Make Your Own Apple Juice.

Home made apple juice is extremely easy to make requiring little work however needing a bit of time. You can use crab and wild apples and even a mix of different varieties. You simply wash and rough chop your apples, removing any blemishes or bad spots, and place them in a large pot. Add some water to the bottom of the pot and cook over medium heat until apples are well broken down using a potato or other masher to break the apples down into a sauce. After the apples are fully broken down and the mixture is quite 'soupy' you strain the liquid to your preference. We left ours quite pulpy and only strained it through a kitchen colander.  The juice can then be reheated over medium heat, sweetened if desired and poured into sterilized canning jars using the boiling water canning method and processed for storage. We used a mix of wild apples and did not choose to sweeten the juice, it was delicious as is. We dilute our apple juice with water using 1 part apple juice to 2-3 parts water. This makes a wonderful warm apple drink for the winter months, simply throw in a cinnamon stick, a couple cloves and nutmeg.

The Fall Garden

Broccoli grows extremely well in cool weather. If your spring planted broccoli doesn't seem to succeed, mine hardly ever produces a good head, try growing broccoli primarily in the fall. I have had great success with broccoli I planted in late summer for fall harvest.

We leave our rutabaga in the garden until we need it. Light frosts helps instead of hurting, turning the starches into sugars and creating a sweeter tasting rutabaga. 

The cold frame bed contents for greens in early winter months.

The cold frame bed consists of two different varieities of kale, arugula, romaine, mesclun mix, swiss chard, beets, green onions and rutabaga.

Kale as a cover crop.

Never underestimate the value of green onions in the garden. They take very little room, can be left in the ground all winter and used in the spring and grow super quick without being a heavy feeder.  

Again.

Big ol red onions.

Celery is best stored with it's cut end 'planted' in a bucket of sand or you can simply leave it in the ground and take ribs as you please.

Swiss Chard.

Radish.

More Broccoli.

Fishing for Compost.

Here are a couple pictures I was able to snap of a Fisher eating out of my compost piles yesterday. Fishers are not as harmless as they appear and are known to be quite vicious. Fishers have been known to attack pets, farm animals and even humans. We are lucky all he stole from us was compost as opposed to a chicken or a cat.

Swiss Chard.

Swiss chard will thrive in cool weather even when you have to wear a huge wool sweater out to the garden to pick it. Most greens prefer cool spring and fall weather to intense summer heat. Swiss chard I planted this summer is doing even better now that the temperatures have dipped.

Buddies.