Downright cold

The Polar Vortex has arrived and with it, temperatures in the single digits... 

It's just downright cold!

Sadly, my little greenhouse is unheated, everything in it has now come to a freezing halt!

We were lucky enough to harvest 5 lbs of green peppers from the greenhouse, the night before the cold snap arrived.

Time has come to let the garden and the greenhouse rest...

In the meantime, we will bundle up, throw another log on the fire and dream of Spring!

Still Harvesting

 Although the greenhouse isn't heated, it still allowing us to harvest vegetables much later in the season than we normally would. At this time, we are still able to harvest Tiny Tim cherry tomatoes and have Yolo Sweet Peppers and Banana Peppers still on.

In comparison, the peppers in the garden have been done at least 3 weeks earlier.

I am enjoying the fact that we can extend the harvest to some extent!

Sweet Heat

For those of you that have asked....Here is how we make our Sweet Heat Pepper Jelly 

Prepared Peppers, the original recipe calls for 2 medium green peppers,3 medium red peppers and 10 Large Jalapeno Peppers.  

I used what we had on hand, all Hungarian Peppers with 1 large red bell pepper added for interest.

Be sure to wear rubber gloves while handling and preparing peppers. Stem and halve all peppers. Rinse and discard all seeds.

Finely mince the Peppers...we use the food chopper for this job!

You will need:

• 4 Cups of  prepared Peppers
• 1 Cup of Cider Vinegar
• 5 Cups of Sugar
• Pat of Butter
• 1 Pkt. of Sure Jell Fruit Pectin 

Follow the directions for making cooked Jam recipe provided in the Sure Jell Pectin..

I am not a fan of  Hot Peppers...but I do love pepper jelly!  

Pepper Jelly makes  perfect appetizer, serve over Buttery Ritz crackers and cream cheese.

Can you say... Devine! 

This jelly does have a good kick to it...which is rounded out nicely with sugary, sweetness! 

You can scale down the heat to your liking, by adjusting the ratio of hot peppers to bell peppers.

Yields 6 cups.

Turn up the heat!

Harvesting Hungarian wax Peppers today.

It may look like an innocent Banana Pepper, but really this Pepper has a bite to it! Comparable to a Jalapeno, with a chance for even more heat.

On the heat scale....I'm a Big O' Baby!!! So, these little dumplin's will be sweetened up and made into Pepper Jelly.

Learning Curve

On Sunday, we went to Mom & Dad's for family dinner...We arrived back home after dark and simply forgot to bring the tender plants from the greenhouse in for the night...

So, not a good play for the home team.....

It froze!

Not a little freeze... but, frozen hard dirt in the seed trays.... kind of freeze!

This is what I woke up to on Monday morning!

I panicked and brought the trays inside, put them under the grow lights, said a prayer and headed off to work. Amazing enough, I only lost 2 Sicilian Saucer tomatoes, and 5 Rutgers tomatoes, 3 California Wonder Peppers, and 2 Yolo Sweet Peppers

How on Earth, the rest of the tomatoes and peppers survived.... is beyond me!

Here's what the trays look like today....

I will chock this one up to.... greenhouse beginners luck!

Guess who will be remembering to bring in the tomato and pepper trays, until we get a heater in the greenhouse?

What a difference a week makes

With all the rain this past week, most of the snow is finally melting off the garden. It sure is good to see dirt again!

Winters in North Idaho can get pretty long!!

The garden is still soggy during the day and night temps are still dropping below freezing. 

For now, seedlings are still inside under grow lights.

On a happy note... My  Meyer Lemon tree is bouncing back from the brink of death...

It was looking rather sad and loosing all of it's leaves...I couldn't get the Winter care just right and couldn't tell if I was over watering, or under watering.. I finally decided to re-pot, and that has seemed to do the trick. 

The leaves are growing back and blossom buds are forming like gang busters. 

I think I finally have a good watering and feeding schedule figured out.

Peppers and Toms are looking good. I have been keeping a cool draft on them to prevent them from growing to fast and getting spindly while they are growing  in the house. We heat with wood, and the house is nice and toasty.

Rutgers Tomato seed is 2 years old and had a 100 % germination rate

Sicilian Saucer Tomato seed is brand new, took about  4 days longer to germinate, and has had a germination rate of about 80%

Update on the Garden

Look what's happening in the garden this week....


Tomato's are blooming



Peppers are safe and snug in their little micro climate



Corn has sprung up and is about 10" tall