The weather is getting cooler and cooler. Our vegetable garden started to die back like it should. Looking back, I learned something new again. We had a very long vacation this summer. We left our garden to God's hand. Still we had quiet a harvest. Here are some pictures that I captured from time to time. I do feel rewarded every time I see them.
天气转冷了,我们家的菜园也由生机勃勃转入平静。一年的收获让我又学到了不少新东西。今年我们外出度了 long vacation,(very long) 我们把花园菜园交给了大自然,尽管如此,我们的菜园今年还是丰收年。下面的图片是我在不同时间拍的,每当我看到它们,我都有一种抑制不住的兴奋和成就感。
Here are peas we planted in the early Spring.
早春时种的豌豆。
Now it is in the freezer. We ate quiet bit. But we couldn't consume all. So, we froze them, ~5 lbs. Sorry, our storage room doesn't have enough light. Picture didn't turn out good.
现在它们在冻箱中保存。我们吃了很多。冷冻了差不多5磅。
Sweet corns. 甜玉米,今年种了不少
Can't consume all. Have to freeze whole bunch of them. 吃不完,冷冻了。
冷冻的和新鲜的没有多少区别。
We planted Hungarian pepper this year. They are good, and fit our climate very well. We will do it again next year. 今年我们种的辣椒是匈牙力辣椒,早熟抗寒,很适合我们的气候。
We had huge harvest for peppers. 今年辣椒的收获还真不少。
Now some of them are in the freezer. 现在它们其中一些在冻箱中保存
Beets. 甜菜
We had huge harvest for beets as well. 甜菜今年又大丰收
Pickled beets are our favorite. 腌甜菜非常好吃,特别爽口。
After the 2nd harvest, we still have quiet bit left. 收获了两次后,还剩这么多甜菜。
Here are some Rhubarb. 这些是 Rhubarb,
We made few delicious Rhubarb pie this year.我们今年做了好几个Rhubarb派。
Still can't consume all. Have to freeze them as well. Then we can enjoy the Rhubarb pie all year long. 虽然已经做了几个Rhubarb Pie,还是吃不完,这不,冷冻吧,随时想吃Rhubarb Pie,随时那出来做。
We planted 3 rows of eggplants. We didn't mean to. Just had too many seedlings. We love eggplants. But it is just too much this year. 今年种了3行茄子。太多了。茄子出芽率很低,没想到今年的出芽率太高了,扔掉太可惜,明年可不种这么多了。
See, this is only 1 load. I have frozen a lot of them......看,太多了,这只是1 次的收获,不得不冷冻了。
These are the butternut squash. They are one of our favorite winter squash. 这些是奶油南瓜。是我们最喜欢的南瓜之一。
The butternut squash is ready to pick. 奶油南瓜成熟了。
These are the Hubbard winter squash. They are one of our favorite winter squash as well. 这些是 Hubbard 南瓜。也是我们最喜欢的南瓜之一。
Hubbard 南瓜成熟了。这种南瓜瓤干,瓜肉细腻,甜味高,是做南瓜派的好材料,比真正的南瓜好的多,烤箱烤出的 Hubbard 南瓜比地瓜还甜,可见含糖量的程度。我大力推荐。。。。。。
Weather is getting cool. Only few Chinese cucumbers left on the shell. 天气已凉,只有有限的几只黄瓜还挂在架子
Here are some apples. We didn't prune our apple trees this year. They didn't make to my husband's agenda. But he said they are on the agenda for this winter. 苹果树就不拍了。今年3棵苹果树都没剪枝,没排到老公的日程表上。不过他说今年冬天一定要剪了。。。。。。
Too many apples, dehydrate them is one of good way to keep. 苹果太多了,做了好多苹果干。
These are peaches. This spring, our peach tree along with our cherry trees had deadly early frost hit when they were blossom. Therefore, we had enough to eat fresh, but not enough to can.
今年我们家的桃树和樱桃树一起在开花季节遭遇了严重的霜冻。桃子接的不多,足够吃,但不够做桃子罐头的。
Below picture shows carrots on the left and Chinese water melon radish on the right.
下图左边是胡萝卜,是心里美萝卜
We had huge harvest for carrots as usuall, ~50 lb. The watermelon radish has not ready yet.
今年收获了大约50磅胡萝卜。心里美萝卜还没成熟。
Do you remeber what they are? That's right, they are potatoes.
还记得这是什么吗,对了,是土豆,马龄薯。
We had over 250 lb this year. No need to buy any from the store. This is real Organic potatoes. They are the best potatoes in the world. 今年种了不少,收获了250多磅, 一冬不用买了。自己家种的比外面买的好吃几十倍。这才叫真正的有机食品。
Take a close look, They are so lovely and delicious.
近看看,好可爱啊!
You all know what it is. I don't need to mention anything. 大家都知道这是什么,我就不说了。
Someday after the walking thru the garden, What's for dinner? 某一天在菜园摘的菜,晚餐吃什么。。。。。。
Another day after picking......又是某一天在菜园摘的菜
Another in the basket..........又是某一天在菜园摘的
We don't use fertilizer in our garden! The biggest in our garden this year. Chinese cucumbers and egg plants are 18 inches long. Biggest ones I've never seen. 今年我们家的菜园之最:茄子和黄瓜长达18英寸。没用化肥哟
The Potatoes are 5 inches long and quiet big around. 土豆有5英寸那么长,还很粗哦。
The largest Hubbard winter squash is 15 inches long. 最大的 Hubbard 南瓜有15英寸那么长。
The biggest butternut squash is 9 inches long. 最大的奶油南瓜有9英寸那么长。来张和影吧!
一年的经验总结:
Looking back, we had a big success in our garden. I also learned something new.
1) We had quiet a harvest of tomatoes this year. The cherry tomatoes are absolutely delicious. But the Heirloom tomatoes we had this year are not very tasty for some reason. So we canned most of them. We will look for another brand of Heirloom tomatoes next year.
2) We didn't have any Acorn squash this year. I planted 6 of them. Maybe the seeds were not good. We did have some wierd looking squash. It looks like they were a cross breed squash. That's why I think the seeds were not good. So, the quality of the seeds play big role in the garden success.
Oh well, winter is coming. We'll let everything die back, rest and give us time to enjoy the garden goodies. Spring will come around soon, before we even know it.