With possible frost predicted for tonight, and even colder temps predicted for tomorrow night, I’ve been busy taking care of cold-sensitive plants. I’ve moved tender houseplants into the house and my office over the past few days, and today we picked all of the vegetables and herbs that can’t take any frost.
We picked all the tomatoes. Many of the green ones will ripen over the next few weeks, but some will rot. Peppers of course are perfectly usable when green. There were a few, small eggplant fruits, at the far right in the big colander in the photo; I don’t know if they are edible. The pole beans have been producing all fall. The purple-striped pole beans are the ‘rattlesnake’ variety; the others are of the ‘Kentucky blue’ and ’emerite’ varieties.
In addition to the vegetables in the photo, we also harvested a few carrots to eat. Since they are protected from frost by being in the ground, carrots of course can stay in the garden through the fall.
We cut off all the marjoram, summer savory, and basil. The marjoram and savory will be preserved by drying. The basil will be preserved by chopping the leaves with olive oil in a food processor, keeping the lime and cinnamon basils separate from the sweet basil.