Beyond the Bake with Fanny

Markets, Events and More! Dates that I will be at the market: 2025 Dates November 1 and 22 December 6 and 13 2026 Dates January 10 and 24 February 7 and 14 March 7 and 21 April 4 and 18 https://ninebellsandcattails.com/ Clinton Country Market September 28 from 9 am to 3 pm located at Front and Allen Streets in Clinton, WI ⭐NEW⭐ Dates and where to find me September 20 at Nine Bells & Cat Tails 421 E Grand Ave Beloit  October 11 at Nine Bells & Cat Tails (special treats for Beloit wine walk) October 18 at Witch's Bash 557 E Grand Ave 4 to 8 pm November 1 Beyond Boundaries: Where Art Meets Audacity hosted by Nine Bells & Cat Tails November 15 Orfordville Market at 408 W Beloit St. Orfordville 9 am to 1 pm

 Welcome back to the garden and happy September! How are things growing for you this month? I am getting tomatoes (finally), but no where near the number of tomatoes I would normally have. Cucumbers and beans are still producing, but the cucumbers are definitely ready to be done. More on harvests in a different post. Today I want to focus on the "beasts" often found in the garden. Sometimes it is hard to deal with the fauna among the flora. September ushered in a considerable amount of mosquitoes making it hard to spend a long time in the garden. Mosquitoes seem to love me a lot and I have not found a way to keep them at bay that is non-toxic yet. I will happily take suggestions on ways to keep from getting bit so much. One afternoon while I was digging up potatoes, I saw a squirrel take off running across the yard. Coming up behind the squirrel was a rabbit. I wish I was quick enough to get a picture of this chase, but I wasn't. I think the squirrel was too close to the ...

Welcome back to the garden friends. What are you harvesting? This growing season has been filled with challenges, lessons, and a ton of produce.  Just when I think I can't wait any longer to harvest, I end up getting a bounty of vegetables and herbs! I have picked beans nearly every day of the month. Harvesting this often creates a cycle of more beans growing. The more I pick, the more the plants produce so they can set seed for future plants. In previous seasons, I've harvested cucumbers in early July. This year took a little longer, the first harvest was about 3/4 of the way through the month. Once I started picking though, I have been able to harvest at least once a week. Cucumbers are not as prolific as the beans, but they need to be checked on every day. In the picture below, I found this monster (pickling) cucumber that I'm pretty sure was not on the vine two days ago, and if it was it was pretty small. This cucumber measured 6-1/2 inches in length and weighed 14 ounc...

Welcome back to the garden, friends. What's growing well for you? In my ongoing July garden tour, we're heading to Right Side Beds 2 and 3, where I've been tending to everything from fiery jalapeños to cool cilantro and an unexpected surprise of beans. In bed 2 I planted jalapenos, cilantro, onions, and some flowers to keep our pollinator friends happy and help us achieve our harvest. I divided the plantings to have jalapenos on the outer edges for ease of harvesting. In the photo below, the cilantro towers over the jalapenos and onions. The photo below that is a closer image of jalapeno plants and you can see some jalapenos just growing. If you've ever grown cilantro, then you will know that it prefers cooler temperatures, typically up to 75 degrees. The cilantro was doing well, nice leaf production and height most of June until we had a spell of 90 degree days. These hot, sunny days caused the cilantro to start flowering. I tried to keep ahead of the flowers so I coul...