Final Harvest

 

354 lbs of potatoes harvested, from just 15 lbs of seed potatoes planted.  That's nearly 24:1 in productivity, which is our highest yield yet.  Conditions were good for potatoes this year, a wet and cool summer, but I think adding the fish carcasses as fertilizer last Fall made a big impact on this year's crop. (The ones in the buggy are the ones we accidentally stabbed with the pitch fork - so we keep those separate and eat them first).

Fall has definitely arrived. The leaves have turned, and the days are cooler.

Potatoes are one of our last crops to harvest each year. We planted these Yukon Gold potatoes earlier than normal, first week of May.  They are a 90 day variety, but I let them go over 140 days before harvesting, and it seemed to pay off.

The boys are my harvesters.

Good sized potatoes.  Not too big, and not too many small ones.  Very healthy spuds with no sign of scab or other disease.  We didn't wash them, so they kept some dirt on them, and put them right in the bins we are storing them in, to minimize handling as their skin hardens over the coming weeks.

Landon, finishing off the lower potato plot. Each of our three plots produced enough potatoes to fill a 27 gallon tub, each weighing nearly 120 lbs.  That's nearly 24 lbs of potatoes harvested for every 1 lb of seed potato planted.  We usually harvest around a 10:1 ratio, so this was an exceptional year for potatoes.  We are storing them layered in the tubs with newspaper separating each layer, and will keep them covered in the garage since we don't have a root cellar.  In the past, we tried to keep them in our crawl space, but it stays too warm, and I'll think they'll do better in our garage, which is much cooler.

We also harvested the last of our carrots.  For carrots, we space out our plantings and harvests, so this was our third time to harvest carrots this year.  We totaled about 60 lbs of carrots for the year.  Root vegetables like potatoes, carrots and beets do well in Alaska's cool summers.  We had a below average year for beets, still had enough to eat and for canning, but the moose ate the beet greens off the top, and the beets stopped growing after that.  We plan to fence in the garden next year, so the moose will have to look elsewhere for their free lunch.  

These are tomatoes from our outside plants.  All our greenhouse tomatoes ripened on the vine (and are still ripening in the big greenhouse), but we also planted about 5 plants in the outside beds because we ran out of room in the greenhouse.  These 5 outside plants produced all these tomatoes, but were still green when the frosts started - so we picked them and brought them inside to let them finish ripening in our two little indoor greenhouses. Some are damaged from the earlier frosty mornings, but most seem to be ok, and will hopefully ripen up indoors over time. We've really enjoyed having our own tomatoes this year, making the gazebo-greenhouse a worth-while investment so far.

This is most of our canning for the year, minus the carrots which hadn't been pickled yet when this pic was taken.  We ate most of our garden produce as it was harvested, a little at a time, and only canned leftovers that we couldn't eat at the time.  Mostly pickles, carrots, and beets. Not a lot left over to can, but this was also our first year canning so we didn't go too overboard (this year). 

And here's this weekend's carrots, prepared four different ways - pickled carrots (in the jars), a bowl of honey glazed carrots and a bowl of lemon garlic carrots (to be eaten with meals this next week), and the leftover finger-sized raw carrots which will become raw snacks over the next few weeks. (The cookies up top are unrelated to the carrots, but just as tasty!).

Tonight's dinner, grilled caribou backstrap (filet cut), mashed potatoes, roasted potato slices, lemon garlic carrots and tomatoes - a plate full of things we hunted and grew this year.

Grayson saved one sunflower head to capture the seeds.  He'll roast these in the shell before eating.

The raised beds only have lettuce and celery left, everything else was harvested (or in the case of the cabbage - eaten by the moose). The in-ground beds still have kale, onions, lettuce and Swiss chard, and of course asparagus (but we won't harvest any of the asparagus for another two years). The garden is definitely winding down, and we're slowly cleaning up each bed for the winter.

Nearly time to put up Christmas lights?

We ate all the full-sized apples from our Norland, but Landon's apple tree still has all of its crabapples, just now turning ripe.

Grayson's school postponed National Junior Honor Society induction from last year to this year, due to COVID, and the swearing in was online via Zoom this week, so here Grayson waits in our kitchen to be 'sworn in'.

The swearing in ceremony.

Landon on one of his professional dress days, and Grayson dressed up for a NJHS meeting, taken just before Landon drives them to school.  Landon is a senior this year, and Grayson will be starting High School next year. Growing up.

Blue Shark in the Boat!

Grayson landed a blue shark on our fishing trip to Seward over the holiday weekend. 

It was pretty neat to see, and the deep blue color of the shark was something you had to see in person to fully appreciate.

Before the trip, we captured a quick picture in front of the sunrise over Resurrection Bay.

On the boat ride out of the Bay, the waters were calm.

But outside of the mouth of the Bay, the sea-state picked up.  Here, Landon hooks into his first halibut.

He landed the first halibut on the boat, and within a half hour, he had a second, becoming the first one on the boat to limit out for the day.

After pulling in a slew of Pacific Cod, I brought in a Yelloweye Rockfish. I've caught a bunch of Black Rockfish before, but this was my first Yelloweye. We don't target these fish, as they don't mature until around 20 years old, and they live to be 150 years old. But they get caught as by-catch occasionally.  After being pulled up from the depth we were fishing at, they wouldn't likely survive if thrown back.

Afterwards, I pulled in a small halibut, and a ling cod (which was too small to keep).

Jolene then hooked into a halibut.  Here she is, pulling her halibut up.

A nice catch.

Landon helped to coach Grayson.  Grayson was the last of us to land a halibut, so he was starting to get anxious.  Then he hooked into something that was giving him a good fight (as seen in his facial expression in this picture).

It was a blue shark.  They are rare in the waters around Alaska. 

It was the first blue shark ever taken by this boat.  They have seen more of them lately, and amazingly, we saw three in one day, including the one Grayson landed.  The other two were spotted chasing the cod we were pulling up to the boat. Fairly amazing, considering they are more of a warm water shark. 

Typically, we might see a salmon shark, and lots of spiny dogfish (a type of small shark), but rarely get to see a blue shark.

So, we made sure to get plenty of pictures.  We are looking forward to trying out some shark steaks.

Then, just a few minutes later, Grayson hooked into another big fish.

But this time it was a halibut, which ended up being the biggest halibut of the day for the boat.

We gave him a few minutes to try and lift it up for the picture....

Before I came over to help him hold it up off the deck.

One of the other fishers on the boat pulled in a bigger ling cod than mine.  Mine was too small to keep, but his catch was big enough.

Looking down the mouth of a big ling cod....looks like something out of Star Wars.

Jolene finished up the trip with a spiny dogfish, to round out the species variety. In total, our family of four landed 7 halibut, 15 Pacific cod, a yelloweye rockfish, ling cod/spiny dogfish (both released), and one blue shark.

A short video showing Jolene manning her fishing line on the fantail of the boat - a good example of just how rough the water was, but it made for a good fishing trip.

The caribou cooler was full, again, this time with fish.

And the freezers are full.  The upright is full of caribou, halibut and shark...

And the chest freezer is full of salmon, cod, and yelloweye.

We found a new cabin we like in Seward.  At one time we were convinced we would need to buy an RV/travel trailer for these type of trips - but with nice little cabins like these becoming more available all over Seward, I think we're good with just staying in a cabin. Here, the boys enjoy the loft.

On the water, Jolene snapped a picture of a nearby mountain goat on the rocks just above the surf.

Spotted at a restaurant in Seward, a very Alaskan way of measuring social distancing.

 

Doing a Little Canning

We've done a little vegetable canning from the garden this year.  Mostly pickles, but also beets and others.

Pickling cucumbers, carrots and some dill for canning.

Afterwards, we make use of the beet greens by sauteing them, which with some oil, sea salt and almonds, makes a tasty side dish. 

Apples from the orchard.  The Norland apple tree produced some this year.

Afterwards, a dinner of caribou backstrap, pulled into BBQ, with wrapped peppers and Brussels sprouts from the garden.