September on the farm has been a little (teeny, tiny) bit less busy than the last few months. While we still had a lot of gardens to harvest and process, things were slowing down – especially since the weather didn’t stay warm long enough for peppers and tomatoes to ripen well.

September on the Farm – gardens

On the last day of August, I pulled up two rows of onions to let them dry in the field for a couple of days. Unfortunately, I forgot about them and they were still on the ground when the rain came. We left them to dry out again, but most of them had water damage making them unsuitable for long-term storage. I was able to put about 15 aside to store and the rest are being preserved and used up as quickly as possible. I chopped about 6 quarts to freeze and dehydrate.

We continued fermenting cucumbers, some peppers, and onions. Our fridge is full of all kinds of pickled veggies!

We have been getting plenty of zucchini. As usual, I found a few huge zucchini that were overlooked. 😉

We picked tomatoes and peppers as they ripened, but never got enough for any large batches of preservation. I dehydrated a quart and pickled a quart of tomatoes, as well as pickled a few jars of whole peppers and froze a few quarts of chopped peppers.

Delicata, pumpkin, and acorn squash were harvested in September. I didn’t get a lot, except pumpkin – which I will be roasting in November for pies and other bakery for Thanksgiving Dinner!

We also started collecting apples from the few trees we have. We have been dehydrating them, eating them fresh, and making pies! Our enclosed porch/mudroom has been overflowing with fruits and vegetables waiting for us to process.

We harvested elderberries from our one elderberry tree. We got around 10 pounds. I boiled the berries down and strained them for juice which I put in the freezer. I took out the elderberry juice I froze last year and thickened it into a syrup for homemade waffles.

Summer couldn’t make up its mind about the weather this year, with mostly cool/wet days with some dry/hot days. We still have sweet potatoes and carrots in the ground, corn on the stalks, some cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, and winter squash to harvest as we start autumn with warmer weather!

Preparing for Winter

We spent several days cutting firewood from the fallen trees at my parents’ property. We pray we have enough firewood for winter (it is our main heat source).

Dairy Goats Update

I am finishing my 6th month of milking 3 goats. I decided to stop milking one of our goats at the end of September because she was drying up. I plan to milk the other two goats for one more month before letting them join our buck to be bred.

I was getting about 3 pints of goat’s milk per day in September – on average – but, was down to 2 pints per day by the end of the month. I am still making yogurt, kefir, and kefir cheese but I am making less of it.