With all the frosts, I started to worry about the sweet potatoes. Actually I was a bit worried they were going to produce at all… it’s just so hard to know what is happening underground. I want a transparent garden floor, or x-ray vision. But since neither of these were immediately attainable, I settled for digging. And I pleasantly discovered the sweet potatoes had been very busy producing quite a bit of root.

We planted three different varieties: Georgia Jet, Vardaman, and Beauregard. If we had them labeled correctly the GJ’s were red skinned, the V were orange and the B were somewhere inbetween. These and more varieties with description on www.sweetpotatoplant.com. The V were most split, the GJ were the heaviest producers, but they might have gotten a head start on the others and the B were tightly bunched. We are eating a variety for dinner tonight so I’ll need to wait to talk about taste.

Milo, the cat, is looking in the window. A better picture of milo on Flickr at the right.

It’s getting to be that time. And finally today we had sun. It was a perfect fall day. Perfect in every way. The birds were chirping in harmony and rythmic syncopation. Jake and Buddy were running circles around the shed. Buddy would run away and Jake would change directions to catch him coming around counter-clockwise. But Buddy knew the game and quickly spun and ran with Jake behind. Both of them loved every dirty paw moment as they ripped into the soggy earth.

I kept pulling and thinning the tomato plants. They needed it long ago. We let them go crazy. They produced tons, but so many are split and rotten. I might need to rake some of them up and move them to the compost area. Or maybe they will compost right where they are. And now what to do with all the green ones? I have several setting on a window sill and still more in plastic containers. We’re hoping they ripen.

I don’t remember anyone in my immediate family liking my pepper jelly, but many friends love the stuff.  I’m told it’s very good on pork, but I enjoy it on some toast with cream cheese for breakfast. A good kick to my morning.

As I indicated in my last post, this first batch of the season may not turn out to be the best. Two problems worry me: 1. I’m not sure if it ever thickened enough, and 2. there was a white power residue left behind from the boiling water bath. I’m guessing I had too much pepper in the mix and the white powder is minerals in the water.  Minerals are good for you, right?

Here is the recipe just in case I lose the little paper I have it written on:

3.5 cups of diced peppers (I had about 4 this time)
1.5 cups of apple cider vinegar
6 cups of sugar
6oz package of pectin.

I used nothing but hot red peppers this time, but any combination should work. I didn’t bother seeding them all, it just takes too long. In a blender I puree the peppers and vinegar. I boiled the jars for about 10 minutes, and was left with some murky cloudy jars. The puree is mixed with the sugar in a large pot and boiled for 5 minutes, add the pectin and boil for another minute. This is when it should thicken, but I don’t think mine thickened much. So I cooked it longer, maybe not long enough.

We planted about 50 some raspberry plants, some suckers and some bare root. Both have done rather well. But the suckers were free from a plant exchange, so they somehow seem better. They are planted in a double row next to a fence. There wasn’t a whole lot we did to prepare the soil — we were kind of pressed for time. We hardly even weeded. We just dug about 50 holes, plopped in a bit of manuer, placed the plant and firmed up the soil. We didn’t really expect any berries this year, but have been picking random fruits every week. Anne’s done more work weeding and mulching them recently. They are very (note I did not go for the pun) delicious.