Early first frost... and pumpkins!

On September 14th they announced frost on my region. That is rather early, although technically possible: the traditional gardener books for here consider the end of the growing season coincides with the Labour Day weekend.

Despite that, most of the cool and cold hardy crops are happy to continue. I was scared, since my tomatoes, beans and peppers are still in full production. I was not prepared to lose them. It also prompted me to go to the Centre d'Interpretation de la Courge as soon as possible, since frost usually kills or severely damages curcubits. That is a lovely place to buy pumpkin and squash products, including harvesting them by yourself. It was my birthday, so I went for the full thing (they are also a brewery and winery ;) ) and came back with a delightful harvest that I could not be able to produce myself. Their fields are an immense valley, fully exposed to the sun, a great advantage my backyard does not possess.

A sea of pumpkins!

One can carry their precious harvest with a fancy wheel-barrel! It turned out to warm me up a lot, despite the temperature of around 10C. The whole field is right beside the vines, so we could peak (but not taste!) the grapes themselves.

Carrying my harvest through a field of vines

If you are not up to the challenge of rolling the wheel-barrel you can still buy the produce in a nice open market. They even have picnic tables, so you can buy your stuff and eat in the sun, in the open. In normal conditions, you can even drink your wine or beer there too. It was such a great day, and being a weekday we dodged a crowd of COVID19.

Proud of the harvest of the day

But that night I had to protect all my bags of peppers. They went inside of the garage and beans and tomatoes were protected with one layer of fleece.

Fleeces out again and again!

It turns out it worked wonders, especially when the frost came back in two consecutive nights, the 20th and the 21st, when we officially entered fall season. I am happy they all survived, since the next two weeks will all have warmer points of 18C, which when sunny is still pretty good for peppers and tomatoes and even the beans.

The glorious season is really pointing to its grand finale and it will soon be time for planting fall bulbs. I am so impressed with the performance of this year and just to think my beets and pac-choi and potatoes and carrots are still 2 months away from ending. The freezer is nice and full in the basement and we will still be remembering our season for quite a while!

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