Onions and Pumpkins - September 15, 2024 @goldenoakfarm

Sunday sunrise

On Sunday morning I got up and got the sprinklers going. Then I got the photos edited and the post written and up. Next was cleaning up the kitchen. I got the house closed up and didn’t feel like going out to clean out a garden. So I moved onto my next job.

I went out to the Big garden and harvested the first row of Walla Walla Sweet onions. We’d been picking out of that row, which was only 12’ long, all summer, so it wasn’t a full row.

I got the onions skinned and cleaned up. I kept the greens that were good and got those chopped and into labeled ziplock bags for the freezer. I got 4 with ½ cup in each.

Then I moved onto chopping onions, as I always have. My brother was sitting on the couch and he remarked, “Are you using the tool your sister gave you?” Well, I thought he meant the mandolin which was sitting right there, so I said no, that’s a mandolin for slicing.

A few more chops and I was already making a mess like I always do and thinking how long this was going to take when the light bulb went on. My sister had given me a nice veg chopper for Christmas and I’d never used it yet. DUH!! So I went and got it and the chopping was done in just a few minutes!

I got 10 bags of 1 cup each in the end, all in labeled ziplock bags for the freezer.

I moved onto slicing the remaining onions and that took a long time. They didn’t want to stay in nice neat slices. But I had just enough to fill the dehydrator and I got them started.

I got the kitchen cleaned up, again, and my brother had wanted to go for a ride. We’d be looking for pumpkins and goldy mums. While I was getting ready he made the pasta for a tuna salad for supper. Once that finished, we headed out.

We were also looking for the beginnings of the foliage color on trees.

My brother had seen a small stand of pumpkins on the main road so we headed there. They had lovely pumpkins so I selected some. Then it dawned on me, I didn’t have cash on me. You gotta love brainfog…NOT! So we went home, got the money and went back and I picked 2 big pumpkins.

I wanted to go to the little greenhouse on the river road and we couldn’t remember if it was before a crossroads or after. So we started in town and headed north. Soon we passed the little pumpkin stand I’d seen on the ice cream runs. It turns out it’s run by the same people we had just bought from, set up identically. So we passed it by.

We stopped at the greenhouse and I found 2 lovely goldy mums! Then we headed north.

I had seen a sign for a tag sale in town that was still going on. So we turned on the crossroads and went to find it.

Bit of back story:

I have a plastic container I put compost in that’s kept next to the sink. In the summer it gets rather nasty, and my brother named it Mr. Stinky when he moved in. He was complaining about it and said I should find a new one at a tag sale. I told him I’d only been to 2 tag sales this year. So when I saw the sign, I said let’s go!

So we found it and looked around. I found the cover to one of my glass storage dishes and some odds and ends. I spent $1. When I went to pay, I asked if they had a compost bin. She said, just a minute! She went inside and came out with a stainless steel one! She said $3. Sold!

My brother doesn’t like going to tag sales, but both times I’ve dragged him, something cool has happened. Maybe by next year…

So we found another little stand and it had fancy pumpkins so I got 2.

We kept heading north aiming for a farmer’s market I liked. They had an amazing array of pumpkins and squashes and I spent all too much on them. My brother liked the yellow pumpkins, so we got 4 of those. I got 2 squashes with arresting color or appearances.

Gourds on front porch

Then we headed home. I put the pumpkins, mums, and squashes out and then went to the Small garden and got 4 white pumpkins and a bunch of the warty gourds.

I don’t normally decorate until October 1 but I hope to get 2 more weeks out of these before they go to someone’s chickens the day after Thanksgiving.

While we were gone my son decided to start pressure washing the house as it also needs to be done before October 1 when I start washing windows. He got the pressure washer running and it worked fine this time. He got as high as he could reach from the ground, and the whole north side of the addition done.

My brother laid out the ingredients for the meatloaf we were going to make for supper, and finished his tuna salad. I went out at 5PM and started making the meatloaf. Tom stopped by with the milk order and we got caught up on all our doings in the last week.

I went out to get tomatoes for supper, but the slugs had decimated them. There were 2 that were salvageable. I picked a lot to ripen inside.

On Monday it’s laundry day as always, I still have the West Shed garden to do, and I have to figure out storing the storage onions that didn’t stay braided. I’ve gotten 8 pairs of panty hose and I’m going to try an idea I’ve seen online.