The Return of the Grapes of Wrath

In June I posted about our garden and shared some pictures of our grape trellis and how big it has grown. There is also a picture of the little grape buds that were promising a nice crop. Well the time has come to harvest that crop and here is the bounty.

One vine produces a green seedless table grape. The variety's name is called Himrod. Fully ripened they are quite sweet but I had to jump on harvesting this in mid August because the birds were quickly making a meal of them. I juiced these and then strained the juice to make a white grape juice concentrate that I then bottled it for later use. 

The other vine produces a variety called Catawba grape. (Don't ask me how to pronounce that.) It has seeds and has a sort of slimy insides (I think the concord is similar this way). Not really a table grape, although I guess this variety is good for juice, wine and jelly making. I chose the juice and jelly options.

Grape processing isn't really that complicated. First you have to wash the grapes and remove them from the stems.  Then you crush them with the food processor, chopper, or potato masher. Then you dump them in a big pot, add some water and let them cook and soften up a bit. I forgot to take pictures of those steps, but here is a picture of the pot I used. You can see the level of the crushed grapes in this big stock pot. There were a lot, which became a problem.

I realized my folly when it came time to strain the grapes through the cheese cloth. For that amount I needed a huge strainer or a lot of little ones. I didn't have a big enough bowl to strain all those grapes at the same time so I fashioned three little ones. Doesn't that look lovely in a gross slimy Halloween sorta way?

Anyway after I strained it all off, I ended up with about a gallon of really sweet pink/purple grape juice. I used about 11-12 cups of that to make 22 half pint jars of  grape jelly (8 of those are a grape crab apple jelly mix). Then I used the last 3 cups to make some grape juice. I added about a cup of sugar and boiled it to get it to dissolve then I added 3-4 cups of water. It was better than any store bought juice, hands down.

The awesome thing is that these grape vines have been so easy to grow. All we had to do this spring was to prune it back a little and then let them grow. Next year I want to put a net over it so the birds don't eat up my green grapes too soon.

* I made two posts today, and I  don't want anyone to miss the two pictures I posted of little Cara. So check that out too.

Summer Features

The Grapes of Wrath - who knew that a little pruning would go so far. (There is 6 foot trellis in there)

Double Feature:
Attack of the Onions and The Cabbage Patch Carrots  - I predict that we'll be eating onions, cabbage and carrots through December.

And for the kids, Strawberry Shortcake Battles Potato Bugs from Mars - at least the ones that the potato bugs haven't devoured look good.

Garden Thoughts 2010

I am finally done with all things garden this year and wanted to record my thoughts for reference for next year.

What went well:

• Tomatoes, they grew almost too well. I planted 12 roma tomato plants. One per square. I had buckets of them left on the plants when the time came to worry about them freezing. I pulled off all the green ones hoping they'd ripen and I could use them. Only the ones that were close to ripening worked. The rest just went mushy or moldy before they ripened. 
• Watermelons. I planted three seeds in the center of a 4x4 box and I got 4 good sized watermelons.
• Raspberries. The canes from last year produced at the beginning of the summer. New canes produced from mid summer till even now. I just pulled off 1 1/2 cups of berries. I was able to make 12 jars of raspberry jam and some raspberry/strawberry fruit leather.
• Strawberries. The everbearing plants from last year did awesome this year. Some just kept on producing and I probably have some strawberries and I pull off right now. 
• Green beans were easy again this year. 
• Cucumbers produced pretty well even though I only had one or two plants.
• Cantalope did okay. I got two decent melons off the vine.
• The boys planted Red corn in their square and even though we only ended up with a few ears they tasted good, unlike last year.
• Onions were very prolific. They were easy to grow, they are harvested early and I still have a bunch of little ones left to use.
• My potatoes didn't have brown spots inside every one this year. I did have a couple with brown spots but most were good and I got a bunch.
• Zinna flowers. The boys picked these out for their box and I loved clipping them and putting them in a vase on the table. They remind me of gerbera daisies but more wild.
• The spinach I planted last fall started growing again this spring and I ended up with a bunch of it early on.
• The carrots I planted this spring grew well and I really enjoyed cooking them and eating them.

What didn't go well:

• Peas, I think I planted them a little late, not all of them sprouted and I only got a few pods off the plant. They were also hard to open and get the peas. 
• The Peppers had issues this year and just didn't grow. They may have gotten too much shade from all the tomato plants. I probably only picked about 4 good ones off of 3 plants. Last year I picked probably 3 times that much.
• Lettuce just didn't work out for me this year. It smelled and tasted bitter and I just wasn't motivated to pick it. 
• I planted 4 broccoli plants and none of them actually produced a head. Lame.
• The carrots I planted last fall started growing again this year. But either I waited too long to pick them or they grew woody over the winter. They were no good after all.
• I planted a couple cabbage plants. One actually grew a little head, not too impressive though.

What I will do differently:

• Plant less tomato plants, not so close together. The plants in the center didn't quite produce as much as the ones on the edges. Also I need to stake them better the ones on the edges got so big and heavy with fruit that they fell over despite my cages.
• Plant more red corn. Yum. Space out the plantings so they aren't all ready at the same time. 
• Plant more cantalope, and maybe try starting it inside if they can be transplanted.
• Don't grow vining green beans. By the time they start producing the bush beans have already been at it for a while and I'm sick of them by the time they are there and they are a pain to take off the trellis.
• Maybe plant pickling cucumbers. I actually don't like fresh cucumber all that much and they tend to go bad before we use them all.
• Start the peas earlier or try a different variety.
• Watch the strawberry runners better and keep their boxes more tidy.
• Try different lettuce and broccoli.

I'm sorta burned out on the garden right now. Luckily it is winter now and by the time spring comes I'll be ready.

Garden Thoughts

I've been meaning to write about the garden we did this year but never really got around to it. Now that the gardening season is almost over I wanted to make some notes about my garden and what I would do again and what I would change for next year.

Because our soil is, well, rock, I wanted to build some boxes and do raised bed gardening the Square Foot Gardening way. You can see my main box here it has 4-4x4 areas. This one had a pumpkin at the end, corn in the next area and a variety of vegetables in the next two. My second main box has 2-4x4 areas. I put a cooking pumpkin plant in one area and a watermelon in the other.
Next I did two boxes that are only 1 foot deep. One I made 4 feet long and put everbearing strawberries in it. Seen below. I had to put a net up to keep animals from snacking on them.
The other one I made 8 feet wide and attached a conduit trellis to the back with a net. I planted cucumbers, tomatoes, pole beans and cantalope in this one.

Here is my first large harvest of vegetables and some strawberries. Later I would harvest lots of carrots, raspberries and potatoes.For next year I wanted to make a few notes about what went well, what didn't go well, and what I would change.

Vertical Garden
We grew 2 cucumber plants and got about 4-5 good sized ones. We ate about 1-2. I would say since the vertical garden space is so limited that we don't grow cucumbers next year and just buy them at the store when we want them. Instead plant peas or more tomatoes.

I want to try peas next time. I didn't start the garden early enough for them this year.

I want to plant more tomato plants so I can have more ripe at once for salsa. I liked the grape tomatoes for salad. I want to get some roma tomato plants (they're KC's favorite) and maybe an Early Girl or two.

The pole beans were great once I got the beans to sprout. Two plants in the square seemed to be enough.

Plant the cantalope plants a lot earlier and give them more water maybe. They grew very slowly and didn't get very big before they died from the frost. Watch for squash bugs on them.

Large Plants
I got some good sized pumpkins but the issue with squash bugs was really annoying. Pumpkins are pretty cheap so I don't know if it's worth the space and the yucky squash bugs.

Maybe I will do water melons again, if I have a whole box available. I need to be more aware of when they are ripe this time and pick promptly. Also the squash bugs can kill the vines if I'm not careful.

Fruit
We loved the strawberries, they turned out great. I want to build another box and put in June bearing strawberries. This year they were everbearing which was great for making strawberry yogurt snacks or fruit salads perodically.

The raspberries turned out awesome. We need to put in some stakes and supports for the canes so they don't droop on the rock.

Other Veggies
I planted too many corn too close together.. maybe just one or two per square. I need get a different variety the ones we had didn't taste very good.

I planted 4 pepper plants and still have peppers left over. I would use them for salsa or something but I never have enough ripe tomatoes at once to make a large enough batch. I made salsa once this year and it turned our pretty good. So maybe plant just 2 bell pepper plants and another with another kind for salsa maybe.

The bush beans were great. Keep an eye on them because they last a lot longer then I thought they would and put out beans more than I was informed.

Plant broccoli, lettuce, spinach and carrots earlier to take advantage of spring cool weather plants.


Herbs
Start the herbs earlier or buy the plants at the store, plant just one basil and one oregano, plant maybe 2 cilantro. Try to get parsley to grow again.

Maybe try garlic next year.

Root Vegetables
Plant some onions next year.
Do carrots again, they were great.
Do at least 4 squares of potatoes, maybe more. Plant earlier to avoid those brown spots.

Don't put a mother's day petunia in the same box as an herb. They get hugemongous in the Square Food Gardening soil.
Put in marigolds again and do nasturtiums for insect issues. Also get some organic vegetable insect spray like neem.

Overall it was pretty successful. I just need to train myself to use vegetables more in my cooking. I am a recovering picky eater and it is a long process.