This site is an archive of ChiotsRun.com. For the latest information about Susy and her adventrures, visit the Cultivate Simple site.
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2009 Edible Garden Collage

October 17th, 2009

I enjoy being a member of Flickr. I like the social aspect of it, seeing other people’s photos, commenting on them and being a part of groups. I also like the way you can organize your photos into sets. The collage of all the photos in each set is great to see, I particularly liked the collage of my set titled:
2009 Edible Garden.
2009 Edible Garden
If you’re not a member of Flickr I’d recommend joining, it’s free (unless you upgrade to a pro account). You may just find a new group of friends (if you are on Flickr post a link to your photostream below, we’d love to see your photos).

Do you have a great on-line place you enjoy visiting?

Strawberry Popcorn Harvest

October 16th, 2009

I wrote about harvesting my popcorn last week. Popcorn has to be dried to about 13%-16% moisture for the best popping. I set the little ears of corn out in the sun for a few days and on Sunday we had some time to go out and get them ready to go into the oven for their final drying.
Drying_popcorn
After spending the afternoon in the sun, the ears were brought in and put in the oven set at 100 for further drying. I’ll keep drying it until the kernels start to fall off of the cobs, then I’ll pop them all off and store them in a jar. I can’t wait to pop some!!!
strawberry_popcorn
It is the most beautiful popcorn, the kernels are ruby red and the ears are shaped like strawberries, it’s almost too pretty to eat. The seeds are from Botanical Interests if you’d like to grow them in your garden.
ear_of_popcorn
I haven’t weighed the popcorn yet, I figured I’d wait until it all came off the cob (I figured it’s a more realistic total since that’s the part we’ll be eating). I’m going to save 20-30 kernels off a few of the best ears for future planting. I’m not sure if I’ll grow this kind of popcorn again next or another kind, or perhaps sweet corn to eat off the cob.

Have you grown any ornamental edibles?

Popcorn update, in 2011 we grew a different kind which was tasty as well, here’s my post about our 2011 popcorn harvest

Harvesting Herbs for Tea

October 15th, 2009

This week I’ve been out harvesting a lot of my herbs for warming winter teas. I should harvest them all summer long, but I get busy and always forget to do it until winter threatens. I carry a big bowl around with me and snip the fresh herbs. I keep them all separate in small paper bags that I’ve saved.
harvesting_herbs
I think I picked about 2 pounds of herbs for tea this winter as well as a few savory herbs for seasoning (I also like savory tea on occasion) and some medicinal herbs.

What herbs made it into my harvest bowl?
-Catmint
-Blue Stocking Bergamot
-Anise Hyssop
-Peppermint
-Mountain Mint
-Lemon Balm
-Chamomile
-Lavender
-Greek Oregano
-Fennel Seed
-Genovese Basil
-Broad Leafed Plantain
-Comfrey

herbs
I was even able to harvest a small handful of chamomile. I had one volunteer plant that I harvested a good amount of blossoms from earlier in the summer. These few flowers are from a plant I started later in the summer. For some reason I didn’t have much luck with my chamomile this year, since I love chamomile tea I hope I have a better harvest next year!
chamomile_blooms
I also have a few potted herbs that I bring in as houseplants, these include: rosemary, lemon thyme, lemon verbena and chives. All of these we will enjoy fresh all winter long.

Do you dry herbs for seasoning & tea?

Cleaning up the Garden

October 14th, 2009

Yesterday I spent some time in the afternoon cleaning up around the garden. I don’t do a ton of cleaning in the fall, I like to leave the seed heads for the birds. I have some zinnias up front that were very big and in spot that I wanted to plant some perennials.
handfull_of_zinnias
Since I did not deadhead them this summer they were mostly spent with only a few fresh blossoms on a few of the plants. I cut those blossoms and pulled the rest of the plants. The flowers will be lovely on my kitchen windowsill for the next couple days.
zinnias_on_porch
This time of year I’m always clinging to the remainder of summer not wanting winter to arrive. I do love winter when it finally comes, but I find myself reluctant to let go the lushness of the summer with it’s colorful flowers and the warmth of the sun.

What will you miss most about summer?

Picking the Green Tomatoes

October 13th, 2009

On Sunday afternoon I went out and picked all of the green tomatoes. I ended up with 3 boxes of them. They’ll all be on shelves in the basement soon, slowly ripening into a shadow of what they would have become if we had more warm sunny weather. They’ll still be quite delicious in soups and stews though, so there’s no reason not to pick them and use them up. Not to mention they’ll probably add 30 lbs to my October harvest totals!
picking_the_last_Green_tomatoes
I think green tomatoes are really beautiful. In fact I almost like them more than when they’re colorful and ripe.
Box_of_green_tomatoes
Green_and_red_tomatoes
One reason I have this blog is to keep track of my gardening schedule. I noticed I blogged about picking my green tomatoes last year on October 19. They were made into green tomato chutney last year, but since I still have a lot of that left from last year, these tomatoes will be eaten slowly as they ripen.

What do you do with green tomatoes?

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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