Late garden: sweet potatoes and seed collecting!

Lori Fiechter on the first week of autumn--but it looks like we'll have 80 degrees this weekend! Those sweet peppers and basil will keep on growing. But not the sweet potatoes--Stan dug them up one day while I was at school this week. Not a great harvest for 12 plants, but since I'm the only one who likes them, it should be enough for me. Two crucial tips for storing sweet potatoes: let them cure 8-10 days, lying flat. Then, store them without turning them at all. Never turn them! That is the key to keeping them from spoiling--I still had some sweet potatoes late last spring.

Stan also picked the red cabbages--the ones I've been ignoring. Surprisingly, they were still good--just have to cut out some of the core. I made slaw out of them and pretended it was summer again.

Today was a nice dry day for plucking some of the dried zinnia and marigolds to save for next year. I separated the tall ones from the short blooms. Oh, and Rocket the kitten has been following me around and did some pouncing for the camera...