Time to start the jungle

It’s that time of year again.  Once we hit the middle of October as the temperatures decided to start dipping into the low 40’s we decided to grab all of our tropical plants and make sure they were inside.  I believe the forecast was for 38 degrees when we decided to grab everything.  With all the tax deadlines getting extended for those of us up in the northeast tax season hasn’t gone the way it usually has.  So instead of being able to concentrate on cleaning up at home I’ve been doing double duty still.  At least we had an extra table that we could use.  This meant that like Irene all the plants just got piled up so that at least they were inside before the supper cold actually hit. 

I’m so glad that I actually did bring them in because the lights frosts started and I’m pretty sure that most of my plants would not have liked that very much; especially seeing as how most of them have already gotten pretty mad at me for leaving them outside in the 50 degree weather.  Now comes the fun task of cleaning them all up, trimming them all back and fining a nice home for them for the winter. 

Welcome to the start of my jungle.

Fresh Salsa ! ! ! !

 So on my kick of finding out how much better things from my garden taste I decided to try a two for one experiment.  I have a friend who created this awesome salsa recipe that we’ve been able to duplicate and with our salsa marker is a breeze to put together.  I have another friend though that doesn’t like actual onion, but likes the taste of onion (go figure).  So taking my fresh plum tomatoes, some fresh cherry tomatoes (with the different colors) and a green pepper from a friend’s garden, some green onions from my garden, and a jalapeno (from the garden) we tried to make it.  You would never guess how much of a difference it makes to have the real onion.  My friend loved it, but the rest of us thought it was missing something.  I will say though it was kinda cool to know that most of the ingredients came from the garden. 

So after that little experiment went pretty well I decided to try the hot version with some of my hot cherries (it’s normally made with a habanero).  The hot cherries seem to do well inside during the winter so in theory I would be able to get them, which is especially awesome because the habaneros are becoming harder and harder to find in our grocery stores.  I didn’t personally eat it as it is way too hot for me (hot just isn't my thing), but the reviews were great.  The idea of having fresh salsa in winter that could potentially come from our little three tier is pretty cool.  Guess I need to work on getting some plum tomatoes worked into the mix. 

We wanted to try to can some this year, but that didn’t happen.  So maybe next year when we’re done with the projects I’ll be able to try my hand at it. 

Consequences of the weather

Wow is all I can say about the weather that we’ve been having in New England.  Hurricane Irene knocked out southeastern CT for about a solid week.  This is turn resulted in all the tax return deadlines to be extended until the end of October.  Normally all deadlines are done by October 15^th.  Which usually gives me plenty of time to clean up and get things all set.  Oh and to get Halloween all set.  With the tax deadlines all getting extended this has been the most insane October I can ever remember. 

Then as if the month wasn’t bad enough as we’re decorating a hall for a Halloween party the rain that’s coming down decides to change over to snow.  This is snow which wasn’t even supposed to start until Midnight.  By the time we had finished we already had like an inch on the cars.  And while it’s only October we already had out first winter storm with a name.  Our area of the state didn’t get hit nearly as hard as other parts.  When you look at the outage map it’s almost as if the line from Irene stayed put and the state just reversed.  I feel bad for the people that are getting hit a second time, but not so bad for the people who were fine for Irene and are just now experiencing this.  So besides the crazy month I am now officially making being prepared a much bigger priority.  As soon as I down load some pictures I’m sure I’ll have some to post. 

Here’s hoping for a quiet November so we can all catch up.