Squash, Spuds, and Apples

I’m posting today because I may not have time to get posts up this week. Yesterday, while the husband was working in the morning, I brought in the squash:

This is the wagon from my John Deere tractor. The golf cart has a hitch on the back so I can pull the wagon with it because the golf cart is easier to maneuver around the garden than the tractor. As I was coming back to the house with this haul, however, the golf cart started malfunctioning. I was barely able to get it back over to the garage. When the husband got home, he looked at it and said it needs a new choke cable. Being the wizard that he is, he was able to rig it to work again, at least for the rest of the afternoon.

The squash are now curing in the garage. Anna, our neighbor, asked for the Georgia Roasters for her catering business. She may also take some of the butternut squash. Those were the Burpee’s Butterbush that were supposed to ripen in 75 days—eh. I may go back to Waltham. The Red Kuri are a variety that Sarah likes, which did well. I am trying the buttercup this year although I am also underwhelmed with that one. Hopefully, they taste good. I got three lovely Winter Luxury pumpkins that will be perfect for pie filling.

After lunch, we went out to the garden and pulled up the black plastic where the squash had been. That was where the potatoes were last year and we had quite a few volunteer plants come up through some of the holes. (Someone doesn’t like to dig potatoes and tends to leave a few behind.) I had to relocate a confused little garter snake. We dug all of that bonus crop and put the black plastic back in place for the winter. That part of the garden cleanup is done.

We moved over to the main potato bed and started digging that one. This was a good potato year:

There are a lot of Red Pontiacs on the bottom because we dug those first. Some of these potatoes are huge. One would make a meal for the two of us. We’ll let them dry out for a few days and then I’ll sort them into burlap bags to go into the root cellar. The bucket is full of fingerlings that were another bonus crop from a volunteer elsewhere in the garden. (Elysian, I think that’s your bucket—send WS over for it some time.)

I need to cut a few cabbages and then we’ll pull a billboard tarp over that half of the garden. The only plants left are the tomatoes. I won’t pull out that patch until after a killing frost, in case anyone else still wants some.

I also cleaned off the two Honeycrisp trees. Such beautiful apples with very little insect damage. Honeycrisps aren’t my favorite variety—too sweet for me—but I ate one just because it looked so good. It was tasty.

I’m calling an end to the 2025 growing season. I’m also glad we got most of it done yesterday because rain is in the forecast for today. Some dirt work still needs to happen with the track loader, but that may be better done in the spring.

Tomorrow is the Kaffe Fassett lecture! I dug out my Glorious Knits book to have him autograph. I know he’s here to do a quilt workshop, but I’ve had that book since I was in college and I’d like him to sign that one.