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I finished cleaning out the bump windows today. The tomatoes in there produced poorly this year. There was an aphid invasion from a plant I brought home from Seattle. The plant, a Danova primrose, survived and bloomed outside, but the aphids weakened the tomatoes. The Stupice and Sungold lived but all other varieties withered and died.
Luckily the tomatoes outside did ok so I didn't feel too deprived this summer.
I brought in the fish from the "pond". There were four live ones and one recently deceased. They are old for Tanichthys albonubes so I choose to believe it was old age. The live ones are brilliant green and red. They are always so disappointed to come inside and share an aquarium with guppies, eating flake food. No worms or mosquito larvae until Spring!
We've been making applesauce from the Rescues and the Dolgos. The Rescues are a very small but sweet apple. It's a dwarf tree that needs pruning and is shaded by two other trees, yet it yielded 12 quarts of applesauce and still has more apples on it that I'm letting ripen a bit more. The Dolgo is 20 or more feet tall, completely unpruned and going wild, but covered with apples. We're barely started harvesting its oval, deep red, extremely tart fruit. A batch of Rescue sauce needs 2 to 3 cups sugar, a batch of Dolgo maybe twice that. The Dolgo sauce is a pretty deep pink, pinker than the Rescue, and more acid. Ideally I'd mix them 50/50 in a batch but the Rescue was in a hurry this year.
There was a very light frost last night. It may have nipped the tomatoes on the deck. Last night we picked all the remaining Norlands, some as large as a red delicious.
It may freeze tonight so I ran out and gathered all the zuchinni (poor puny little things) and a grocery bag packed full of chard. I didn't have the heart to pull the chard plants so as usual I just picked off the biggest leaves, just in case it doesn't freeze hard tonight. It's been a good year for chard. Many of them were transplanted on top of salmon carcasses. The largest plants were in the sunniest bed. I think in previous years I've been starving and shading my chard.
The kale this year is doing fantastic, whereas in past years it just did well. It seems to be less picky than chard. It enjoys a light frost so although I have much more to harvest, blanch and freeze, I didn't pick any more. I have enough chard now to keep us fed for a few days.
Tonight we finished canning 19 quarts of Norlands. The apples are the size of a very small Red Delicious, or smaller, just big enough to quarter and core. The other two apple trees, Rescue and Dolgo, have fruit too small to bother with coring, so I'll just make applesauce from them.
The Evans (Bali) cherries continue to ripen, so I pick a few each day. They are tart enough that some people won't eat them plain, but I like them as they are.
It looks like freezing will hold off for awhile. I have some zuchinnis forming, finally! Hurry, hurry, hurry. The sugar snap peas are about done, possibly from drought. I haven't been good about watering. I'm lazy, plus I don't want to encourage the slugs.
The Olympiad rose has sent up two more blooms. Three blooms this year! Last year (it's first) only one. No frangrance but such perfection in a deep red many-petaled bloom.
The President clematis is blooming as well. The blue bloom is as big as my hand. I really hope it overwinters. I bought it in Seattle this spring as a tiny start.
