End Of Season...

Hickory Hill Farm Kitchen Garden November 2017

This is what was left of this year's kitchen garden last week, here at the farm. In the foreground is the last of this year's rosemary, basil and mint (overrun with morning glory vines). Toward the back are my beautiful lavender bushes that were so generous with their flowers this season, and on the left are those crazy, hybrid hollyhocks...still blooming! They look nothing like the heirloom hollyhocks I'd hoped for when they were planted, but they're still beautiful, and I just didn't have the heart to yank them out of the ground because they were mistakes.

Everything is now trimmed down for winter, and I'll be getting hay to cover the ground to protect the herbs and perennials from the freezing cold. Obviously, the southern exposure, the house, and porch offer a measure of shelter, but I want to give them the extra blanket before the snow falls. I'll do that by the weekend.

End of Season Fresh Pesto

I cut and processed the last of the sweet basil into pesto. I spooned the pesto into my herb freezing trays, and when they hardened up, I vacuum-sealed them for the freezer. Handsome doesn't care for pesto, but I (and my niece and my sister) will enjoy it this winter. (The ladies had sample jars from me and asked for more whenever they visited this summer, so I've got enough set aside to share.)

End of Season Rhubarb

 

I also trimmed and covered the rhubarb hills we planted this spring. They were quite prolific all summer, but I let them grow to feed the roots. What was there was growing well - and I didn't want it to go to waste - so I brought what I trimmed inside, washed and cut it up, and sealed that for the freezer, too. I'll thaw it out over the winter and make more strawberry/rhubarb jam when we run out of what I already canned.

 

I also have lots of hickory nuts to shell this winter. I left plenty outside for the squirrels, and will have lots of sweet nutmeats for cookies and cakes throughout the winter. When it gets cold outside, I may even share a few more with my furry outdoor friends.

 

The farm has blessed us in so many ways this first year, the least of which was what we grew ourselves in our tiny kitchen garden. I'll spend this winter flipping through garden catalogs as I plan for our 2018 plantings. For now, the soil and our plants can rest. I'll greet them again in the spring.