Quick Autumn Garden and Harvest Update

purple fingerling potatoes

Over the weekend we dug 1 of the 2 potato beds. It was a poor year for potatoes for us. This bed produced about 15 pounds of potatoes. I expected hoped for more. We'll dig the second bed in about 10 days. Despite my disappointment, there were enough potatoes for next year's seed potatoes for both beds plus some for our meals in October and early November.

sweet fig preserves

The weather is cooling enough so that the figs will no longer ripen this season. Tuesday I harvested enough unripe figs to make 3 pints of sweet fig preserves. I simmer the figs in water 3 times, changing the water between simmerings. After draining the water and squeezing the excess water from each fig, I simmer the figs in a sugar, water, whole clove solution for 25 minutes. At that point I add lemon juice and simmer 5 additional minutes before putting the figs in syrup into jars. These are delicious. While I enjoy them just as is, my family especially enjoys them pureed with applesauce and a bit more spice, or used in spice cake. Anyway, sweet preserved figs is a good way to use those that will never ripen. I should be able to make another batch later this week. [recipe ingredients: 40 unripe figs, 2.75 cups water, 2.5 cups sugar, 35 whole cloves, 3 tablespoons lemon juice]

indoor-grown radishes -- we eat the leaves as well as roots

I've got my indoor radish operation in full production, with 4 trays of containers filled with potting soil and radish plants. Here's what I harvested for our salad on Saturday evening.

mâche I started indoors then moved out to the garden for fall/winter salads -- it prefers cool temps

The mâche is growing better than I'd thought. The direct sun seems to be so little this time of year and with our large evergreens surrounding the yard. But those tiny little plants just keep growing. I should be able to harvest some for salads in early November.

One of our pear trees decided to surprise us with 5 pears. This tree's fruit is normally ready for harvesting in July. Sometime in mid-summer, I noticed it had developed more blossoms. Our unusually cold May and June must have fooled the tree into thinking spring had begun again. Anyway, 5 pears that I didn't expect is a wonderful blessing.

I'm waiting on the crabapples to turn a deep red before harvesting those. The crabapple harvest is usually in mid-October. It may be pushed to late October this year, as everything has been later than usual following that very cool start to the growing season.

I picked the first tiny pumpkin from our patch. It's itty bitty. One of my squirrel friends nabbed another tiny squash yesterday morning. So I thought I should bring this one inside before it became my furry friend's lunch.

No photos, but we've had an unbelievable crop of green beans this year. Every time I pick another handful I think to myself that the plants must be about done for the year. Then I'm out in the garden the next day and find a bunch more. Some things did well this year, while others didn't. I guess I should take my blessings as they come and not worry about what didn't happen as I'd planned.

Dishwasher Tetris

image source;
https://apkpure.com/retro-tetris-classic/com.binreview.retrobrickclassic

In case you don't remember, Tetris is that block stacking computer game where the player tries to quickly make all of the blocks fit together without gaps. Well, there's another type of Tetris. This one is played with the dishwasher. The makers of Tetris even wrote about it in this article on their site.

Like just about everyone else, we received notice from our energy provider that rates will be going up this winter. We use natural gas to heat our house, heat water for washing/bathing, and cook on our stovetop. We're doing what we can to reduce our natural gas use. We've been taking significantly shorter showers this past summer to save water for our garden. The bonus was that our natural gas use dropped as well with those Navy showers. 

Sunday morning my husband was about to start the dishwasher. I asked him to hold off and let me play a little dishwasher Tetris with the dirty cups, plates, glasses, mugs, and bowls. He'd not heard that name before, but he indulged my need to maximize the dishwasher's space. I was able to rearrange the contents enough to allow for 2 additional dinner plates and 3 additional glasses or mugs. Maybe 2 plates and 3 cups doesn't sound like a lot. However, it's about 2/3 of what we use for a Sunday lunch. 

So this has me rethinking how I can stack the dishwasher to get even more to fit and still get it all clean. Our dishwasher uses the same amount of hot water whether it is completely full or it is only partially loaded. I admit, we'd gotten lazy in loading the dishwasher. It seemed like work to pack it completely full. In addition, running the dishwasher at the same time each day, whether it was completely full or not, became a habit. In addition to how I stack the dishwasher, I can also see that we can make different choices in the dishes we use for each meal or snack. Most breakfasts don't "need" a dinner-size plate, and neither do some lunches. Salad plates take up much less room in the machine and are often just the right size.

We've also switched to washing clothing in cold water. According to our natural gas supplier, the agitation of the machine does most of the work to clean laundry. Cold water it is.

And we're rethinking what months and even hours we want to run the furnace. We've been fortunate so far this fall in that we haven't needed to turn the furnace on yet. I expect that later this month the weather will be cooler, and we'll want some heat. I'm thinking we can have the thermostat set to turn down the heat 15 minutes earlier each evening and then come on again 15 minutes later each morning. That would save a half hour of heating per day, or 15 hours per month.

I'm hoping that by saving small amounts of gas in multiple areas, the total savings will offset a large chunk of the increase.

Our natural gas is expected to go up by 17% this winter with a possibility for additional increases later. I fully understand that folks in other places will see much more severe increases in cost to heat their homes. So I don't wish to minimize anyone else's pain right now. A 17% increase is a lot for us. In winter, our heating bill is about $200/month. With a 17% increase, that would be an extra $34 per winter month. We don't have a category of non-discretionary spending where we are now spending a whole lot less. The spending in every  category of our budget has increased, and without a corresponding increase in income. I assume many others are experiencing a similar financial squeeze from all areas. What I can say is I am doing what I can to mitigate increased costs. Daily, I seek out ways to save that I have previously overlooked.

What are your plans for increased utility costs this coming winter?