gardening | september harvest in maine

alive and kicking... It may be September, but thankfully no one has told that to my garden yet. Without a doubt, this has been our most fruitful garden in ten years. I've canned, pickled, sauced, dried, and froze more than I can even begin to type.

One nod to our success has of course been the incredible weather. Though a touch more rain wouldn't have been too shabby. I also practiced succession plantings for crops like lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, beets, beans, and peas. Normally housing withered vines around this time, our whiskey barrels are vibrant and full of lush bean and pea foliage. Garden beds are full of carrot fronds and rich beet leaves.

I have yet to win my family over to the love of the beet. I'm hoping that with fall's approach, some freshly-roasted beets on a chilly day may tip the scale slightly more in their favor. I'm not going to hold my breathe though. I'm hoping the sell of maché later this month will come a little easier.

With powdery mildew settling in rapidly, I snipped a few New England pie pumpkins and Zeppelin Delicata winter squash. I'm pretty excited by the other varieties that are still sprawled out through the garden. Growing in the winter squash camp are some Sunshine, Nutty Delica, Burgess Buttercup, Sweet Meat, and Baby Blue Hubbards. Over in the pumpkin side are my yearly favorite Luminas, Jack Be Little, Tiny Ornamental, Early Sweet Sugar Pie, and my pride and glory... Jarrahdale.

The tomato plants are beginning to wane. After producing over 130 pounds of tomatoes, they have done more than their fair share. I'll probably be out within the next week or two plucking the last fruits from the vine to finish their ripening from the comforts of a brown paper bag.

This year's leeks were a huge improvement from last year. I only grab what I need for the night's meal since the rest are happy hanging out in the soil. The first batch of potato-leek soup is on the docket for later this month. It'll be a great treat to finally make it with my own leeks.

I may have gone overboard on cucumbers. Earlier this July, I listened to story after story of fellow gardeners raking in cukes by the dozen. My plants on the other hand, barely had flowers. So being the ever impatient one, I decided to sow a second crop of cukes. Not being able to pick just one variety, I ended up planting around 20 more plants. Well, this pat August, my initial crop of cucumbers exploded. I still can't keep up with them. Now, the second sowing is taking over and is covered with tiny little cukes. I've already run out of Mason jars (twice over) and am reconsidering if we really need as many jars of pickles as we have.

It's been the best summer ever for our carrot crops too. I did a lot of succession planting, so we've been happily munching on these treats since the end of June. We have another four rows full so hopefully we'll be good through winter.

We had a pepper miracle summer. For the first time in almost ever, the peppers actually ripened red. Honestly, this is incredible. Normally I'm saving green, tart peppers from the approach of the first frost. Not this year. No, we feasted on 10" long Carmens. They were incredibly sweet and crisp. Fresh or grilled, they complement any dish. Tiny Thai hots were tossed into stirfries and sautés. I even tried my hand at making my first chili paste/sauce this weekend. The Cayennes are in the dehydrator on their way to becoming chili flakes.

Slowly the kale, swiss chard, spinach, and winter radishes begin to emerge. Add into the mix the still growing brussel sprouts, chinese cabbage, carrots, squash and beets. If all continues to go well, we'll be dining on garden delights for the next few months. After that we'll be cracking into our root cellar stash to get us through until next spring when we start this beautiful waltz all over again. Happy gardening!