Late Fall Harvest

Got the word over the weekend that the first freeze would be Sunday night.  In fact we even got some snow on Monday morning.  Its always cool to catch the first snow of the year, even if its at 4 AM...

So Sunday afternoon I pulled all the fruit from the plants in the garden.  The was an abundance of Cayenne Chile this time.  I have two bushels of green Tomato clusters.  The Jalapenos are tiny this time.

Cayenne Chiles in the wash.

Drying the Cayenne Chiles before the dehydration process.

Green Tomato clusters, either pickles, or Fried Green Tomatoes.

The Habaneros were not as prolific this year, and produced some Red Savinas.

The Jalapenos turned out extra small, and extra hot this year.  I need to look at my organic soil composition.  This year I only used composted yard scraps as fertilizer, and maybe it needs a little more.  Both the Habaneros and the Jalapenos performed less than I had hoped.  There are two issues with the garden now, nutrition, and light.  My large trees shade the garden in the afternoon.  The nutrition is less of a problem, I can solve it by changing the nutrient mix when I till the garden in the spring.  But getting the light back requires trimming the trees, and that we don't want to do.