Port Potager

We often don’t have a killing frost here the first couple times it’s predicted, protected as we are by the ocean, which acts as a big heat source and keeps our temperatures slightly warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. In the game of protecting tender plants, those few degrees in either direction are crucial. This year, though, there was no flirting with 33 degree nights. The temperature dropped right down to 30 last night, and that did in the last of the summer fruits. We prepared to protect our leafy greens , and yesterday I also went through the garden to pick anything that looked big enough to be worth saving:  As a general rule of thumb, fruits will not survive a frost, but root vegetables will be just fine until a hard freeze, thanks to the insulating power of the earth. Leafy vegetables are a toss up: Basil gave up long ago and green beans are out, but arugula, cabbage, and kale are fine. Broccoli is also usually pretty tough, but we were planning on ...

Last night we had a frost advisory, and while my gut reaction to it was that the air felt a smidge too humid for us to worry about it, we finished covering our greenhouse tunnels in plastic anyway. We also brought in the last of our summer fruits, just in case. Here's our forced harvest: A whole lotta green tomatoes. We are hoping for two pies out of these, plus some to fry up. (Still looking for a great recipe for fried green tomatoes, by the way. Our only previous attempt was less than exciting. If you have a great recipe, please comment.) We also have a row of tomatoes on the window sill that were starting to turn red, and they can continue to ripen indoors. We should have tomatoes that way for another couple of weeks, I think. We also brought in all of our butternut squash and our ripe pumpkins, although we left three on the vine but blanketed in row cover fabric while they continue to ripen from green to orange. This is by far the best we've ever done wit...

One of the best things about this time of year? Green tomato pie:  Our tomatoes bit the dust before frost this year (which is expected tomorrow night, by the way). When we pulled the vines, we saved a big bowl of unripe, green tomatoes. Lots of people make fried green tomatoes, or maybe use them for pickling — both tasty ideas. My favorite, though, is green tomato pie.  Our recipe is from Martha Stewart — we came across it in a cookbook  years ago when we were trying to find a recipe for fried green tomatoes. We gave it a try, and now it's a fall tradition for us. I can't find that recipe posted anywhere online, but this one is similar . It just needs some golden raisins added to round it out. They make a big difference by adding little sweet bites to the tart and nutmeggy tomatoes. I know it doesn't sound  like it would be good, but if you have a garden and tomatoes that aren't going to make it long enough to ripen indoors, give it a try. (And for...

And just like that, they're gone: To be fair, "just like that" actually took place over a week of rain and cool temps. It just felt like it was fast because the last time I was out the garden they were still green, and today they are dead. And it isn't pretty: Gross. At least I don't feel bad about pulling these out and tossing them into the compost. We've had literally hundreds of pounds of tomatoes this year, and what's left is not worth crying about. Not super-psyched to pick up those mushy, moldy ones, though. So here it is, the last basket of tomatoes of 2012: As you can tell from their color, not all of these are even all that ripe, but I picked the unblemished ones anyway. They can ripen up in the sun on a windowsill in a few days. Maybe a week for some.  On the Roma vines, we do have quite a few really nice, green tomatoes left: With the vines on their way out and low temperatures way down into the 40s this we...