Potpourri

Life has been very hectic and very unusual the last few months. We hope for more relaxed days in the near future. We have been greatly blessed this past fall with strength, employment, and love. Below is our Potpourri post.... a little bit of everything I wanted to post about earlier this fall.

We were so proud of our apple trees this year. We only sprayed one organic oil application throughout the entire summer. Very little insect damage was seen among large tasty fruits. You can see three varieties in the image. The three apple blend was used in this year's apple sauce. Anyone care to guess what varieties are in the image?

Here is my "look out it is very hot" pepper blend. After drying, we ground the peppers into a powder. Only a sprinkle is needed to give just the right amount of heat. If you would like to try some let me know.

Jessica and little Derek are taking a walk around the Sink's Pool. Derek has a wonderful little personality. I like to tickle his feet.

Fishing at Payson Lake is a family pastime. It took about 15 minutes just to get everyone organized to take this image. They could not figure out how to get the fish all lined up on the stringer. Yes this is a legal limit.

Heather and Dan celebrated their birthday together. Dan had brownies and Heather enjoyed a layered "horse hoof" jelly cake.

Jacob found its easier to dive in with the mouth instead of using a spoon. Why waste valuable time with a utensil when you can slam it more efficiently.

Jessica and Heather share a special moment. Jessica made all the little boxes for Heather. Each box was filled with a little treat. I even enjoyed a few gummy candies.

I have been waiting for years to take an image of Grandpa smiling. I spent some time taking a few images of Grandpa before he left to Las Vegas.

No,we are not in Sequoia National Park (central Calif.) We planted this wonderful giant sequoia about six years ago. It is the fastest growing conifer on the planet.

Just chillin on the front porch with our pumpkins.

A great time was spent in the Sink pool. Watch how the old guys whoop the young bucks. Check out the video.

Grandpa and the Beet Harvest

This year's beet crop was fantastic. We grow our beets along the front edge of our garden wall. There is very little soil in this location. We have about 4-6 inches of soil before the plants hit the art stone block shown in the image. Radiant heat from the block dries out the soil very fast and without Grandpa, the plants would surly die a drought stricken death. Grandpa gave all his beets plenty of water and conversation.

Here grandpa is picking one of our large Detroit Red beets. We bought our seeds from Cooks nursery of Geneva road.

The genetic makeup of the seeds we purchased were very different. We had very red, pink and white beets. Not only the color but skin and flesh texture was very diverse.

Grandpa holds one of our fine beets. The greens are superb .

Some eat beets raw but as for me I prefer them cooked. Grandpa is tempted to take a big bite from this beet root but at the last minute he pulled back and decided to pickle them for dinner.

I want to grow the largest Detroit beet in the World. Yes you heard it first on our humble little blog. We kept a few of the larger red, pink and white beets and will let them seed this summer. By selectively breeding with our diverse gene pool we should destroy the competition.

Thanks again Grandpa for a wonderful season. I look forward to growing the big one with you next year. For all you beet fans... I challenge you, I scoff at your attempt to beat my father. Grandpa and Grandma have been growing beets for years and their collective experiences with this beloved root crop cannot be matched. Bring it on..... We have two different beet competitions next year.

1. Grow the biggest Detroit Red Beet
2. Grow the biggest Beet. You may not grow Sugar Beets, this would be illegal and against the BBCR (Big Beet Competition Rules).

Pumkin Carving!!

This is our Pumpkin Carving of 2010!

The men (including Jacob) went and collected all of the pumpkins. In the picture above Jacob poses in the classic wagon and pumpkin picture.

Jacob was so exited to carve his pumpkin, Jessica had previously talked to him about how it would not hurt the pumpkin... good job Jess! (Jacob is a very sensitive child)

Grandpa was very careful with his knife making sure to watch his hands like he taught us as kids!

Jacob was fine with letting Grandpa clean out the pumpkin but Dad finally got him to stick his hand inside!! Grandpa can get Jacob to do anything!

Pumpkin caving without eating the insides just does not happen in this house.... At least with Dad.... When we were kids Grandpa and Dad would do this all the time to us, it is only fair to do it to Jacob too!!

Jim has to continue the tradition!!! Making Daddy Proud!!

Jimmy and Rachel made an amazing Carving... it only took 4 hours....

Richie and Rachel S. decided to create Optimus Prime!!! Very creative and it actually turned out to look like the picture!

Now i decided to go "out of the box" and create something that has not been done before... So I decided to carve my sister Rachel's face on it!!! Go me! It looked exactly like her and used much talent in the process of carving!

Grandpa spent a lot of time hanging out with Derek during this project!

Jessica here is making sure to wear her plastic gloves to protect her from the pumpkin goo!

Grandma and Grandpa are very impressive when it comes to pumpkins, they grew and carved very well!!

Jim and Rachel had a very interesting method while carving...to take up as much space as possible.. I also think it is very smart how one person is getting the goo out of the pumpkin while the other is getting started on the carving! Good time management!

For some reason Jacob thought he had to go cross eyed while holding this piece of his pumpkin... SUPER CUTE!

Grandpa helped Jacob carve his pumpkin. It took a total of 20 min!! Speedy and effective!

The ground was covered with garbage bags so we could try to keep the floor clean... It almost worked...

Jim is very picky when it comes to this... he took FOREVER! But it looked great in the end!!

Rachel tried to pick up the pumpkin... not a good idea.....

Cute picture! I think they were sad to see this pumpkin get old and moldy, they were very attached and once the fungus came they had no choice but to throw it in the garbage. That was a very sad day for them.

This here is the #1 pumpkin for sure!!

Jessica worked hard and turned out an amazing and artistic creation!!

Richie and Rachel S. were very diligent and made a very scary pumpkin... it almost looks like a spider which is pretty terrifying if you ask me...

Rachel and Jim turned out an amazing pumpkin!! It looks awesome!

They were very connected with their pumpkin.

Could not end with any other picture! It was great fun and only a little crazy, good job everyone!

Pumpkin Pickin

Last Sunday before the Chili Fest Jimmy, Richie and Grandpa G picked a few of their pumpkins. We left a few in the garden in hopes for a heavier pumpkin.

Jimmy picks his largest pumpkin. He had three very nice fruits on his vine. We wonder how big this one would have got without the other two. We bought our pumpkin plants from Cooks nursery. They were labeled as "Atlantic Giants". Unfortunately I don't think they were from the largest of fruits.

Richie picked his pumpkin and we were surprised to find the pumpkin wall was very thin in comparison to pumpkins we have grown in the past.

Richie and Jimmy measure height, length, and ground to ground. We will be posting these for all to beat. Yes our pumpkins are little this year. They had so much promise but just did not grow. We received some good seed from David but they would not set fruit. He had a few grow over 100 pounds but ours started, then shriveled. One of our vines would start to grow into the air and then break as it grew longer. We are joining the Utah Pumpkin Club (yes there is such a thing) and they will help us with some good seed. David's seeds were good genetics we just started growing them a little late and had a problem with fungus and setting fruit.


Richie and Jim weighed the pumpkins on our bathroom scale.

They looked a lot bigger in the garden. I commit myself to growing a much bigger specimen next year. I talked with some other growers and one of my problems might be fertilization temperature. I was trying to do my crosses in mid July and the temp is just to hot for a good set. They explained how to get around that issue and still set fruit in the heat. I will share this next summer. We will be carving these soon with Jacob. I am not saving any seeds even though I we did cross the mutant pumpkin with some pollen from a few of David's plants.

David came over for the chili fest and brought his big pumpkins. The pumpkin on David's left is over 100 pounds. It has a great shape and will be the future of one line of Glassford Pumpkins. Conner's pumpkin is just under 100 pounds... his daddy beat him. I think the one to David's right is called a Cinderella pumpkin. It has a great color and shape. I don't know how large they get. Thanks David and Conner for bringing your champion pumpkins.

This year the Giant Pumpkin Award goes to ..... David and Conner. They are fierce but generous competitors. I hope you continue to grow large pumpkins.

Tallest Cherry Tomatoes

Tallest and Most Productive Cherry Tomatoes

One of my goals this year was to beat my tallest cherry tomato record. I smashed my record by at least 1 foot. Lynne was a big help and I owe all my success to her support.

Heather took some images of me in my tomato patch. While typing this I had to stop and go pick some of these bright antioxidant loaded fruits. I measured the stems at just over 10 feet high. Next year I am going for 12 feet.

The plant to my left is the tallest of the two. Each cherry cage has 3-4 plants in its center. Lynne and Richie helped preserve these plants from late spring snow fall. If you look at this springs posts you can see our early spring set up.

The fruit I am holding is Mr. Stripey its an heirloom variety growing with my cherries. I would recommend this plant if you have some extra space. Its not as productive as modern hybrids but very tasty and when sliced it is a very attractive tomato.

The number of cherry tomatoes on these plants is impressive. We grew sweet million, sweet 100 and a wonderful orange cherry. The orange cherry was the most vigorous of the three. All tasted very good but if I had to pick only one to grow..... I would go with the orange.

I have really enjoyed my garden this year and our tomatoes have been a very bright spot. We have bottled and eaten so many tomatoes I think my family is getting tired of tomatoes. I would like to challenge all within the view of this blog to beat my 10 foot cherry tomatoes. If you think you have game... step up and give it a try. You will enjoy the harvest. I happily award myself with the largest cherry tomato plant among all competitors. This is kind of like my gold metal I won weight lifting. I was about 12 years old and Grandpa wanted me to do some Olympic weight lifting. I was the only competitor in my age group so I won a gold.

Some daylily images





Ye-Ha!!