With early October underway, our growing season is pretty much over now and we are so thankful for the harvest that we have been enjoying!

We really wanted to have a greenhouse to help extend the shoulder seasons and for protection from frost, but we didn’t expect how badly we would need it with snow and heavy frost in early September.

Frost blankets, two extra garbage cans full of water, and a heater running to keep everything alive through the cold snap! We knew this cold would be over in a couple days and we could expect several more weeks of warmth for the growing season if we could just get through this.

The gardens outside buried in early September snow.

Everything in the greenhouse survived and the plants in the raised beds (strawberries, lettuce, beets, carrots) came out fine. We pulled up the onions right away after the snow was gone, and they are drying in the basement. After the cold snap, we had several more weeks of our growing season.

With another heavy frost forecast for October 1st, we decided to pull the plug, or at least the harvest. We felt that it wasn’t worth trying to fight -6C (21F) in early October as there wasn’t going to be much more of a growing season. That night we emptied the greenhouse to let stuff ripen indoors. The greenhouse has been a wonderful addition to the yard, and we have been able to grow so much in there. For the last month Naomi has spent lots of time processing the food and trying out delicious new recipes. Lots and lots of canning.

The harvest from our own yard and greenhouse includes: cucumbers, grapes, chili peppers, bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peas, carrots, lettuce, spinach, beets, onions, shallots, strawberries, raspberries, choke cherries, potatoes, and lots of herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano, coriander).

We also had a row of potatoes, onions, beets and carrots out at a friends farm. Our neighbor gave us two big bags of apples from their tree. From friends’ yards we harvested nanking cherries, raspberries, saskatoon berries and red currants.

We recently planted 4 blueberry shrubs and have some saskatoons to plant, so hopefully we will have that to add to future harvests, and we expect to see our three different apple trees start to produce too.

Bell, chili, jalapeno

A giant cucumber that was hiding in the greenhouse. And Chantel.

Choke Cherries

Picking choke cherries

Picking choke cherries

Three berry syrup -nanking cherries, red currants, choke cherries

Three berry syrup

A row of potatoes, beets, carrots, and onions at a friends farm

Big beets

Onions, potatoes, beets, carrots

Potatoes from the yard

and from the farm

Apples from our neighbours

Grapes

Beefsteak Tomato

Roma Tomatoes

The last strawbereies

Big peppers

Picking Saskatoons at a friend’s acreage

Raspberries, Nanking Cherries, Saskatoons

Strawberries and raspberries on my cherrios

Roma tomatoes

Roasting tomatoes to make sauce

Some of the late summer harvest

Did somebody say salsa?

Wearing gloves to avoid the burn

some of the herbs in the greenhouse

Onions drying for storage

Jalapeños

Chilies

The final harvest from the greenhouse

The last day for growing in the greenhouse

He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
it flows between the mountains.
They give water to all the beasts of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
they sing among the branches.
He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth
Psalm 104:10-14