Henny Penny Farmette

On the Henny Penny Farmette, the signs of autumn’s arrival are evident almost everywhere in our orchard and garden.

Lavender and sunflowers still bloom but the summer vegetable garden has run its course

I’ve made jams, cooked produce, and dried fruit. Of late, I’ve been harvesting heirloom seeds for next year’s garden. The birds will pick over what’s left and the soil can rest. Fall fruit now hangs on the trees in a showy splendor.

The pomegranate trees support a multitude of leathery-skinned, ruby-red fruit holding hundreds of sweet seeds. On the Fuyu and Hachiya persimmon trees, the golden fruits hang like ornaments. In the squash patch, French sugar pumpkins cling to dry, stringlike vines and you might find a butternut squash here or there.

We’ve harvested some pumpkins and heirloom butternut squash symbolize the arrival of autumn

I picked most of the late summer pears two weeks ago, putting a few in paper bags and storing them in a cabinet for two days. That allows them to reach the perfect ripeness for eating them fresh.

We grew corn this year, but the triple-digit heat and smoke from wildfires turned the lush, tall green plants to papery stalks before the corn really ripened. Still, before the stalks can now be composted, a few can be bundled together and placed in a porch corner to symbolize the arrival of Autumn and her festivals.

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It’s nearly Thanksgiving and our Henny Penny Farmette continues to bring forth delicious, organically grown edibles for our table for which we feel truly grateful.

We give thanks, too, for neighbors like Dan and Annie. This past Sunday, Annie carted to our house a box of persimmons and bags of apples and pomegranates. We harvested all our apples last month so her timing was great. While we have persimmons and pomegranates hanging on the trees in our small orchard, many are not yet ripe enough to pick.

Ripe pomegranate

Last month, I froze cubes of butternut squash in freezer bags and readied pumpkin flesh for pie. While picking a few ripe persimmons recently, I noticed that we’re sharing them with a visitor who seems to sneak in and munch during the night. I’m thinking the culprit could be a raccoon, opossum, skunk, squirrel, fox, or a gaggle of wild turkeys that seem to make an annual pilgrimage through our area.

The two main types of persimmons grown on our farmette are Fuyu and Hachiya. The Fuyu is rather squat-looking and Hachiya has an elongated shape. Both take on a bright orange color in the fall. When fully ripe, Fuyu is sweet and crunchy like an apple whereas the Hachiya is soft like jelly. Though commonly thought of as fruits, persimmon and pomegranate are technically berries.

Pomegranate and persimmon are plentiful this time of year

Fuyu persimmons can be peeled, sliced, and eaten fresh, roasted, or tossed into salads. They add a vibrant splash of orange to a winter salad that could include slices of citrus and pear tossed with greens,walnuts,  pomegranate seeds, and goat cheese.

Pomegranates are ripe when their leathery outer covering turns red and begins to crack. Inside each pomegranate is white tissue separating compartments of ruby-red seeds called arils.

Ripe pomegranates hang heavy on the trees this time of year

The seeds are high in antioxidants that reduce inflammation and free radical damage. Though they are messy to remove, the pomegranate seeds are healthy and nutritious additions to any diet.

To preserve pomegranate seeds, freeze them on a baking sheet. Once frozen, slip the seeds into freezer bags and return to the freezer. The seeds can be kept frozen for months.

Pumpkins come in a variety of sizes and types. Personally, I prefer the sugar pumpkins for recipes calling for pumpkin as an ingredient.

French sugar pumpkin are small but perfect for pies

This week as we prepare for the big feasting day of Thanksgiving, lots of cooks are already baking pumpkin pies.  Many will use canned pumpkin as a shortcut to their pie preparation but pumpkin filling made from scratch is especially delicious.

Our pumpkin pie features leaves of pie dough, brushed with egg, and sprinkled with sugar before baking

The old fashioned way to make pumpkin pie from scratch is to use fresh, organic pumpkin puree from the produce that you’ve grown in your garden. The process to make a pie takes longer because first the pumpkin must be peeled, seeded, and cut into manageable pieces and then cooked down. Then just follow your favorite pumpkin pie recipe.

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This three-book series of cozy mysteries features elements based on the real Henny Penny Farmette

Following the historic long seasonal deluge of rain, our fruit trees are loaded with peaches, apricots, plums (the cherries are gone now). While there is plenty of stone fruit, it’s all ripening late this year.

Apricots are plentiful this time of year and easy to dry or make into jam

Our Blenheim apricots were ready to pick, dry, and make into jam in late May of 2018. On this last day in June,  I plucked an apricot that was ripe on the side facing the sun but the opposite side was green and hard.

The cherries, too, ripened late this year. We picked about 8 gallons of cherries from our two Bing and Stella trees. I dried some and we gave away a lot.

The Black Tartarian cherries didn’t produce as heavily this year as last. By the time we discovered the ripe cherries, the birds had already beaten us to the super-sweet fruit. I don’t mind sharing with the local wildlife, but would have loved a bowl of these for snacking.

Wild plums make a delicious sweet-tart jam

The yellow and red plums are finally ripe now. Today, I’m making plum jam. Nothing beats hot toast with spreadable summer jams and marmalade for breakfast on a winter’s day. In a normal year, most of my jam-making of stone fruits would be finished by now.

The early Desert Gold peaches are gone now, a tasty memory, from a month ago. However, we still have summer peaches clinging to the tree. I check them daily. Fresh peach pie for the fourth of July is a favorite at my house.

Desert Gold early peaches

While the fruits and berries seem to ripen more slowly this year, my vegetable garden is blowing my mind. I have several raised beds in a fenced-off area so wild animals won’t bother it. Most of the raised beds were used for composting (think, tons of chicken manure, yard clippings, and cardboard). Still, I added other organic amendments. Boy, is that soil paying off.

It’s a banner year for vegetables on the farmette. Most will be eaten fresh but the sugar pumpkins won’t ripen until autumn. Love them in pie.

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I’ve been told I’m living a “charmed life” on my Henny Penny Farmette. And so it is. But this chapter of my life didn’t happen by accident. I once lived in Silicon Valley and was part of life in the fast lane, which I enjoyed. But I grew up on a farm. I missed time in nature, eating foods that I knew were healthy and wholesome and pesticide-free, and the slower pace of life. I set an intention to manifest the life I have now. You can, too.

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If you enjoy reading about gardening, keeping chicken and bees, and other farm topics, pick up copies of my Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries. The books are chocked full of farm and craft trivia as well as delicious recipes and, of course, intriguing mysteries.

Novel #3

Novel #2

Novel #1

There’s nothing to rejuvenate a weary soul like time spent in a garden. Death of one season’s plants yields to new shoots the next. Because I appreciate the ever-evolving nature of a garden, I choose plants, bulbs, bushes, and trees that offer visual interest in each season. Thoughtful planting generates an ever-evolving landscape of color, texture, and visual interest.

Pumpkins show orange and yellow, signalling the arrival of the cool season

The autumn garden has almost completely morphed into a winter landscape now. Pumpkin and tomato vines have been pulled out and perennials in the bee garden  have gone to seed or been cut back. Winter offers little color in the garden except for the cape honeysuckle, white geranium, lavender florets, and early flowering bulbs.

Deciduous trees have mostly lost their leaves, however, the eucalyptus and the pepper trees here on the farmette remain leafy and green. The rains have come and a dusting of snow on nearby mountain peaks is in the forecast ahead. Foliage and blooms are mostly gone. It’s that time of year to cover frost-sensitive plants.

The pomegranates that were ablaze in golden color a few weeks ago have dropped all leaves. What remains is the lovely arching pattern of branches since I’ve trained them from bushes into trees.

Pomegranate leaves  turn gold in the fall

The showy pink flowers over summer of the crape myrtle are a memory. Gone now, too, are the red-gold leaves of fall. What remains is an interesting gray-green bark.

Autumn leaves of the crepe myrtle create a spectacle against the blooming Cecile Brunner rose

The seeds from the giant yellow-orange coreopsis that stood eight feet tall and towered over zinnias, Borage, and rows of lavender have long ago been harvested. Also, my patch of lavender is flourishing. The plants have pushed out long stalks of purple florets.

Dark green shoots of bulbs are pushing up out of the earth where I interplanted them with chrysanthemums. I cut back the mums and they will reappear in the spring to flower again. This is the time of year that shoots of bulbs and rhizomes are birthing daffodils, anemones, tulips, hyacinths, and, to come later, lilies and irises of many colors.

Siberian scilla adds a lot of color for a small grouping of bulbs

In raised beds, shoots of fall-planted onions and garlic are now pushing up. The bees are drawn to the sweet scent of narcissus bulbs that have naturalized after being planted years ago. The Meyer lemon now has lots of yellow thin-skinned fruit and also a few early blooms.

On the dark days and nights of winter, white blooming plants stand in stark contrast to gray wooden fences and leafless trees.  Honor roses, Iceberg roses, and climbing Sally Holmes roses have showy white blooms and may even have some this time of year unless they’ve been cut back. Winter-blooming gardenias and white geraniums have a quiet impact when grouped together in hedges, beds, or containers.

The “Honor” rose is an elegant white blooming rose that is spectacular under moonlight

With so many bulbs and plants available this time of year, putting interest into your winter garden is easy and contributes to an ever-evolving landscape.

Consider plants with gray-green or otherwise pretty foliage and colorful berries. Also plant trees with interesting bark colors, textures, patterns, or scaffolding shapes. When you think of plants for each season of the year, you’ll have a garden to nurture you throughout the year.

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If you enjoy reading about gardening, the keeping of chickens and bees, and other small farm topics AND you’d like related gift-giving, consider my Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries or any of my health, wellness, and spirituality books. All are available online and in traditional bookstores everywhere.

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The leaves of my plum and cherry trees are beginning to drop. The fig leaves have dried to a crisp and are also falling. I’ve got pumpkin and squash vines and stalks of corn pulled and lying in piles in the garden.

The corn (pictured here in spring) has been harvested and is now just a pile of dried stalks

This dead, particulate organic matter (detritus) in my garden is too good to throw in the green recycle bin for the city to compost. By composting it myself, I’ll save the money I might spend on buying compost next year.

After harvesting pumpkins, throw the vines onto your compost pile

If your garden has a pile or two of of similar detritus but you’ve had trouble getting it to break down into compost, you might be missing a secret ingredient.

Add one to two cups of a nitrogen-rich garden product like blood meal, bone meal, or cottonseed meal–all are available from your local nursery or garden center.

Follow these simple steps.

1. Dump a wheelbarrow load of leaves where you will be composting this fall and winter. I use a rectangular raised bed.

2. From a cup of blood meal, generously sprinkle the meal onto the leaves.

3. Layer onto the pile grass clippings, pumpkin and squash vines, corn cobs, chicken house straw, dried oats, weeds, and other biomass material.

4. Add more blood meal, more leaves, and more organic material.

5. Sprinkle the remaining blood meal from your cup onto the compost pile and then wet it using a garden hose.

6. Cover with plastic sheeting.

The compost pile generates heat as the plant material breaks down. Thoroughly turn at two or three week intervals. Keep the pile moist (not drenched) and covered.

Using this method, you can expect to have lovely nutrient-rich compost to use on your spring flower and vegetable gardens.

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If you enjoy reading about gardening topics and you are a mystery lover, check out my Henny Penny Farmette series of mysteries from Kensington Publishing. Each charming  novel features a wholesome whodunnit along with delicious recipes and farming facts and tips.

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Join me for “Coffee and Conversation” at Towne Center Books in Pleasanton, The date is Wednesday, October 18, 2017, at 11:00 a.m. The address is: 555 Main Street, Pleasanton, California. Phone is (925) 846-8826.

I’ll be sharing information about my farmette, my mystery-writing process, and my newest novel, A HIVE OF HOMICIDES.

The Henny Penny Farmette is about a half hour away from Brentwood. There are at least fifty farms in and around Brentwood that offer families a U-Pick experience.  The city is located in the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Although Brentwood has had a post office since 1878, the city today is largely residential. That said, there are many actively producing farms and preserved lands around the pockets of community. The area has a semi-arid, Mediterranean climate and is situated on the alluvial plain of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

To bring out the maximum sweetness of pears, place them in a paper bag for two days in a kitchen cupboard

Many of the farms permit family picking of produce and tree crops. Some of the crops available for picking through October include apples, corn, figs, green beans, onions, peppers, pears, persimmons, pomegranates, pumpkins, squash, strawberries, and tomatoes. Additionally, walnuts, pistachios, and almonds are available year-round at some of the farm stands. There are also wineries and vineyards in the region.

As you drive around the area, look for a Brentwood Harvest Time sign as an indicator for a farm. There will be a number on the sign that coordinates to a name of a farm with that same number on a handily map that you can get at http://www.harvest4you.com. In July, the city hosts a harvest festival for the entire family. It features tractor rides and corn shucking and eating contests, among other activities.

Butternut squash is and old garden favorite and stores well

Finally, if Christmas at your house wouldn’t be the same without a live tree, you can find Christmas tree farms in and around Brentwood as well on the Harvest4you.com website. Check it out.

U-pick guidelines as listed on the map include the following rules.

1. No climbing or damaging trees

2. Children are not allowed on ladders.

3. You must buy what you pick.

4. Check produce for ripeness before picking it.

5. Do not throw fruit.

6. Do not litter.

The blooms of Peter Pan squash (pictured here) are also edible

I love summer squash, tossed into rosemary potatoes and served up with eggs and sausage on a Sunday morning; or,  grilled with fish, or added to a freshly-made pasta sauce. Best of all, you can have it fresh, from your kitchen garden to your table, as squash is one of the easiest vegetables to grow. Squash is a super food, high in antioxidants, fiber, and Vitamin A.

Squash is one of the Three Sisters (corn and climbing beans being the other two), grown together as companion plants in the tradition of certain groups of Native Americans who planted these vegetables. A fourth sister might be the Cleome serrulata, the Rocky Mountain bee plant to attract pollinators for the beans and squash.

There is a scientific basis for growing these three together. The squash grows fairly large and spreads out, blocking weeds. The beans provide nitrogen to the soil. The corn shoots up a stalk that provides the support the beans need to climb. The three plants benefit each other.

Each year, I plant both summer squash and winter varieties such as butternut and pumpkin that have hard shells and store longer. All types of squash are easy to grow. They just need sun, water, and room. They aren’t fussy about soil.

Summer squash includes zucchini, yellow squash, and scalloped (or round) squash. Autumn/winter varieties require a longer growing period (up to 120 days) and include butternut, acorn, hubbard, and pumpkin.

Growing Tips:

Choose a well-drained, sunny spot in the garden for your squash.

Plant three seeds to a hill (roughly six inches apart).

When the squash are about a foot tall, thin to the healthiest seedling.

Water two to three times each week.

Harvest summer squash when still young; if left on the vine, the squash becomes tough.

No proper kitchen garden would be without a section for onions (whether spring green onions, chives, or bulb onions) or garlic. Both kitchen staples are easy to grow. In several raised beds measuring four feet by six feet, I’ve planted garlic amidst a few jalapeno pepper plants. Garlic benefits other plants in the garden as well.

Use garlic as a companion plant to deter pests from lettuce and cabbage

BEST TIME FOR PLANTING

In spring, after all danger of frost has passed, plant garlic cloves. Or, plant in late fall when you might be planting other types of bulbs. Some European gardeners swear that garlic must be planted on the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice.

I planted my garlic in late February/early March, long before my tomatoes, eggplant, pumpkin, and squash (the heat lovers) went in. The green garlic tops shoot out of the soil quickly and grow fast.

HOW TO PLANT GARLIC

Plant each clove from a bulb upright in soil roughly one-inch deep. Space the cloves four-inches apart. The growing site must receive full sun. Give the garlic a good watering each week. Garlic is a beneficial companion plant in the garden because of  allicin (a property that acts as a fungicide and pesticide), especially when planted near lettuce and cabbage where it will deter aphids.

HOW TO HARVEST AND STORE GARLIC

When the tall green shoots of the garlic become dry and turn brown, it’s time to harvest the garlic bulbs. After you’ve pulled the bulbs out, shake off the dirt (never wash) and then hang the bulbs in a dark, dry place. Then when the bulbs are completely dry, you can braid the paper-dry tops to hang the garlic in the kitchen for easy access.

A squash plant will grow well in small gardens on supports such as a teepee of three poles tied together  or on a fence

With the California drought looking like there’s no end in sight, I began pulling what I could from the garden. A lot of the space was taken up this year with squash and pumpkins. Vines are everywhere.

It’s my own fault for not keeping a better control over the direction of the vines. I could have grown them up and over a support, but I didn’t. Once ignored,the vines took over the whole garden, more than 25 to 30 feet in almost every direction.

My small harvest is in–anyone for squash or pumpkin pie?

I grew mainly heirloom varieties of squash and the French sugar pumpkins. One pumpkin plant reseeded from last year. Those vines climbed up into the five heirloom tomato plants, two apricot trees, and headed out toward the Lady Banks Rose and the Climbing Sally Holmes roses that border the garden. Inching even further, the squash vines moved out of the garden into the back yard.

No doubt about it, I’m going to have to pull on work gloves and a straw hat and get out there to dig out those dried vines and pull them out. Next year, trellises and supports for everything. Water is a commodity in crisis right now, at least in  this state and everyone has to do their part. We’re just going to harvest the squash and pumpkins early and pray for early rains.

Red pomegranates hang like jewels in contrast to the lush green leaves that will soon turn yellow and drop

Autumn has a arrived. The fruit and nut trees are shedding leaves and preparing for winter dormancy. Pumpkins are taking center stage for harvest festivals and Halloween decorations. Apples have been gathered are are being peeled and cored for pies and cider making.

If you are thinking about putting away your gardening gloves and stashing your trowel and wheelbarrow, hold on a minute. It’s possible to extend the growing season from summer into autumn and even later . . . by taking a few precautions.

Pumpkins in my garden sport golden shades of orange and yellow, signalling arrival of the cool season

As the sun slants lower in the sky giving us shorter days, less light, and fewer hours to garden, there are some plants that will grow just fine during the cool days of fall.

However, you must select the right plants for the cool season. In addition, you’ll increase your plants’ survival rate by growing them in raised beds and boxes with good soil and aged manure. Wet them well if a cold front comes through (it’s counter-intuitive but moisture will protect their roots). Keep them warm at night with plant covers that you take off during the day when they can make the most of the sun’s warmth and light.

Consider growing some of these cool season crops: beet, bok choy, broccoli, bulb onion, chard, fava bean, garlic, green onion, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, radish, spinach, and turnip. I’ve found many of these plants available at my local DIY garden center during the past two weeks.

Coffee Cake, a new variety of Fuyu persimmon I’m growing will soon be ripe for picking, slicing, and serving

For November, depending on weather conditions in local microclimates, Northern California gardeners can grow fava bean, garlic, greens, leek, lettuce, onion, pea, radish, and spinach as well as some perennial herbs, especially in boxes and/or pots on the patio or in protected places such as porches.

My pumpkin vines, over 25 feet long, still have numerous blooms and lemon-size green pumpkins hanging on

Because of Northern California’s mild Mediterranean climate, gardeners can enjoy cultivating plants from spring through the fall, not just during our hot summer months. If it gets too chilly for the poor honeybees to pollinate, get yourself a soft watercolor brush and do the pollination yourself.

Finally, it’s worth noting that during our rainy season, the water for the garden falls from the sky rather than from the hose. One of the many reasons not to put away the garden tools just yet.