FALL IS UPON US! And what a beautiful fall it has been. I finally cleaned up my garden area and the next thing to do will be to save the seeds from my Marigolds! I'm hoping to recycle them for next year! They were so beautiful all season long and added extra color this fall when everything else was done blooming.

Two things that have taken FOREVER to bloom are my Jalapeno Peppers and New Mexico Chile Peppers! I had put them into huge pots a few months ago and the blooms started to cover the plants. With the cold weather moving in, I have moved the pots indoors at night and back out during the day to capture as much sunlight as possible. Last night I went to look at them -- and they are starting to turn red!



This is another pot full of peppers and all of the plants are covered in flowers! I think I'm going to have peppers all the way through Christmas!

The image below is actually a better shot of my carpet than of the pepper blooms, but you get the idea. :)

Here is an image of some peppers turning red! YAY!


I have never grown hot peppers before and I'm very excited to have had such success with my first attempt! I'm planning to visit my mother this weekend for her birthday and hopefully with her help -- and my sister's help -- I can can some of these up! :)

My wreath projects!

I haven't posted in such a long time!! Time has flown by this year!

I have been having such a great time at the Farmer's Market this season. I have met some interesting people from the community and the fellow vendors are very social and kind, such good people! I have been finding some time to finally begin working on my wreaths. I'm hoping I can sell these at the market and/or online.


Here is an image of the largest wreath I've made. It's a 24" grapevine wreath. I've added some different flowers to the base of it.

And then I added in some berries and fox tail.



I wanted to make a wreath that didn't have too many harvest colors in it -- so that it could be a universal wreath in the home.



This wreath is harvest all the way!!! I found a little stuffed scarecrow on clearance and attached him on the right part of the wreath.
This wreath is a 24" oval grapevine wreath. I attached some fall leaves and kept the floral colors more yellow, brown, green -- to match the coloring of the scarecrow.


I had made a 4th of July rag-wreath with some material that had the flag all over it and I wanted to do another one with some material that wasn't focused on a holiday. I found this material and went to work!


I used pinking shears to create the jagged edges on the cloth. I cut the cloth into 3" squares. The great thing about a wreath like this, anything goes. You don't have to be perfect on the size of the squares.I had a 12" straw wreath for the base. Then using a glue gun and the end of screw driver I pushed the cloth into the wreath. I tried to randomly place the colors on the wreath to give it a full appearance.


This next wreath is probably my favorite! I used a 14" grapevine wreath. And I found this cute owl to be the focal point! Isn't he cute?! :)

I glued fall leaves around him -- I found some that really fit the coloring of the owl. And I added in a few twigs with berries on it.



The last wreath is one for Halloween! Sppooooky! :) I used a 10" grapevine wreath, and I spray painted it black.
I then glued on some random Halloween fixtures -- Trick or Treat, spider, bats, cat, etc. Then I covered it in cobwebs.

I added a wire ribbon to the top which had some of the same colors from the Halloween fixtures. And then I spray painted it with glow in the dark paint! So now once it's been exposed to some light... the cob webs, the eye balls etc. ALL GLOW IN THE DARK! So much fun!

Baking for the Market

Well, I decided to continue my quest in finding the perfect items for the Farmer's Market! I baked some Cherry Almond Muffins-- I know-- sounds like heaven, but unfortunately, it totally bombed! :( They taste good, but they raised on the ends and sunk in the middle, they did not cook all the way through, and the sides continued to rise and move outward. I have never experienced such a complete flop before. Oh well! Throw that recipe away! :)

The next thing I tried was croissants, both chocolate and almond. Oh my goodness they are wonderful! I took them into the office where I had several different people try them. One said, Excellent, another said, I give them an A! I was very happy with the way they turned out. With my first batch, the appearance was not that great, but they did taste and smell like real croissants. My second attempt I was able to get the appearance to match the taste. I put out some samples tonight and that really helped in selling them! I had 9 packages and I sold them all! (Each package had either 4 or 6 croissants in them.)

Here are some pictures of the croissants.
The recipe called for Almond Paste and Pain au Chocolat. I ended up making the Almond Paste from scratch. A small can of it at the store was over $5! So, I figured, I could make it for a lot less than that. And it turned out pretty well.

I was explaining to a customer how I made the croissants and that I made the Almond Paste from scratch and she smiled and me and said, "You know you can buy that in the store!" And I laughed and said, "Well it was cheaper for me to make it and I'd rather not buy what I can make."

Another customer came to the table and looked at some of the ingredients in my cranberry orange bread and said, "I see you've listed that there is real butter in here, is it really butter or did you use margarine?" And I smiled and said, "It's real butter, I don't like to bake with margarine." And he smiled back and said, "I think you just made a sale!" :) He ended up purchasing the croissants.

Here are a few pictures of the croissants before they went back in the oven.

The Chocolate au Pain was hard to find--so in lieu of that--I just used semi-sweet chocolate chips and actually I really like it. So, I am going to continue with that.


Here is a picture after they came out of the oven! Some of the Almond Paste drizzled out of the croissant and baked on the pan--which made a nice little sugar treat for me! :)

I have been bringing homemade soft pretzels to market and they have become quite popular~here are some pictures of them!


Here are a couple of pictures showing the different kinds~ I have salt, sesame seed and cinnamon/sugar!

Another new item that I attempted was Focaccia bread! The recipe had cheddar cheese in the dough-- and I topped it with olive oil, Oregano, Rosemary, Ground Peppers, Parmesan Cheese, Roma Tomatoes (from the garden!), and a little bit of Mozzarella Cheese! I made the crusts fairly thin--so they were crunchy on the edges.

They were 10" in diameter -- so like a small pizza. They were very popular! I sold out of the four I had made in the first 15 minutes of market!


I decided that I would attempt to sell some more pies this week! Here are some pictures of my Strawberry-Rhubarb Pies! I had two of them-- and I even had someone come up to the table looking for a rhubarb pie, how fortuitous! I hope it was delicious!





I'm having a lot of fun attending the markets and it's even more enjoyable when the customers enjoy my food! :) I have been setting out more samples of things that I'm making and that has made a lot of difference in my selling strategy. Right now, I only attend the market on Thursdays. The Monday night markets seem to be dominated by a bakery that brings 2 - 10' tables full of different items. It's hard to compete with that.

A customer told me that I should come back on Mondays because the bakery that overpowers the market doesn't have what I have... but I don't know. People seem to go to them and not look anywhere else on Mondays. I was heartbroken when I made a table full of food and was unable to sell much of it. It takes a lot of time and preparation to go to market--so I'd rather go when I have the best chance of selling everything~or at least much of it!

Tomato Blight and Blossom End Rot

Tomato Blight and Blossom End Rot... better to be proactive than reactive. Unfortunately, I was the latter. :( My garden has been hit with Early Blight. There is a difference between Early Blight and Late Blight. With Early Blight, you can still hope to salvage your garden.

Early Blight has small round, brownish circles, encased in a halo of yellow. Early Blight is also similar to Septoria Leaf Spot. (http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/A2606.PDF) Late Blight takes the leaves by storm, turning them brown and wilting quickly. You can lose a garden within 3 days to Late Blight. This season has been ideal for both--the rainy wet days, turning humidly hot (90's) and having damp evenings. Blight is fungus. I should have prepared better especially once I noticed mushrooms growing in my yard. The environment was perfect for blight.

You can treat your garden with anti-fungus products and you can prevent your garden from producing the spores that are blight. BUT--once it's started to grow, there is little hope of killing it before it destroys your entire crop of tomatoes and potatoes.

Here are some images of stems that I cut off of my tomato plants.


Remove all of the bottom stems that touch the ground, and remove anything that has a touch of the blight on them.

When you are removing the damaged foliage from the garden, try not to touch any other plants or leaves of the same plant, it can be transferred VERY easily!!! Early Blight can settle into your soil if you don't take precautions (and it may already be too late). Once it is settled into your soil, your garden is now contaminated. That is a depressing thought--the fungus can overwinter in your garden soil and begin its killing spree the following season in your garden. Even the tomato cages you put around your plants are now contaminated. I would recommend wiping them down with a disinfecting cloth before you store them for the winter. Also, clean all of the garden utensils with bleach/water mixture. You really can't be too careful.

A little preventative care can save you a lot of heartache later.


I plan to purchase some anti-fungus spray/powder/ bomb! Whatever it takes! And I hope that I can still salvage my plants. Blight should not effect anything but tomatoes and potatoes. Remember the Great Potato Famine in Ireland? Late Blight is what took their crops. Late Blight is a beast of its very own. Early Blight--you can hold some hope--Late Blight, however, there is nothing you can do. You will lose your garden :( It's just a matter of time. And your soil is ruined..etc. It's highly recommended if you have Late Blight to simply pull every plant that is contaminated and hope that you can save the others. Late Blight can travel on the wind--that is why it is such a damaging disease of these plants.

I have also experienced Blossom End Rot on some of my tomatoes. Here is a picture of a couple of my Roma Tomatoes with BER.

BER is fixable! I would recommend pulling all of the tomatoes that show signs of BER. Your best bet is to have your plant put all of its energy into making new blossoms--instead of trying to grow these damaged tomatoes to term. BER is a sign that your garden is low on Calcium. You can put Calcium back into the soil easily! Ready? Eat a few eggs in the morning and save the shells! The shells are loaded with Calcium. Make sure you wash them really well and crush them into very fine particles. (You can put whole shells out there but it will take a long time for the soil to break them down.)

Mix the egg particles into the top soil. The best time to do this is before or as you notice that
blossoms are starting to form. The development of blossoms pulls Calcium from the soil...and once they are developed--it's too late. That's why you should pull the tomatoes that are already showing BER. There is nothing you can do to save it. But you Can help the soil mend itself by adding in some Calcium, removing the damaged tomatoes, and by allowing the plant to develop new blossoms that have plenty of Calcium for creating healthy tomatoes!

Besides BER--there is also such a thing as damaged blossoms. When a blossom is developing, if it gets bumped, crushed, damaged in some way, it will/can effect how the vegetable/fruit looks once it is formed!

Here is an image of an interesting looking cucumber!
But we don't discriminate at ARohlk Farm ;-) He gets to come into the house with the rest of his friends.

Gardens are not as easy to grow as one might think. You have to pay attention to the signs that your garden is giving you and try and stay on top of its needs...because they have plenty! If you love to garden, it will show in its production. Your garden is only as good as the gardner's passion for growing it!

I think back on when I was little and the garden that my mother was able to produce. I wish I had images to show you because there are no words for the effort and production she was able to yield. Amazing, really. Imagine a nicely sized backyard in your hometown. Think about a tree, a swing-set etc. a nicely sized yard... and now think of this area covered in garden growth! THAT is what my mother was able to produce! Can you imagine!? I'm scrambling to save my tiny little plot--I can't imagine how she did it. I can only hope that some of that talent was passed down to me :)