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| Saffron is Harvested in October |
Who expected 80 degree temperatures in November? Our first frost not coming until mid-November? Not me. But then, we didn’t have our last frost until late May this year. I picked red raspberries this week from my backyard. I still have tomatoes and peppers coming in, as well as my saffron.
As readers know, I pulled tomatoes out of the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden a couple of weeks ago. I hung some of the vines from my plot in my garage, where those tomatoes are ripening out of the harsh night time temperatures.
We’ve pulled so many tomatoes and sunflowers out of the SACG, that I needed extra help to get our lawn waste bags hauled from the Garden to the curb. Amy and Cathy came to my rescue on a balmy Halloween afternoon and Susan donated more lawn waste bags after we used up all of these.
I’ve put my dehydrator to good use drying red jalapenos, cayenne and serrano peppers to make my own chili pepper flakes and powders. I slice the peppers and dry them overnight in the dehydrator. Then, I run them through my herb mill to flake them. To convert them to powder, I can then put them in my tiny herb grinder. Luckily, I bought lots of different types of herb jars from World Market.
We have one more week left in the SACG growing season. On Saturday, November 12, we will be cleaning out the kids’ gardening beds, moving two of their raised beds up against the fence (after relocating some daffodil bulbs), cutting back our flowers, cleaning out the food pantry plots and tidying up our shed. We could always use more help. We’ll start at 9:30 and finish around lunch time.
Before then, I’ll be harvesting peppers and 
parsley (which I can dry and save) and clearing those plants away.
All of the tomatoes that we harvested in October helped the total pounds that we have donated to area food pantries and homeless shelter.
And, Chris Bradley is predicting another polar vortex this winter, although maybe later than in 2014. Maybe in February or even March.
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