October 24, 2021- no frost yet

 We avoided the first frost this week. The possibility was constantly in the back of my mind. During the week there were forecasts that went from 36 to 31 and then moved back to 34. My anxiety was heightened by the fact that I still have plants that should come inside.

Here was the temperature map of eastern Iowa yesterday (Saturday)  morning, That was the coldest night of the week. You can see that Iowa City sat at 38 degrees, while the frost arrived in northern Iowa.

So things remain much the same in the garden. The annuals, including the lantana, zinnias, and impatiens continue. The zinnias I planted in mid August have actually just started to bloom. It had been a race with the frost. The flowers won this time.  Planting in mid August actually was  late, even for me. (I can sometimes sequentially plant things, including zinnias.) I ordered some zinnia seed in mid July thinking I would plant them right after they arrive. (I have to confess there was a sale.) It took  4 weeks for them to arrive. 

I am preparing for winter. There I said it. It comes no matter what we do. However you have to do winter, before you do spring. And in the meantime you get perfect days like yesterday, with blue skies and sun with temperatures in the mid fifties. (Update- as I put the finishing touches on this post, it is raining. There is even thunder. What a strange sound.) 

The fall crocuses are like gems in the garden. Like their cousins that bloom in spring, they close up at night and will stay that way until sunshine comes.

Doesn't it make you want to get a few hundred?

I was going to order more this summer but the supplier was having cargo problems. They did have to come from Holland.

The plant migration inside continues. A friend came and carried the biggest plants inside. We even got the big jade plant up the stairs and into Julia's study.

I did discover a mistake I made with this large plant this summer. It stayed outside in the same location. I did not rotate it. It grew towards the sun. At the moment it is a little lopsided.

I trimmed it a little yesterday, on that one side. I trimmed the cuttings and made 10 little starts. The cuttings will have to come inside, but they do not take up much room. They can go on the bottom shelf of the plant stand. 

The little tillandsia is back in its regular cold weather spot. That is over the sink in the kitchen.

It is an air plant. Air plants are good houseplants since they do not have any dirt. They are not heavy.

Here is a closeup.

Part is turning red, which sometimes means it is thinking about blooming.

It seems like I have many more hoyas this fall. They are all inside now, even if some are waiting for someplace to stay for perhaps as much as six months. Six months?! The inside season is so long. They all want plant hooks. I have 9 plant hooks already in place. We went and got some more.

It is almost time for Halloween. People think about carving pumpkins.  There was apparently a bumper crop this year. 

Let me show you a little of the pumpkin tradition at our house.

There was the political side to the tradition.

This picture does give you an idea how far back the photo album goes. Katie worked on his campaign in 2003. (The pictures go back to 2002.)  Probably for that reason we were more involved politically that we had been in decades. We even hosted house parties. Can you imagine us ever doing that? Having strangers come inside our house.

But we celebrated with pumpkins.

This was the following year.

Then there are the hanging pumpkins. I suppose you may have heard this story before.

One time we were in the grocery store checkout line. A mother nearby said hello. She explained to her children that I was the man with the hanging pumpkins. Talk about your self identification.

The secret is to not carve the pumpkins until after the freezing temperatures are here to stay. A carved pumpkin in October will rot over the next month, as the temperatures bounce around. If you store your pumpkins until December and then carve them, they will freeze in their carved state.

If you then have some convenient plant hangers in your trees, the pumpkins can hang right up. 

They will be intact until spring.

By springtime you should have some freeze dried pumpkins. They can then last for years.

Julia's recipe

Apple dumplings

Some desserts are tasty and photogenic. Others are just tasty. Apple dumplings fall into the latter category. I have made fruit dumplings from time to time over the years, usually with apples. I make them in the fall when I am running out of apple confection ideas, having made apple pie, apple crisp, apple-cranberry pie, apple cake, applesauce, apple butter. Apple dumplings taste good, but they tend to collapse under the weight of their goodness.  

The ingredients for the dumplings:

1 batch of pie crust for a 9" pie;

4 apples (small if available);

3/4 cup brown sugar;

1/4 cup soft butter;

1 teaspoon cinnamon;

1/2 teaspoon salt.

For the sauce:

the apple peels and cores from the 4 apples;

1-1/2 cups water;

2 tablespoons butter;

1/2 cup brown sugar;

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.

First, Philip made me a pie crust, shown above wrapped in parchment. Get yourself a piecrust however you can.

Next, I peeled and cored the apples. I have an apple corer (shown at work), which not only is handy for coring apples but also is great at making eyes when carving pumpkins. 

I added the water to the peels and cores and simmered the concoction while I made the rest of the dish - about 15 or 20 minutes of cooking.

The liquid had reduced to about 1 cup.

Next I made the mixture which would be the stuffing for the apple cavities. I mixed the brown sugar, soft butter, salt and cinnamon in a little bowl. 

Next I rolled the pie crust out into a semi-rectangular shape on the piece of parchment it had been resting in. 

I cut the pie crust into 4 roughly equal pieces.

I set one of the peeled and cored apples on a piece of pie crust and started filling the hole with some of the filling. 

More cavity filling. The filling was pretty solid and moldable so I could pack it in. 

Next I pulled up the edges of the pie crust to encase the apple. This was a little like playing with clay or playdough.  

The fit was not perfect but with a little stretching and squeezing and even a bit of patching, I covered each of the apples with pie crust. 

I preheated the oven to 450 degrees.

The dumplings baked at 450 for 10 minutes, then I turned the heat down to 350 degrees and baked the dumplings for another 40 minutes or so.

They are done when a skewer meets no resistance when stuck into the apple. 

I am not sure what this is a video of. Apple dumplings, certainly. 

See what I mean about collapse under the weight of their goodness?

While the apples were baking, I strained the apple juice and discarded the peels and cores. I put the juice back in the little saucepan and added the sugar, butter, salt and cinnamon. There was a bit of the apple filling left and I threw that in too. I cooked the sauce until it came to a boil, then turned it off.

 Philip and I shared a dumpling, with nice warm sauce. It was lovely. Both the dumplings and sauce keep. Later on, you can serve the dumplings cold with warm sauce. 

Smaller apples are better, but farmer's market apples tend to be on the medium to large to enormous side.  

As for the variety of apple, I would avoid Delicious, as they are not in fact delicious. I would avoid Granny Smith because they are really hard and don't ever really soften enough. Same thing for Golden Delicious. McIntosh would be good or anything in the Jonathan family.

Odds and Ends

Plant spelling- The word of the week is dieffenbachia.

There was one such plant that had to come inside this week. It went on the migration list, moving from one column to another when it came in. It apparently is one of those lower light houseplants. It really enjoyed its time outside.

The poor plant is also known by the same "dumb cane." 

There is not frost in the 10 day forecast. There are a couple of 34's. That is certainly something to watch. Today (Sunday) it is suppose to rain all day. I planted a few things yesterday, and brought a few more plants closer to inside. 

I also engaged in a little "cleanup." That sometimes is far down on the to-do list. 

The back yard plant sale for the food banks continues. We have raised over $7300 for the year. I am already thinking about next year. I need to make a list of all the plants that can be dug up in April. I already have a few hosta I have targeted for purchase.  It really is the case that to plant something these days,  I mostly have to take something else out.  

Be safe.

Better times are coming. You have to think that is the case.

Philip