Fall in the Garden

20131004-143759.jpg

As the fall season is upon us and the canning season has been in full force. I’m harvesting about the last things in our garden. It has been a great year for our gardens and we have been richly blessed. I hope you are enjoying all that this season has to offer!

20131004-151441.jpg

These are the Autumn Joy Sedums. They change with the season from pink to a dark rose color. They are a great addition to a fall garden.

20131004-151453.jpg

20131004-151506.jpg

These are the Fall Asters in shades of pink and Purple.

20131004-151515.jpg

20131004-151528.jpg

Lavender Roses

20131004-151537.jpg

Purple Phlox

20131004-151550.jpg

Knock Out Roses in full Bloom again!

20131004-151559.jpg

20131004-151609.jpg

Our mums this year are in full bloom, blooming in yellow, pink and burgundy/red.

20131004-151615.jpg

20131004-151624.jpg

20131004-151636.jpg

20131004-155901.jpg

Jalapeño Peppers in a pot and White Bacopa.

20131004-155958.jpg

Autumn Blaze Maple

20131004-160011.jpg

Pumpkins, Butternut Squash, Spaghetti Squash and Banana Squash.

20131004-160025.jpg

20131004-160115.jpg

20131004-160131.jpg

Peppers were the best growers in the vegetable garden. It was such a HOT Summer they grew amazingly. But my Blackberries were very scarce.

20131004-160151.jpg

Delicious Red Apples, we had a bumper crop the sweetest apples we’ve ever had so far in our yard.

20131004-160202.jpg

20131004-160212.jpg

Fall Raspberries and my potted Egg Plants.

20131004-160233.jpg

Potatoes, Beets and Onions ready to be eaten or stored in a cool storage room or garage.

20131004-160253.jpg

Bartlett Pears picked green and put in a cool place to ripen and be eaten or canned.

20131004-160305.jpg

20131004-160320.jpg

If you’re ready to put your gardens to bed for the winter and want to apply amendments to your garden see garden soil prep and lawn.. It’s also a good idea to put a Winter Fertilizer on your lawns just before the first winter snow or first part to middle part of November.

See here for winterizing roses and a winterizer for your lawn.

Happy Harvest!

Lindy

Pears & Pear Bread

20131003-234451.jpg

Have you been wondering what to do with all your pears?  These are Bartlett Pears from our garden.
We didn’t get to many pears but I wanted to use them in some way and these are the recipes we came up with.

Pear Bread

Wire Whisk Dry Ingredients in Bowl:

*3 1/2 cups Flour
*1 teaspoon Baking Powder
*1 teaspoon Salt
*1 teaspoon Ground Ginger
*1/2 teaspoon Soda
*1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg

In separate Bowl Mix Wet Ingredients:

*4 eggs, beaten
*1-2 cups Sugar (I only used one cup because I wanted less sugar and I let pears be my Sugar and the bread tasted great!) but if you want a really sweet bread add 2 cups Sugar.
*1/2 cup Lite Olive Oil
*1/2 cup melted Butter
*2 teaspoons Vanilla
*2 cans 15 ounce pears drained and chopped, or I used fresh Pears, pureed them and used 1 cup Puréed Pears. (You could also use 2 cups chopped Fresh Pears.)

Optional: 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine the dry and wet ingredients and pour bread batter into greased pans.

Spray bread pans with cooking spray, I used 3 medium about 7 1/4 “L. x 3 3/4 “W. 2” H. loaf bread pans or you could use 2 large bread pans.

Bake in 350*F. Oven for about 40 minutes in medium pans adjust for your pan size.

I also thought maybe a cinnamon butter might be a yummy touch to this bread.

Recipe adapted from Bakerette

20131004-001455.jpg

20131004-001513.jpg

20131004-001526.jpg

20131004-001539.jpg

20131004-001553.jpg

20131004-002706.jpg

20131004-002731.jpg

20131004-003239.jpg

Fruit Turkey Snack Plate

*1/2 Pear
*small Carrot, for Beak and Legs
*Green Grapes
*Blackberries
*Raspberries
* 2 round Blackberry Seeds off the Fresh Blackberry or small Cloves, for Eyes

You could use some tooth picks or wood skewers for everyone to poke the fruit with to eat. All in all it is just A cute food decoration.

There are of fruit turkeys on Pinterest but this turkey we were able to use most of the fruit out of our garden, Bartlett Pear, Blackberries, and Raspberries.

Enjoy!

20131004-003250.jpg

20131004-003259.jpg

Grape Poached Pears

* 4 Pears of your choice, we used Bartlett Pears, skins peeled, and core removed from the Bottom of the Pear using a melon Baller, leaving the top of Pear intact.

Making Sauce In small sauce pan:

* 1-2 cups Concord Grape Juice, we used simmered down Concord Grape Juice from the Concord Grapes from our garden. When adding Pears make sure there is enough Grape Juice to cover all Pears with the sauce. The Concord Grape Juice gives the Pears such a good flavor and color.

* 1 8 ounce bottle Cranberry Juice or more, only if you want to use all Cranberry Juice, you will need a liter bottle of Cranberry Juice and eliminate the Grape Juice.
* 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
*1 Cinnamon Stick
*2 tablespoons dried Cranberries

Bring the above ingredients to a boil and then add pears and simmer the pears for about 20-30 minutes.

Remove the cooked pears, and simmer down sauce until desired thickness, about ten minutes. Then drizzle Sauce on plated pears.

Serve warm or cold with sauce drizzled over top with a few cranberries and Fresh Mint for garnish. (Refrigerate in air tight container after cooling pears, until ready to use).

Recipe adapted from here

20131004-010526.jpg

Freezing Puréed Pears

Note: Follow the USU Extensions instructions the link is below if you want to blanch your pears before freezing. I’m going to be baking with mine so I didn’t blanch mine.

*Puree Pears and measure 1 cup for each pint freezer bag
*Freezer Bags
*Permanent Marker
* Straw for removing air from pint freezer bags
*Fresh Lemon Juice, add for freshness about 1 teaspoon per cup

Freeze in freezer until ready to use. (You can use pre-measured Puréed Pears in your next Pear Bread recipe.)

You can find more on freezing or canning pears here

20131004-010535.jpg

Enjoy Pears!

Jessica and Lindy