A Couple of Late Season Plantings

Still hot down here in August.  Since it was so wet in the spring, we experienced lots of crop failure.  I've tried some things in the garden that I've never tried before, putting in crops in the heat of the summer rather than waiting until later to try to make up for some lost time.  If it doesn't work, it doesn't work

In the first photo below, I started some seeds on the back patio in early July so that I could get them in the ground as soon as I could.  These are pumpkins - New England Sugar Pies and Sweet Dumpling Squash.  I generally try to have these planted on July 4th.  I love pumpkin pie in the fall and hopefully the seedlings you see will produce nice pumpkins that Tricia can transform into delicious pies and cheesecakes.

Our yellow crookneck squash and zucchini squash were attacked by squash borers with an absolute vengeance this year.  Perhaps the fall planting will provide better results.  I've said this a million times, but as many times as I plant, I'm always amazed with the miracle of a seed.  A dead-looking seed is placed in soil, watered, and in a few days things start happening!

The seed pops through the soil with such determination, pushing the soil out of the way and reaching toward daylight.

Finally, the cotyledon opens!

We'll get these in the ground later this week.  In other garden news, we planted a bunch of cucumbers and transplanted them to the trellis bed, the last of the corn is tasseling, the sunflowers are about to bloom, the sweet potato vines are expanding all over the garden, the green beans are blooming, the okra are about to begin producing in massive quantities, the zinnias are blooming, the late planted cantaloupe and watermelon are vining and blooming, the luffa and birdhouse gourds are vining like crazy, the purple hull peas are yielding great and the blackeyed peas are about to begin producing.

We sat outside this evening with an uncharacteristic breeze blowing, talking about how many days until cooler weather comes in.  Wow!  Cooler weather has me thinking about planting broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, chard, kale, and all those great cold weather plants!

Till My Trophies At Last I Lay Down

On a hill far away, stood an old rugged Cross
The emblem of suffering and shame
And I love that old Cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain

So I'll cherish the old rugged Cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged Cross
And exchange it some day for a crown

That is a great old hymn with a great message.  I can remember winning my first trophy.  I was in the Fifth Grade and in the 4-H Club.  We had a fundraiser that involved selling seeds.  The person selling the most seeds would win a trophy.  I was really excited about winning my first trophy and did several things to ensure victory.

First, I rode my bicycle up and down our road, knocking on every door and giving it my best sales pitch.  I remember the green box that contained many individual packets of seeds.  You could either buy the entire box or the individual envelopes.  I sold a bunch of seeds, probably from people that either felt sorry for me or just wanted me off of their property!

Next, I raided every bit of change I could scrape up and bought seeds from myself.  Then, I strong-armed my little brother to buy seeds from me with all of his spare change.  I ended up winning the trophy.  It was a nice trophy with a solid wood base, a metal cup with the 4-H emblem on it and a plaque with an inscription on it.  It is still in the trophy case in my room at my parent’s house, but has long been forgotten about.  There are likely other things in front of it and it may have a little dust and tarnish on it.  I haven’t seen it or thought about it in quite a while.

And that’s the thing about our earthly goals, trophies, and rewards.  At some point they are the most important thing, but their worth doesn’t last and in the big scheme of things, they are immaterial and unimportant.  That’s why the Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew 6:20 “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

You would think that I would have grown up to be a salesman, but I’m not in sales.  As an adult I just don’t like hitting people up for money.  But I do still like seeds!  Not selling them, but purchasing them and planting them.  There is still a reward (trophy) that you receive from planting seeds that comes in the form of the satisfaction of growing and eating delicious homegrown vegetables. 

In late June, I weedeated (weed ate?!) the area that I had planted in sweet corn in the spring and then worked it up with a shovel and then a hoe, preparing a nice seedbed.  Then on July 1 I planted three types of pumpkins from last year’s seed packets I purchased from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (not an enterprising 4-Her!) – Jack Be Little, Jarrahdale, and New England Sugar Pie.  Planting them on July 1 means that you’ll have pumpkins ready for late October.  Here is a photo of the pumpkins just coming up a few days after planting.

I also planted an assortment of cowpeas from seeds that I saved including Blackeyed Pea, Ozark Razorback Peas, and Purple Hull Peas.  Here are some of those that are just coming up a few days after planting.

I’m going to spray some fish emulsion on them to give them a little boost, but a month later, here is a photo of both the pumpkins and the peas.

With favorable conditions, maybe in late October I’ll be able to lay down some trophies in terms of big beautiful pumpkins and we’ll exchange them for some pumpkin pies and empanadas!

It's March & We Still Have Pumpkins

It is March and we still have pumpkins from this past fall.  We grew a bunch of pumpkins this year - three different varieties.  The other two varieties were processed and frozen, but we still had some Jack-Be-Little pumpkins in a basket. You know Jack-Be-Littles.  They are those little "decorative" pumpkins that everyone uses as a centerpiece or puts them in a basket on the counter to add to the whole 'fall' decor.

When fall turns to spring, most people just throw them out.

The Last of the Jack Be Little Pumpkins

But there's gotta be something that you can do with them other than just throw them away or compost them, right?  Of course there is.  Tricia found a very simple recipe HERE.  It was adapted from the Barefoot Contessa cook book.  These little pumpkins aren't only good to look at - they are good to eat!

First, preheat the oven to 350 and then cut off the caps and hang onto them.  We'll use them later. Scoop out all the seeds with a spoon.  Later on we'll roast those in the oven with some butter, salt and garlic powder.

Scooping out the seeds

What you have remaining is an empty pumpkin shell.  Sprinkle the inside of the pumpkin with kosher salt and black pepper.

Then fill each of the pumpkins with applesauce.  That looks festive, doesn't it?

Ready to Roast

Put the caps on the Jack-Be-Little Pumpkins and pop them in the preheated oven. Let them roast between 45 minutes and an hour.  You'll be able to tell that the pumpkin flesh is tender.

In the oven

Even though it is spring, when you pull them out of the oven and take the cap off, the whole kitchen fills with the smell of fall.

Ready to Eat!

Now if you'd like, you can sprinkle a little cinnamon on it.  Take your spoon and scrape the inside of the pumpkin to mix the pumpkin and applesauce.

Mixing it up

And now it is time to eat...

The first spoonful

Jack-Be-Little Pumpkins.  They're not just for decoration anymore!

Making Pumpkin Pancakes

While the hot and unusually dry months of July, August and September severely impacted our pumpkin crop, we were able to salvage some of the harvest and picked a number of Jack Be Little, New England Sugar Pie, and Jarrahdale pumpkins.  Here are a few of them in the corner of the kitchen.  You can see the curious-looking blue Jarrahdale pumpkin sticking out like a sore thumb!

Some of the harvest

We will eat every last one of them.  To process them, all you do is cut them in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon.  We'll save the seeds for next year's crop.  Cut the pumpkins into quarters and put them in a baking pan with a half inch or so of water in the bottom, and bake them until the flesh is soft.  Scoop out the pumpkin flesh with a spoon, leaving only the hard 'skin' of the pumpkin.  You can put that in the compost pile.

Now here's the best part - eating the pumpkin!  We're going to make pumpkin pancakes.  Here's the recipe we'll use with minor changes:

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 Cups of Flour (we used 1 cup Spelt and 1 cup Kamut flour that we ground)

2 Tbs sugar 

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cups milk

1 cup vanilla yogurt (we used some homemade kefir from our cows)

2 eggs

1/2 cup - 1 cup pureed pumpkin

4 tbs melted butter

This recipe came from a newsletter that I get from some friends of ours: Gotreaux Family Farms in Scott, Louisiana.  Check them out.  They are an amazing family!

Here are the ingredients all laid out.  Let's get going!

Look at the beautiful orange homegrown pumpkin!

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon together in a container with a whisk until it is all combined.

Mixing the dry ingredients

In a separate container pour in the kefir, the pumpkin that we pureed in the food processor, and the eggs from our hens.

Here goes the pumpkin

Finally we pour the milk from Daisy and Rosie into the bowl of wet ingredients and add in the melted butter.  Stir this all together until it is mixed up.

Nice dark yolks in the bowl

Now it is time to combine all the ingredients, so pour together and mix.  

Now it all comes together

We almost forgot the vanilla!  Add it in and stir.

Last but not least

Tricia heated up the cast iron griddle and put a pat of butter on top.  When it is ready spoon on a perfect amount on the griddle. 

First pumpkin pancake on the griddle 

When that one is ready put another on.  There are lots of hungry people gathering in the kitchen by this point and there is no time to waste.  Keep the assembly line going.

Golden brown pumpkin pancakes!  Can you smell them?

That is a fine looking pumpkin pancake!

We make a stack of them on a plate with a few pats of butter melting on top.  Then it is time to pour some Steen's Pure Cane Syrup on top of that.

Ready to Eat

They were delicious.  You could taste the pumpkin flavor, but it wasn't over-powering.  Forget Wheaties.  This is the breakfast of champions.  Savor the fall flavor of pumpkin pancakes accompanied by a cup of Community Dark Roast Coffee.  Even if it is still warm and muggy outside, we can pretend it is fall, can't we?

Harvesting a few Pumpkins

On September 23rd Autumn officially began.  Autumn is a nice time of year around here.  The weather (at long last) cools off, the grass stops growing as quickly and thus doesn't require mowing as often, and finally, you begin to see every product advertised from cappuccino to muffins to M&Ms having a pumpkin spice flavor. There are not many fragrances that are better than a Pumpkin pie baking in the oven!

This year we planted a 45 foot row of pumpkins, with three different varieties.  I haven't talked about them since THIS POST FROM EARLY JULY, so it is time for an update.  On cool mornings you can walk out by the pumpkin patch and see their beautiful flowers opening open wide, encouraging honeybees to come pollinate. Here is a bee that is obliging...

Busy Bee on the Pumpkin Flower

The bee does its job and then, using the flower petal as a runway, launches off to search for another flower.  It doesn't take long to find the next one, mere inches away!

Cleared for take-off

Here is a New England Sugar Pie Pumpkin still growing.  It is not a large pumpkin, only weighing 3 pounds or so at maturity, but they are supposed to be excellent for pie making, as the name suggests, and loaded with seeds.  We like to roast the seeds in the oven and eat.  I'm sure I'll save some seeds for next year's pumpkin planting venture as well.

New England Sugar Pie

Here is a Jack-be-little Pumpkin.  They are the very first of the pumpkins to ripen. Even though the pumpkins are really small, the vines are prolific and will cover up a lot of landscape!  These little pumpkins are great for fall decorations, but they are good eating, too.  

Another great benefit of pumpkins that I might mention are the vines.  I planted our pumpkin patch in the yard.  This was very strategic thinking on my part as I knew that the vines would crawl all over the place, reducing the amount of mowing I would need to do throughout July - October!  That's using the old noggin.

Jack Be Little

Below is a Jarrahdale Pumpkin.  Of the three varieties I planted, this one is maturing the slowest for me.  It has an odd, flat shape, but the neatest thing about it is that it will be a blue-gray color. The ones growing now still have a light green color at the moment.  They are supposed to grow to 6 - 10 pounds, although I must say that I don't think my New England Sugar Pie Pumpkins or my Jarrahdale Pumpkins will reach the size they are supposed to get.  I attribute that to an extremely dry summer. Even though I watered them daily after the drought became severe, I feel that tap water is near as good for plants as good old rainwater, and that likely stunted their growth a bit.

Jarrahdale

Here is a New England Sugar Pie Pumpkin that has turned a beautiful orange color. If the stem is still green and the pumpkin itself is still soft to the touch after putting my thumbnail against it, I allow it to continue growing.  I'll keep my eye on this one for a week or so.

New England Sugar Pie Pumpkin Ripening

The vines were looking pretty rough with the hot dry weather, but with the cooler temperatures, I'm actually seeing new growth and new flowers.  I'll allow them to continue growing as long as they like.  More pumpkins = more pumpkin pie and that is a positive development in my book for sure.

Future Pumpkins...

I harvested 2 New England Sugar Pie Pumpkins and 14 Jack Be Little pumpkins this afternoon, and I'll allow them to dry on the back patio for a couple of weeks.  I learned that it is best to allow a long stem to remain on the pumpkin, and that wiping the pumpkin down with a 10 % bleach solution kills organisms that causes the pumpkin to rot prematurely.  

The First Pumpkin Harvest of the Year.  Many more to come

We have lots more to be harvested, but I'm allowing them to continue ripening on the vine.  I don't want to pick them prematurely and have them rot before we have a chance to convert them into delicious homemade pies.  I can't wait to see the Jarrahdale (blue gray) Pumpkins in all their glory. I'll be sure to share a photo when we pick them.  It's not everyday that you see a blue pumpkin.

Checking in on the Late Summer Crops

The past few days have been brutally hot and humid.  There's just no sugar-coating it.  It's miserable. With temperatures nearing 100 degrees and around 106 with a heat index, one longs for the first cool front or at least signs of Fall approaching. Tough.  We have more than a month to go of the sweltering sauna that is South Louisiana in summer.

The poor cows sit in the shade all day long, panting, tongues literally hanging out. We spray them down with water to cool them down.  They're Jersey cows and not really acclimated to tropical weather.  In the late afternoons, they meander out to the pasture and eat grass until well after dark, squeezing in a day's worth of eating into a few frenzied hours of the coolest part of the day.

The garden is not immune to the effects of summer.  It has withered back in the heat with the cucumbers' brown, dead leaves and vines still clinging to the trellis reminding us of the numerous cucumbers we were picking each day just a few short weeks ago.  The squash plants, similarly, have melted into the ground, giving up the fight.  Seems as if the only thing thriving in the garden is the weeds, and I'll try to get the weed wacker to get those under control.  They'll be tossed over the fence as an appetizer to the cows slumbering in the shade.

Cucumber vines dried up and dead

I did plant a couple crops the other day - Southern Peas (cowpeas) and 3 varieties of pumpkins and I'll give a progress report.  Despite the scalding heat, a good soaking rain shortly after planting enabled the seeds to swell, sprout and pop out of the ground, healthy and green.  Let's take a look:

Cowpea leaves tracking the sun across the sky

We had a fairly decent germination rate and the peas that sprouted seem healthy and vigorous.

I like to deeply mulch our plants with hay as it provides several benefits:
1. It crowds out weed pressure, making weeding an obsolete job,
2. It helps to retain soil moisture, blocking out the moisture-depleting rays of the sun, and
3. The hay decomposes, providing organic matter to next year's crop that will grow here.

Cows are notoriously wasteful when it comes to hay.  They pull it out of the round bale, drop it on the ground, trampling it in poop and pee, ruining it as far as it being edible, but it's still good for mulching.  I rake it up and tenderly place it around the stems of the peas, covering the bare earth and small weeds with a nice layer of hay.

Mulched Cowpeas

The pumpkins were a little slower in germinating.

Pumpkins popping up

But they came along quickly, their leaves broadening.

Future pumpkin pies

If one has an active imagination, just walking past the row of pumpkins can evoke the warm, spicy aroma of a fresh pumpkin pie right out of the oven and one can almost feel the first cool, northern breezes of Fall.  If you listen you can hear the fire crackling in the fireplace and the exciting sounds of college football on the television.

Time to snap out of it, buddy!  Let's sweat a little and mulch around the pumpkins now that they're tall enough.  It will give those orange pumpkins a nice, soft bed to sit on while they grow.

Healthy, fully mulched pumpkins

Summer is in full force, but good things come to those who wait.  Fall is coming! (Or so I keep reminding myself.)

Trying a New Crop Again after 15 Years

About 15 years ago in one of those entrepreneurial dreams that I get from time to time, I imagined a huge money-maker - a pumpkin patch.  Why, people would come from far and wide, browse through our wide selection of huge pumpkins and fill their trunks with the big, fat, orange pumpkins that we grew.  Of course they would pay a handsome price for these lovely pumpkins and our cigar box would quickly fill with dead presidents.

Dad and I used a levee plow to pull up a long hill in a strategically placed area. Right south of the family cemetery whose live oak tree's sprawling limbs shaded graves dating back to the 1800's, including Civil War soldiers, was the spot.  It was a perfect spot for pumpkins.  You see, long rows of round bales were stacked there the previous year.  The hay was long since gone, but the very bottom of where the round bales were was a prime planting medium.  The hay rotted, leaving dark, moist composted hay and soil, boiling with earthworms.

We deposited our pumpkin seeds in the row and timely rains and great soil grew beautiful pumpkin plants, lush and green, promising a bumper crop of pumpkins later and prolific pumpkin profits. Except...

Except the cows had other intentions for our pumpkins.  They got into our pumpkin patch and devoured every plant.  Discouraged? You bet, but C'est la Vie.  You keep going and you try again later.  This time 15 years later.  In order to have pumpkins for late October, you need to plant around the Fourth of July, so I got busy.  Using a shovel, I turned over the soil on the row where our sweet corn grew just weeks ago. There were worms aplenty - a good sign.

The pumpkin row

I sprinkled a #10 can of organic fertilizer made from composted chicken litter on the row and worked it in with my hoe.  It packs a pungent aroma, but it does the trick.  The plants seem to love it and they jump out of the ground.

Organic fertilizer

I'm planting three varieties this year.  I always grow strange stuff and this year is no different.  I'm planting Jarrahdale Pumpkin.  It comes from Australia and is a beautiful slate or blue-grey color. Its flesh is orange, soft, with melon-like aroma and a very sweet taste.  I can't wait for this one.

Jarrahdale Pumpkin

The next variety I'm trying is the New England Sugar Pie.  Doesn't that sound good?  Like the Jarrahdale, it is an heirloom, but as the name suggests, it is from New England and is noted for its fine, sweet flavor, with creamy, stringless flesh that is perfect for pies.  Mmmmm...  Pumpkin pie!

New England Sugar Pie Pumpkins

Finally, the Jack Be Little pumpkins.  You've seen these.  They fit in the palm of your hand and most people use them for decorating or as a table centerpiece. However, you can eat them, too.  I saw a recipe for Candied Jack Be Littles that looks good.

Jack Be Little Pumpkins

So after my soil was ready, I poured the Jarrahdale pumpkin seeds in my hand. They were fat and thicker than normal pumpkin seeds.  Also, they had a slight bluish-gray tinge to them.

Seeds of Change

The just-opened soil, like a welcome mat, accepted the seed.  Even an earthworm came to extend greetings to this visitor to his world.  I quickly covered the seeds up.

The Sower went out to Sow

The New England Sugar Pie Pumpkin Seeds just looked like normal pumpkin seeds. I like eating roasted pumpkin seeds and I made a mental note to not only save seeds from our crop this year for later use, but to roast some.  But there I go, counting my chickens before they hatch.

Pumpkin Seeds

Which reminds me - I need to double check the gates to ensure that our cows don't meander over to our pumpkin patch.  Ha!  We'll keep you posted on our successes and failures.