Funny summer when you think about it....guess the drought really impacted most plants in some way......

Really it was a great year for veggies here in my garden. Record tomato harvests and summer squash harvests. Eggplants were really good. And peppers, which I have had lots of problems with getting a decent crop most years, gave me a steady supply. So I am happy.

Rita - what was the name of the long, white eggplants you loved? My son needs to know for next year.

pirl said:Rita - what was the name of the long, white eggplants you loved? My son needs to know for next year.

I grew one this year called Snowy but that can't be it. I thought it would be great but it put out eggplants that mostly stayed green and hard. In short, I hated it.

There is one I used to grow (but have not been able to find plants locally lately) called Gretel. As in Hansel and Gretel. It is one of the super productive asian ones. Loved it!! But it is only slightly larger than the more common Little Fingers.

There is also a nice teardrop shaped one called Casper and I loved that one also. Maybe that is the one you are thinking of.

You're right - I believe it is Casper. Thank you!

pirl said:You're right - I believe it is Casper. Thank you!

There are many of the long purple ones as that color is most common as you know. Dark ones and lighter. A really nice lighter purple long growing eggplant I grew this year was Ping Tung.

http://www.rareseeds.com/ping-...

Of course I bought mine as a plant locally and didn't grow from seeds.

Thanks. I'll let him know about Ping Tung as well.

Picking off tomatoes & peppers today....frost for tonight.....

RobinD said:Picking off tomatoes & peppers today....frost for tonight.....

Oh oh. It is that time if year!! I have to get back to pulling out the tomato plants but have gotten sidetracked working on trimming back shrubs along the south side shrub border.

Yes, we had a frost last night...not a killing one, but enough to end the lives of the tomatoes, peppers, & zucchini!

RobinD said:Yes, we had a frost last night...not a killing one, but enough to end the lives of the tomatoes, peppers, & zucchini!

A sad day!!

It has been cold here at night but not frost cold. Still the eggplants look horrible. I guess its time for them to come out as they really don't like the cold.

No, they are very sensitive to the cold...me, too!

Lots of peppers harvested yesterday. They're so nice and crisp.

I took all my eggplants out late yesterday afternoon. They need to be bundled up for the yard waste but they are dug and pulled out.

I too picked peppers today. Truthfully very surprised to have peppers producing this late in the season. But this will probably be it for them.

I also picked 6 tomatoes today. I guess any tomatoes this late is a good thing.

My son called around 8 last night....he was pickling peppers....wanted to know if the recipe he chose sounded right.....he had a ton of peppers this year....I picked a lovely red one from his garden last week & added it to my yellow pea soup that I made yesterday.....also put in carrots & celery....very colorful & yummy!

Lots of people seem to be reporting that the peppers are doing awesome this fall. Lots of peppers for so late in the year.

Son is happy with the results of his pickling.....he said the jars look awesome....hope they taste as good as they look.....but since he added a hot pepper to each jar, guess I won't be sampling!

RobinD said:Son is happy with the results of his pickling.....he said the jars look awesome....hope they taste as good as they look.....but since he added a hot pepper to each jar, guess I won't be sampling!

I guess he has to sample his own work!!

I would not be sampling either as I hate hot peppers.

I actually like them....they don't like me...too acidic.....My Mom loved them, but as she aged, she couldn't eat them either......

I love hot peppers as well. Though when I grew Ghost peppers last year...those were too hot, though they have great flavor. Made them a touch tricky to work with when trying to make chili that was not over the top scorching.


Well...garden is officially done for the year over here. Got a hard frost a couple nights ago which finished off everything that had not yet been yanked out. Got out there this morning and pulled that stuff out, removed the soaker hose's and ran the tiller over the whole thing. Will get out there and add compost and till again then will plant some winter rye which will continue to grow till freeze and will get tilled under next spring.

Thoughts from this season...

1) Amazing year for tomato. My heirloom variety selection was awesome. Found a new fav...Rose de Berne, will grow that forever from here on out. Dorothy's Green is the best green when ripe type I've ever tried and German Striped grew the some monster, super meaty slicers. All in all every plant I had but two performed far above expectations.

2) Cosmic Purple carrots are now one of my new favorite carrots. They are simply delicious and the color puts them right over the top .

3) Fava Beans...I learned that I suck at growing Fava beans.

4) Peppers...hot peppers had a great year while my bell peppers did not. Worst year ever for me for Bell Peppers...from 12 plants I only got about 15 peppers for the whole season. Hot peppers, however, I'm swimming in.

5) Growing decent sized watermelons is still proving to be elusive for me...I won't stop trying though...I love them far too much.

6) Why isn't it spring yet?

I'm sure I got more thoughts on the season, but these were the things that popped into mind at this moment.


Gonna go watch some football now while the oven is filling my house with the smell of baking apple crisp that I put together this morning from the Empire apples I picked at the orchard yesterday.