Quite the white fuzz over the alfalfa under the leaves

Had a peek under the leaves and found there's quite a lot of white fuzz over the moistened alfalfa that I had put over the soil before laying the leaves over top.  I'm not worried -- hopefully it's all good bio stuff happening there.

Last carrots and beets harvested (have been several heavy frosts)

There have been several heavy frosts in recent weeks, so I harvested the rest of the carrots and beets.

I tried a carrot and can't say it seems any sweeter than the ones harvested through the summer.  Haven't had one of these beets yet.

But anyway, a very decent harvest of carrots and beets, though ~15% of the carrots seem to have had some kind of insect damage, so I'll have those carrots first.

Final leaves collected -- not chopping them

Collected leaves over the past two or three weeks, some from the hill on top of the hill, the rest from the grassy area left of the stairs.  A great method for the closer spot is to bring the garbage can instead of bags -- so much easier/quicker to fill it up.

The first few batches of leaves I had been blending in the garbage can with the big mower.  BUT, when it ran out of reel and I replaced it with a new reel, that new reel was all used up in almost no time at all!!!!!!  Like it blended only maybe one or two garbage bags!!!!  Which means there are a ton of teeny pieces of plastic reel all mixed in with the leaves!

So, for the rest of the leaves, which is a lot of leaves, I'll just leave them whole, and see how that goes.

One or the original bags of mowed leaves is in the basement to be used next year.

Kalanchoe transplanted to front garden

From R&B who grew this on their balcony over the summer.  Note said it's "kalanchoe".  Two of them, to the front right of the front door.  Google suggests they won't come back next year, but that's fine.

Stevia is still going strong despite several frosts!!!

Wow!  I thought it was a really tender plant, but apparently not!  They look perfectly fine, whereas the basil, tomatoes, beans, and begonia are all clearly kaput given the frosts.

First frost was last night

It has been a mild fall until now -- got some cooler nights at the 0 +1 range, but no frost in the yard until last night when it went down to -4.  The tenders are now done.  --> Edited to add that actually the stevias are still looking fine even after several cold nights!!

Ground cherry died quickly over past week

Not sure why, but the main/giant volunteer ground cherry at the south edge of the central bed died over the past week.  Pulled/removed it today.  We haven't had frost yet, but nights have definitely been chilly, so maybe that's why.

SVB finally took down the never-tulled zuke by hydro meter

Wow, I'm impressed the plant lasted this long, never having been tulled.  But this morning it was suddenly wilted -- inspection found at least one SVB.  Got one last zuke off it this morning -- it was a good run.

Wild mini-apples on Cntk!

Wow!  I'm not sure if these would classify as mini-apples or mega-crabapples, but they are adorable and perfect -- no sign of insect issues.  Very edible raw on their own!  

Wild grapes at CMuseum! Yum!

Along the west field tree line.  Enjoyed a few as a snack while passing through.  Juicy and tasty, not bitter at all.

Ground cherry pie! From the backyard volunteers! (Not from the allotment!)

Woo!  Getting a very decent harvest of ground cherries from the backyard volunteers, mainly the huge low sprawling one at the south of the central bed.  Made my ground cherry pie recipe today -- hoping to get enough more to make a second one later on!

(The allotment ground cherries have been useless due to squirrels helping themselves!)

LATE BLIGHT on the tomatoes!!! Jasper (cherry) still look fine

Oh no!  I've been hearing for weeks now of late blight wiping out people's tomato harvests... Looks like it has finally reached my little yard.  There were still quite a few (maybe a dozen) big tomatoes that were green or barely starting to ripen -- most now are showing blight.  So, I pulled those tomatoes.  Left the others there for now.  At least I had a nice harvest up to now, can't complain.

The Jasper cherry tomatoes are still going gangbusters so far.

Finally seeing fewer slugs

What a banner year for slugs!  Easily over 1000 I rehomed, I would say.  The past few nights I've seen only a few each night, compared to the dozen+ I usually see, so maybe the colder nights have sent them away.

Wild grape jelly made!

TLDR:  IT WORKED!!!  It set great!  It's quite sweet, but works well as jam.  I don't really taste much grape though, so next time (ie next year) use a lot less water during the juicing part, so that the juice itself is less diluted.

Day 1:

Harvested 2.5 pounds of grapes from BH.

Put them into sink (stems/twigs and all) where covered them with water.  Swooshed them around.  Bad ones floated to the top.  Put the good ones into the big but low pot, with a bunch of water to almost cover them.  I think I put too much water, as my total at the end was more than it should have been for only 2.5 pounds of grapes (which was ~13 cups grapes with stems setc.)

Heated / simmered them while mashing them with the curvy potato mashes.  The juice quickly came out.  After ~10-12 minutes, stopped.

Let it cool a bit.

Then, used one of the mesh produce bags (with handles) to strain the juice out.  Did a few go's at this to make sure no seeds/twigs in the juice.

Put the juice into mason jars -- ~7 cups total.  Will refrigerate overnight, to see if that deals with the tartrate crystals issue (https://creativecanning.com/wild-grape-jelly and https://practicalselfreliance.com/grape-jelly/).

Day 2

Gently decanted the juice --- didn't really find any crystals I think, unless they were really mini as there was some sediment type of thing at the bottom but it didn't feel crystal-y.

4 cups juice + 4 cups sugar + 1 box Certo powdered pectin

Added 4 cups of juice and 1 box of powdered pectin (used Certo) to my big but short pot -- must use a big pot because it climbs up a lot when it gets boiling!  Stirred to dissolve the pectin and brought the mixture to a boil.

Allowed it to boil hard for one minute.

Then, added 4 cups sugar.

Brought it back to a boil.  Boiled hard for one minute.

Removed from heat and spooned it into jars.

I put some of the jars into the fridge right away, the rest on the counter for a bit.  They all set great!

Wild/riverbank grapes at BHM!!!

How did I never notice these before!  Huge amount of clusters -- one east of the raspberries, one on top of the hill west of that tree.

Tasted a few but didn't do an actual harvest yet.  Planning to try grape jelly and maybe also red wine vinegar substitute!

Bush beans sowed July 23rd/30th now starting to have harvestable beans (fresh not dried)

That's 8.5-9 weeks to harvest.

Allotment: Bush bean's second harvest (from first set of plants) happening now

Very cool!  I had read that bush beans will often produce a second, smaller flowering/harvest after the first, so it's good to leave the plants in place.  Indeed, the second flowering happening a while ago, and the harvest from that is now underway!

Some carrot tops had the carrot weevil, but not many

At least I assume it's the carrot weevil which I had confirmed last year.  The tops of the affected carrots are damaged, but the rest of the carrot is fine.

Otherwise carrot harvesting is going well -- lots are a nice good size.

Wild apple harvest! BH on Nkpi!

I've gotten a few of the neighbourhood apples, which are nice and big and great -- but I found two ginormous apple trees up on Nkpi!

One tree is along the road -- its apples were mostly green.

The other is on the north edge of the school's park -- its apples were redder and stripey.

All of the apples were awesome!!  Not sour at all.  And even though the skins looked questionable, the insides were fabulous!

Delicious apple sauce!

Slugs a'plenty still, after a summer of rehoming them!

I'm out there almost every evening with the cell phone flashlight, dropping dozens into the slug bucket to rehome them outside of the yard, and yet every next night there are still tons more -- big ones no less!  Quite amazing.

Typically find them mostly in the beans and potatoes.  Oh and under tulled chard and kale, from which I haven't been removing them because of the tulle.