Fall is in full swing here in lovely McDowell County. Lori here bringing you all the news that is new round here.

The weather has been wonderful for this past month, nice and warm during the day and cool at night. This makes for good growing conditions.

We are all still harvesting beans, okra, watermelon, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, and all sorts of other things. One thing we have noticed is the watermelons. Some folks that grew them ended up with huge watermelons that weren’t ripe on the inside and some had many tiny ones that were ripe. We aren’t sure why that is unless it’s something to do with the amount of direct sunlight.

Tomatoes have just kept producing and producing, We at the center have been given a lot of them. One gentleman had given us a jar of dilled green tomatoes to try. We finally opened them and tried them. They are wonderful, they taste sort of like green olives. I think that is something we will be making soon.

We got our hands on some ghost peppers! We are planning on saving the seeds from them to pass out to folks that want to grow them. We are also going to use the peppers themselves for pepper butter and maybe for a little salsa. Of course I am unable to eat such a thing but I’m sure I can get someone to try it.

We haven’t got a count on pumpkins harvested yet. We are anxiously awaiting that. Pumpkin rolls and pies are a fall must have. Not so much the other pumpkin flavored things.

Cover crop seeds have been ordered and are ready to be passed out to participants. Most are going with clover and rye. Some are looking to try tillage radishes to break up the hard spots in their gardens.

End of season maintenance has been started on the Grillo tractor to be ready for end of season plowing/tilling, and also to be ready to start the new season in spring.

We have the crew for next season on stand-by if we are approved for 2018. We even have the transportation for hauling fertilizer to sites set and ready.  We’ve been on the ball!

Right now we are getting ready for our Diocesan Convention where we will be taking some of our value added products to sell. We will be putting the money made back  into the program live we have for the past few years. Some of the participants are sending things as well, and will be given their proceeds.

If anyone has a plethora of pumpkins you don’t have a use for let us know, we will can them and turn them into pumpkin rolls next year.

Until next time Have a Happy Fall and a Great Halloween.