Hiking at Elmore State Park

It’s been an amazing autumn here in Vermont. It's raining today, and our mild weather will be getting colder soon. 

Today I'm thinking about the enjoyabIe hikes I've taken with Addie. The most recent one was at Elmore State Park.

We started out at the Lake Elmore beach. She was telling me that we were headed to the peak behind me. (I had my doubts.)

The trail started out easy enough.

We passed a bridge and it was tempting to take, but it was off-trail. We continued to follow the path.

I'm always looking for wild flowers and berries along the way. There were very few blackberries left.

I kept stopping to take photos. This slowed up our hike. It was so beautiful - my goal was no longer to reach the peak, but just to enjoy the walk.

I told Addie to go ahead, I'd catch up.

Then we had to make a decision- the longer way up, or the shorter.

Of course, we chose the shorter way. It was one mile less to the top.

Big mistake. We discovered the climb was getting much steeper. The longer way would have been a lot easier!

The path became narrower and covered with leaves.

The leaves were turning color and the foliage was spectacular.

Addie went on ahead to see how much further it was to the top. We were soooo close, but it was getting late in the afternoon and I was concerned about how long it would take us to go back down. Maybe if we had taken the longer, easier trail...

The peak would have to wait for another day. 

We ended up back at the beach and I took a few more photos.

Elmore State Park, we'll be back.

Growing and Harvesting Potatoes

 

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When this...                                                                             looks like this...

It's time to harvest the potatoes.

For several years I've been using potato bags. This year I used three, - one each for red, white, and blue potatoes.

These are the blues.

This is the largest blue.

Here are the reds.

    And the whites. 








The soil from the bags is spread into a raised bed for next year's garlic crop.

The bags will be folded and stored for next year's potatoes.

The blossoms produce berries that provide potato seed. Many people use this TPS - True Potato Seed - to grow the next crop. I've always used cut potatoes. 

I saved some of the TPS. Next year I plan to compare growing potatoes from seed with those grown from cut potatoes.

And to try a few new varieties...

Update: This year, as an experiment, I am using potatoes from the grocery store that have started to sprout. I planted them very deep into the soil and I will keep covering the leaves with topsoil as they emerge. Potatoes are fun to grow.

I invite you to check out my newest blog here: Resolutions.

Thank you!

Happy Gardening!