I noticed a couple of weeks ago some of my Brussels Sprouts and cabbages had been chewed on. Last year we had a bunch of rats living in our barn. At the beginning of this season, I really focused on that and ended up getting rid of all the rats in about 2 weeks. So when I noticed veggies were getting eaten, I thought, “Ooh great! More rats, time to put my rat czar hat back on and get rid of them”. Turns out it wasn’t rats but a giant, very well-fed, groundhog. It’s unfortunately too close to winter to humanely get rid of it, so we now have a groundhog for the winter.
Here’s some great information on groundhogs and how to humanely eliminate them. This will be a big focus for me next season. If it wasn’t eating my crops, I’d leave it alone. But it’s not, so it has to go.
This week has felt pretty overwhelming on the preservation front. Our first frost date is quickly approaching, so I’ve been trying to get everything out of the garden before it hits. This week I pulled all the hot peppers I could find and am making fermented hot sauces. One is a Lousiana hot sauce, made with cayenne peppers. The other is an experimental, mild, sweet sauce made with Anaheim/ Poblano peppers. All my jalapeños will be turned into more cowboy candy. I go through a pint almost every 10 days, so we can never have enough.
I’m also on a huge dehydrating kick lately. I can not get over how easy it is to do and how much space you save with the end result. You really just set it and let it go until it’s done. Then cure for a week and you have shelf-stable foods ready to use. Darcy at The Purposeful Pantry did a great write-up on what curing is and why it’s so important when dehydrating foods. This week, I did nine trays in my dehydrator of green beans and have started more carrots. I mainly use them in soups and casseroles, and with Fall here, those are a lot of our meals.
I still haven’t gotten my garlic planted. . . That is the priority this week. I have 800 bulbs to plant and have decided to do it in my raised beds. The problem is I still have peppers growing in them and I’m trying to let them go for as long as possible before I pull them out to plant. With the weather turning unseasonably cold, I think this is the last week for them, so pulling them out and planting garlic is a must.
I also started building my temporary season extenders over my raised beds. I’m using things we already had stored in our barn for this year since it’s such a last-minute project. All I have left to do is attach the 6 mil greenhouse plastic. I’m hoping this will allow us to continue to harvest things like lettuce, spinach, radishes, and turnips, well into the winter.
