers did not do as well as I was expecting. I was very excited for these two new varieties and no fault to the seed, just all the struggles we have here in the gardens was too much for them. First, the deer ate all the new transplants. They did make a comeback, but this stressed the plants right from the beginning. The deer issue is a constant battle unless I covered them which is a problem then for the pollinators. I would uncover during the day and cover at night……and sometimes forget to cover them back up and then the deer would find them. So frustrating.

The plants also struggled as all my vining plants did with the yellowing patches and wilt. The cause is more than likely the squash bug and aphids as well as the cucumber beetle. All the pests! We were able to harvest enough to make a batch of the bread and butter pickles from Foolproof Preserving & Canning. And we had enough to add to the occasional salad but very disappointed to say the least.

All that to say I pulled all the vines this week and will be amending the soil to plant my Winter Density lettuce. I have started these from seed a few weeks back and they will be ready to transplant this coming week.

We have added straw to our walking paths between our fall crops to help with weeds and insulation. The crops also have hoops and an insect netting on them now. In the middle of October we will be adding our heavy weight frost covers to extend the season. I do fear that I may have waited too long to get these planted and they may not have enough time to mature. With the loss of daylight time as well as our first frost date approaching, I will be surprised if I get a harvest. I will keep you updated.

Wow a lot going on in the garden this time of year. With all the happenings in the garden the harvests have to go somewhere. So, into the kitchen it goes.

In The Kitchen

We have been blessed this year even though the garden has had its difficulties. This week we had enough tomatoes to make a nice batch of ketchup. We ended up with 6 pints and one 1/2 pint canned up and on the pantry shelf.

This recipe is found in the Balls Complete Book of Home Preserving. I did alter mine a bit because I used this recipe last year and didn’t like all the spice. I cut the amount of spice I used, and oven roasted my tomatoes which wow what a difference in the cooking time. Roasting them releases a lot of the juice which reduces the cook time by half in my opinion. I also added about 12oz of tomato paste at the end of cooking to give it a smoother consistency and thicken it even more. This was perfect and a real winner in my book! I will be doing this from now on when making ketchup.

It is Fall so all the fall flavors are back and this year we have tried our hand at making fall flavored coffee syrups. We canned up some beautiful cinnamon syrup as well as made up our own pumpkin spice syrup. These are of course dairy free for canning, but the pumpkin is not approved for canning so this one is not shelf stable but honestly this will not last long enough at our house to need the preserving done.

This is a new adventure we have started and are very excited to see where it leads us. My daughter is the Saucier in the family and has experience making coffee syrups and sauces. I am the canning mind behind all of this with the help of the Balls Blue Book Guide to Preserving. This is where I have found the recipe for some of their syrups and that has inspired me to expand on different flavors. We have made vanilla, lavender, rose, caramel, white chocolate (which is also a non-shelf stable item), cinnamon, pumpkin spice, gingerbread, and a few more. We will see where this takes us.

This year we had leftover sweet potatoes from last season, and they have started to sprout. I decided to try a new pressure canning recipe with them from the new book I have but I wasn’t a huge fan of it. This is a moroccan sweet potato soup. The recipe called for vegetable broth, so I made and canned 10 quarts of veggie broth first and saved enough for this recipe out. I ended up with 4 quarts of the soup and of course we will eat this but not my favorite. Thankful for the veggie broth though.

Wrap Up

So much to be thankful for even with the struggles. We always manage to harvest enough or are fortunate enough to have produce gifted to us from someone else’s bounty. This week we just happened to find a couple pear trees here in the city we live in and were able to pick a bushel and a half of beautiful pears. I will be canning this weekend. Lots to do this time of year and I hope you all are staying motivated, and your gardens are producing a beautiful harvest.

Happy Gardening!