Garden Dairy 2008 Fall(2) 豐收的季節 (組圖)

The weather is getting cooler and cooler. Our vegetable garden started to die back like it should. Looking back, I  learned something new again.  We had a very long vacation this summer. We left our garden to God's hand. Still we had quiet a harvest. Here are some pictures that I captured from time to time. I do feel rewarded every time I see them.
天氣轉冷了，我們家的菜園也由生機勃勃轉入平靜。一年的收獲讓我又學到了不少新東西。今年我們外出度了 long vacation，(very long) 我們把花園菜園交給了大自然，盡管如此，我們的菜園今年還是豐收年。下麵的圖片是我在不同時間拍的，每當我看到它們，我都有一種抑製不住的興奮和成就感。

Here are peas we planted in the early Spring.
早春時種的豌豆。


Now it is in the freezer. We ate quiet bit. But we couldn't consume all. So, we froze them, ~5 lbs. Sorry, our storage room doesn't have enough light. Picture didn't turn out good.
現在它們在凍箱中保存。我們吃了很多。冷凍了差不多５磅。


Sweet corns. 甜玉米，今年種了不少


Can't consume all. Have to freeze whole bunch of them. 吃不完，冷凍了。



冷凍的和新鮮的沒有多少區別。


We planted Hungarian pepper this year. They are good, and fit our climate very well. We will do it again next year. 今年我們種的辣椒是匈牙力辣椒，早熟抗寒，很適合我們的氣候。


We had huge harvest for peppers. 今年辣椒的收獲還真不少。


Now some of them are in the freezer. 現在它們其中一些在凍箱中保存


Beets. 甜菜


We had huge harvest for beets as well.  甜菜今年又大豐收


Pickled beets are our favorite. 醃甜菜非常好吃，特別爽口。


After the 2nd harvest, we still have quiet bit left. 收獲了兩次後，還剩這麽多甜菜。


Here are some Rhubarb.  這些是 Rhubarb，



We made few delicious Rhubarb pie this year.我們今年做了好幾個Rhubarb派。




Still can't consume all. Have to freeze them as well. Then we can enjoy the Rhubarb pie all year long. 雖然已經做了幾個Rhubarb Pie，還是吃不完，這不，冷凍吧，隨時想吃Rhubarb Pie，隨時那出來做。


We planted 3 rows of eggplants. We didn't mean to. Just had too many seedlings. We love eggplants. But it is just too much this year. 今年種了３行茄子。太多了。茄子出芽率很低，沒想到今年的出芽率太高了，扔掉太可惜，明年可不種這麽多了。


See, this is only 1 load. I have frozen a lot of them......看，太多了，這隻是１ 次的收獲，不得不冷凍了。


These are the butternut squash. They are one of our favorite winter squash. 這些是奶油南瓜。是我們最喜歡的南瓜之一。


The butternut squash is ready to pick. 奶油南瓜成熟了。


These are the Hubbard winter squash. They are one of our favorite winter squash as well. 這些是 Hubbard 南瓜。也是我們最喜歡的南瓜之一。


Hubbard 南瓜成熟了。這種南瓜瓤幹，瓜肉細膩，甜味高，是做南瓜派的好材料，比真正的南瓜好的多，烤箱烤出的 Hubbard 南瓜比地瓜還甜，可見含糖量的程度。我大力推薦。。。。。。


Weather is getting cool. Only few Chinese cucumbers left on the shell. 天氣已涼，隻有有限的幾隻黃瓜還掛在架子


Here are some apples. We didn't prune our apple trees this year. They didn't make to my husband's agenda. But he said they are on the agenda for this winter. 蘋果樹就不拍了。今年３棵蘋果樹都沒剪枝，沒排到老公的日程表上。不過他說今年冬天一定要剪了。。。。。。




Too many apples, dehydrate them is one of good way to keep. 蘋果太多了，做了好多蘋果幹。




These are peaches. This spring, our peach tree along with our cherry trees had deadly early frost hit when they were blossom. Therefore, we had enough to eat fresh, but not enough to can.
今年我們家的桃樹和櫻桃樹一起在開花季節遭遇了嚴重的霜凍。桃子接的不多，足夠吃，但不夠做桃子罐頭的。




Below picture shows carrots on the left and Chinese water melon radish on the right.
下圖左邊是胡蘿卜，是心裏美蘿卜


We had huge harvest for carrots as usuall, ~50 lb. The watermelon radish has not ready yet.
今年收獲了大約５０磅胡蘿卜。心裏美蘿卜還沒成熟。


Do you remeber what they are? That's right, they are potatoes.
還記得這是什麽嗎，對了，是土豆，馬齡薯。


We had over 250 lb this year. No need to buy any from the store. This is real Organic potatoes. They are the best potatoes in the world. 今年種了不少，收獲了２５０多磅, 一冬不用買了。自己家種的比外麵買的好吃幾十倍。這才叫真正的有機食品。


Take a close look, They are so lovely and delicious.
近看看，好可愛啊！


You all know what it is. I don't need to mention anything. 大家都知道這是什麽，我就不說了。

Someday after the walking thru the garden, What's for dinner? 某一天在菜園摘的菜，晚餐吃什麽。。。。。。


Another day after picking......又是某一天在菜園摘的菜


Another in the basket..........又是某一天在菜園摘的


We don't use fertilizer in our garden! The biggest in our garden this year. Chinese cucumbers and egg plants are 18 inches long. Biggest ones I've never seen. 今年我們家的菜園之最:茄子和黃瓜長達１８英寸。沒用化肥喲


The Potatoes are 5 inches long and quiet big around. 土豆有５英寸那麽長，還很粗哦。


The largest Hubbard winter squash is 15 inches long. 最大的 Hubbard 南瓜有15英寸那麽長。


The biggest butternut squash is 9 inches long. 最大的奶油南瓜有９英寸那麽長。來張和影吧！

一年的經驗總結:
Looking back, we had a big success in our garden. I also learned something new.
1) We had quiet a harvest of tomatoes this year. The cherry tomatoes are absolutely delicious. But the Heirloom tomatoes we had this year are not very tasty for some reason. So we canned most of them. We will look for another brand of Heirloom tomatoes next year.
2) We didn't have any Acorn squash this year. I planted 6 of them. Maybe the seeds were not good. We did have some wierd looking squash. It looks like they were a cross breed squash. That's why I think the seeds were not good. So, the quality of the seeds play big role in the garden success.

Oh well, winter is coming. We'll let everything die back, rest and give us time to enjoy the garden goodies. Spring will come around soon, before we even know it.