Picking the Green Tomatoes
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!
I think green tomatoes are really beautiful. In fact I almost like them more than when they’re colorful and ripe.
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?
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Quote of the Day: Albert Comus
“Autumn is a second spring, where every leaf is a flower.”
-Albert Camus
I think peak leaves will happen this week here in NE Ohio, too bad they’re calling for gloomy, rainy, snowy weather. I love the changing of the leaves because it helps make this season a little more bearble. It’s tough because you know soon enough all life will be dormant and everything will be brown. But the explosion of colors really helps brighten my mood!
What do you enjoy most about the changing seasons (or do you have them where you live)?
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The Last Ripe Tomatoes of the Season
This past week I went out and picked the last ripe tomatoes of the season. With lows in the mid 30’s tonight I think it’s the end of tomato season. I still have some green ones to get out and pick later today, but I don’t think I’ll find any more red ones on the vines.
These tomatoes aren’t as tasty as the ones that ripen in the warm August weather, but they’re still better than the supermarket variety! I’m very sad to see tomato season over, it seems like it flies by so fast.
Have your tomatoes come and gone, or do you still have some in the garden?
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Vote for Me
I just noticed on the Fennel & Fern blog that one of my pictures is in the running in their contest. Head on over there and vote for me. I had no idea until today that they had chosen one of my photos, is is one of my favorites from this summer.
Do you have a favorite photo from you garden this summer? If so post it on your blog or photo sharing site and add the link to the comments, I’d love to see them.
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Baby Black Rat Snake
On Wednesday evening I found this little guy in our driveway. At first I was very excited, as I’ve never seen a snake here at Chiot’s Run. I’ve always wanted to find a big black snake in my garage, but sadly that has never happened. After looking closer I realized this little guy was dead.
I grabbed him and examined him to see what had happened. I came inside and searched on-line to try and identify what kind of snake it was. After searching I decided it was most likely a baby black rat snake. He was about 15 inches long, which is about how long the baby ones would be this time of year for the reproduction cycle of black rat snakes. The markings on his back & belly are consistent with some photos I found on Flickr. I found this great blogpost about baby black rat snakes, there are even photo of the eggs!
Black rat snakes hatch out at 11-16 inches, which means this little guy was very young. They often nest in tree cavities where other nesting animals have been. Since I could see no visible injuries, I think perhaps it fell out of the big maple tree beside the driveway.
It’s kind of sad to find my first snake and have it be dead. However it’s not really a sad story, a baby snake in the garden means there’s a mama snake around. I think this is good news for my overpopulation of chipmunks! Black rat snakes are considered one of the most beneficial snakes in Ohio. They can live up to 20 years and are prolific eaters of mice, rats, chipmunks, rabbits, other small rodents, birds and eggs.
I put him on a rock in the garden and he’ll probably become food for another small animal. Perhaps I’ll spot mama in the garage someday soon!
What do you think, do you want snakes around or do they give you the heebie jeebies?
