We have one main project this fall: expand the greenhouse!
When we first built it, 16 feet by 20 feet seemed huge, but that feeling only lasted a season or two. After using it for 5 years (5years!!) it's time to finally expand, to 16 by 45 feet. Does that seem enormous? Yes, it does. But I don't doubt we'll grow into it.
Keith has already dug all the holes and hopefully we'll be pouring concrete this weekend. We have also had the goat weeding crew in, clearing out all the weeds around the greenhouse.
Inside the greenhouse, it still feels a little like summer. Summer with frosted tips! We don't have a heater in the greenhouse, but this year we are using heat from incandescent lights that we've hung and frost cloths to extend our season a little longer. The lights seem to be working, but still there have been a few very cold nights that have done a little bit of damage, but nothing has died, yet.
Hopefully all of this works, cuz damn, there is still lots getting ripe in there!
One reason I want a bigger greenhouse is winter squash. We love it and could eat it all winter long, but I can never seem to grow enough of it. It takes up so much freaking space just to produce a few squash. I'm growing a couple varieties this season that have been producing pretty well, it looks like we might get a dozen or so small ones-Yay!
And tomatoes! So far I would say that the 'determinate tomato experiment' has been successful, with the loads of tomatoes that I've been bringing in and that are still ripening up. But ripening on the vine is something we just don't have time for anymore! As soon as any of those little green maters have a blush of color, I'm picking them! It's too damn cold to wait! I've been taking over the kitchen with bags full of ripening tomatoes. As of this morning I've got about 25 lbs almost ready to go!
I think part of my soul was born during the Great Depression. I look at everything that has been harvested and still needs to be harvested, everything that has been canned, or cured, or fermented or frozen to be put up for the winter and all I can think is: this isn't enough! We'll run out in February! We'll starve! Yes, this is kind of crazy and of course we won't starve and I'm sure we do have enough of most things to make it through most the winter without buying most vegetables.
But I also have to remind myself that every year we've been getting better and more efficient at growing our own food and next year will be so much different and hopefully amazing with such a bigger greenhouse! Maybe by the end of next season I'll feel like we actually have enough for winter, but I doubt it!
The Valentine I've sent to Keith the past few years sums life up kinda perfectly:
Happy Fall!
