I was feeling good when I headed out to do the evening cat feeding, so of course, I stayed out longer.
As I was feeding the cats, Colby actually wanted attention. So much so that I got him, and was finally able to dose his ear. Just one. The one with the wound behind it from being scratched so much. Not ideal, but better than nothing! The medication says to dose once ever 24 hours, so hopefully we’ll get it done tomorrow again, before we head out to my brother’s for the night.
Colby is such a handsome boy!
Depending on what weather app I check, we’re looking at going below freezing tonight. Cold enough that the frost cloth over the self seeded tomatoes won’t be enough to protect them anymore.
So I harvested them, to let them finish ripening indoors, leaving the tomatoes on their vines.
The vines themselves were remarkably strong and healthy, so I chopped them up quite a bit before dropping them on the bed for now. Some of them were even still blooming! The frost cover alone is not enough to explain how well they were doing. This section of the bed seems to be very well sheltered from the cold. Something to keep in mind, when deciding what to plant there next year.
I have been very curious about the nearby chicory. They never did bloom, and I could see no sign of flower stalks anywhere. Where there any roots? I decided to dig one up to find out. I used the handle-less garden for to do it.
It took a lot of wrestling and loosening of soil all around a single plant before I could finally pull it up.
So this is what chicory root looks like.
All of the tips seem to have torn off in the soil as I pulled it, even with all the loosening of soil I’d done first.
I need to look up how to process it so we can try it as a drink. I only harvested the one for now.
Okay, this is what I’ve found. After a thorough cleaning, they get cut into uniform pieces and completely dehydrated. Then they are roasted. After roasting, they can be processed into powder or granules for use. One site I found, though, skips the dehydration and the roots are just roasted at low temperatures until crispy.
Looking at photos, it seems they can have very different root shapes. I’m guessing different varieties? Most images show them looking a lot like parsnips; a single large root. Fewer images show them with multiple thin roots like ours has.
After rinsing it off with the hose, I broke off the greens and set them in the compost ring. The greens are supposed to be edible – at least while young – but we have no interest in them that way.
Since I was by the compost ring anyhow, I decided to clear the tomato plants from the bed next to it. I didn’t dig them up, but cut their stems at the bases, and tossed them all onto the compost ring. The next step will be to get all the protective collars out and give them a cleaning for the winter, then pull up all the elms that have been trying to grow in there.
I really, really want to get rid of those Chinese elm, and their billions of seeds.
I was just finishing up when my older daughter came out, looking for me. She had been quite worried about me, given my condition earlier in the day. The pain has gone away completely, and I was feeling like it was never there. I still made sure not to act like I normally would, though, because I can be really stupid that way and easily end up causing more problems for myself!
In talking about what I was doing, I mentioned the tomatoes and chicory, which my daughter had noticed before seeing where I was. As we went back to the old kitchen garden, I started talking about the HUGE beet greens in one of the beds, and how curious I was to see what they were. With some of the – much smaller – beets, we could see some of the roots, and they did not look very large. These, however, had no visible roots.
We were both curious enough to dig up the largest beet plants, and boy did we get a surprise!
Would you look at these giants! (and the three largest red beets, too) I kept my food in the picture for perspective.
These beets are from a package of mixed varieties, with nothing to say what those varieties are. So I have no clue, but these white beets look like sugar beets! We’ve never grown sugar beets before, and only ever seen photos.
What’s curious is how they have all spiraled like that. Even the little one.
From what we can see of what’s still in the bed, there are no other larger red beets, and maybe one more white beet like these.
My daughter helped me with rinsing them off and bringing them inside. The beets went into the kitchen to use right away, while the tomatoes went into the cat free zone. We’ve suddenly had issues with fruit flies and, unfortunately, hat to throw away a lot of the ripening tomatoes. Of the ones that didn’t end up in the compost, they got set in the bin with the newly harvested tomatoes, with paper towel below, and a lid.
Some of the chocolate stripe tomatoes, and the California Wonder bell peppers, however, were quite ready.
Those got put into produce bags and brought to the kitchen for the family to enjoy. I can’t eat tomatoes or peppers, so I’ll have to rely on them for feedback. I’ve already been told that the California Wonder bell peppers are worth growing again. We’ll see if it’s the same for the Chocolate Stripe tomatoes. They are awfully pretty.
So here we have a lovely surprise harvest.
It’s remarkable that I had tomatoes still on the vine in the middle of October!
The Re-Farmer
