What's happening in the late November edible garden

Lavender in late fall

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Well, we had record warmth through the Midwest, setting the longest period in fall without a freeze in our area.  That is about to come to an end this week.  I am still harvesting tomatoes, peppers, raspberries, and eggplant, believe it or not, at the end of November.

I'll strip all the fruits off the plants on Monday and put the greenhouse covers over my cool season loving greens.  Usually with a cover, the greens produce all the way through to spring.  We've put the greens on the basement patio.  In the back bed, they created a wonderful winter habitat for the voles.  They had all kinds of tunnels under and through the potted greens.  Voles eat roots and plants.  Putting them on concrete should stop the tunnels into the pots.

All the tropicals will come in to the basement on Monday, too.  I'll add a grow light over them so they get enough light to survive the winter.  I do have a couple of tomatoes and peppers I'll bring into the sunroom to see how they do over the winter.  We put triple pane windows in our house to make it more energy efficient; it also keeps more daylight from entering.  I may add daylight bulbs in the sunroom too.

The onions, oregano, thyme and mint will stay green without cover over the winter.  I did get flowering kale and pansies to put in the pots in the front of the house for winter color.

Inside, I cleared out all the frozen tomatoes from last year and all the extras frozen from this year and made tomato sauce yesterday.  Had 36 quarts of frozen tomatoes that I used another 5 pints of frozen sweet peppers along with 11 bay leaves and 8 garlic cloves to make into 42 pints of sauce.

We picked up our deer from the processor today.  I always make sauce before we have to load the freezer back up with venison.

We got extra ground venison to make brats and stew meat that I'll make pressure canned deer meat.  I'll also have one more round of drying Anaheim peppers for chili powder when I pick the last of the peppers tomorrow.  

The only lingering garden chores will be separating seeds saved and planning for next year's garden.  I'm already getting seed catalogues!

If using a greenhouse this winter, remember the biggest killer of veggies in greenhouses?  Getting too hot!  Make sure you crack open your green house when the temps get above freezing and the sun is shining.