by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
If you live in the northern hemisphere where autumn is now upon us then harvesting should be your priority, along with sowing some of next years crops.
If the recent strong winds have not blown all your apples off the trees – especially here in Britain – then you should be picking the ripe fruit before they fall and get damaged.
Once picked, clean and dry each apple carefully and store the best individually wrapped in newspaper.
Store the apples in a cool dark place and check on a regular basis and remove any rotting fruit.
With the bumper crops we are having this year in the UK there should be plenty of fruit to keep you eating apples into the winter.
Apples that have blemished and that may be a little bumped make into apple sauce and apple butter and can those.
Also about now you should be digging up your main crop potatoes and storing them in potato sacks.
Crops to be sowing now for next year should now include Broad Beans and hardy peas.
In anticipation of a similar winter to that which we have had last year in this country, Britain, you should think of protecting the crops in the worst of the winter weather with cloches.
Many good ideas for how to winterize a garden and how to, in fact, continue growing food in your garden all year round can be found in the book “The Winter Harvest Handbook” by Elliot Coleman published by Chelsea Green. Definitely worth investing in.
© 2009
<>
