A Few Random Things

The homestead finally got its first killing frost on November 6th. It killed the begonias in the topsy-turvy and the "wild" tomatoes in the front yard. Those tomatoes were leftover seedlings that I didn't have room for in the garden so I planted them in an empty area of a raised bed in the front yard. The area was pretty heavily shaded, but they grew surprisingly well. I had wondered in a post this spring or summer what would happen to tomato vines that weren't supported. One website said that it would become an impeneterable tangle of disease-wracked vegetation. I decided to let these tomatoes do what they wanted and see what happened. While it was an impressive tangle of vegetation, it was very much not disease-wracked. In fact, there was no sign of the blight that affected all the tomato plants in the garden and in the topsy-turvy. On the other hand, the plants produced exactly zero tomatoes (though they did flower a bit). I don't know if that was because they were the runts of the litter that didn't get planted in the garden, the lack of sun, or if it was the lack of support and vertical growth. I do think the plants spent more of their energy on growing vines rather than growing tomatoes.

The frost did not seem to affect the other plants still growing in the garden. There is still lettuce, pak choi, arugula, green onions, broccoli, and brussels sprouts growing. When I say growing, I mean that only in the loosest sense of the word. I noticed the growth of the plants slowing down quite a bit around the beginning of October. It appears that they haven't grown at all since about mid-October, even the usually very fast growing greens. I suspect there is some minimum amount of light/energy the plants use for just basic life processes and they need more than that to grow. Its good to know for next year that nothing is really going to grow after early October. At least the plants stay alive and tasty out in the garden rather than rotting in the fridge.

The garlic that I planted has actually sprouted up above the surface. I'm a bit worried about the garlic getting damaged by the winter cold if it starts growing, but the internet says its OK if it sprouts a bit. I'm tempted to leave some of the green onions and see if they survive the winter.

On a different subject, the wine is making good progress. The fermentation has slowed dramatically. While fermentation was going strong, the wine got progressively cloudier as the yeast grew. After fermentation slowed down, the cloudiness slowly settled out. I decided to add a little bit of yeast nutrient and stir up the sediment to see if I could wake up any yeast that were just sleeping instead of dead. After a day or so it started to settle again. It looks like it will take a week or two to fully settle. After it does settle, I'll rack it off the sediment. Here is what it looked like a couple days after I stirred it.