Henry Chappell

Blackberry Winter on the Blackland Prairie. Temperature dropped into the thirties this weekend in North Texas. Tomato and pepper plants and onions came through Friday's hailstorm okay. Pulling winter mulch off bean, pea, cucumber and cantaloupe beds so the soil can warm for planting later this week. We'll see if I have enough ambition today to go ahead and erect lattices.

In the 35 years I've rambled around rural parts of Texas, I've never heard mention of Blackberry Winter. Is it just a Kentucky thing?

The Estimable J. reorganized the freezer yesterday, and I couldn't help but notice how many pints of blackberries can be produced by a small, coddled blackberry bed. (Only a small part of ours is pictured. I'm a little embarrassed by the unruliness. I never got around to my customary pruning.) Much to my anticipation, J mentioned that we need to be making room for this year's blackberry crop.

Cobblers forthcoming.

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Picked the last of the fall peppers this afternoon. Yeah, they're small - I don't fertilize after mid-summer - but they're at their tastiest this time of year. Around mid-October, I snip off all the smaller peppers that won't have time to mature, prune unproductive branches, and hope for the best for the remaining peppers. Time to clean up and mulch this last bed and let the garden sleep until February onion planting.

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