October 2024 Homesteading Update: Cleanouts, Planting & Baking

If you want an update on semi homesteading life for October 2024 here in Zone 5, then this article is for you! October signals the last harvest and the closing of the garden. However, planting isn’t completely done for the season just yet!

October is when we need to get our garlic as well as the spring flower bulbs into the ground. It’s also time to sow the cover crop and give it a head start on protecting and powering our depleted garden soil. And, of course, October signals the start of colder weather (normally), and that means waking up my neglected sourdough starter for lots of delicious recipes!

With these updates, I hope to do more of a “journal” type of post at least once a month to keep you updated on life here. Hopefully, it will allow you to get to know the person behind these articles (me!) and how we run our semi homestead a bit more.

This will allow me to share the loads of photos I take on my phone instead of having them collect dust in my camera gallery. (You can also look for updates on Instagram if you want to follow along with me there, too.) I’ll also try to link to posts that might be relevant to what happened during that timeframe.

Hopefully, you enjoy getting to know a bit more about our life here in Illinois and how the homestead is going – Both the good and the bad!

Our October 2024 Update For The Semi Homesteading Life

There is a huge difference in the garden between the beginning of October and the end. By early October, several of the vegetable plants are starting to look a little worse for wear. The flowers have mostly lost their blooms, the strawberry bed is starting to die back, and several plants are at their end.

Some of the plants have already been pulled like the garlic, green beans, and potatoes. The zucchini and pumpkins are starting to die back thanks to powdery mildew. And while the tomato and pepper plants might still be huge, they aren’t really producing any fruit or ripening what is already growing.

By the end of October, the garden has been cleaned out almost completely and the cover crop is starting to fill in. It’s always nice to see the bright green of the cover crop when everything else is starting to brown and drop leaves.

We also had our last decent garden harvest of the year. I know that day is always coming and part of me is always a bit relieved and sad at the same time to see it be over.

The Garden Clean Out – October 2024 Homesteading Update

One of the biggest chores in October is closing out and cleaning out the garden. This end-of-the-season chore is one that I find very important each year. Not only does it allow me to start fresh in the spring without having to do a ton of extra work, but it makes me feel like I am closing the chapter for this year’s garden.

It’s also a chore that can be rather exhausting after you’ve already spent so much time in the garden over the summer! This year, thankfully, the entire family was home to help with the process. Unfortunately, we chose probably the hottest day possible to get it done.

And, if you are from the Midwest, then you know what happens in the fall during warm days: Bugs GALORE! I think we spent more of our time flicking off biting Asian beetles than we did pulling plants. And don’t forget those wonderful no-see-ums (also called Pirate Bugs in some locations)!

But anyway, we got the task done and now the garden is ready for the few items we need to get planted this time of year.

Planting Garlic, Bulbs, And The Cover Crop

After the garden was cleared out, I lightly tilled the growing rows. I had let the mulch get rather thin so some of the soil had become a bit compacted. I needed it to be nice and loose so I could get my fall planting done.

Around the second week of October, I got our garlic planted. We grow hardneck garlic in our location and it needs to be planted in the fall in order to have enough chill hours to start growing in the spring. I try to get this done around the 10th to the 15th of the month, and this year I did it on the 11th (go me!).

In addition to the garlic, I also planted a few crocus and tulip bulbs. The location I put them in isn’t ideal, but, hopefully, they will still overwinter and pop up once early spring hits.

Cover Crop Planting

Lastly – and probably most importantly – I got the cover crop planted. This year I am doing annual rye. It has always done a good job of filling in and completely covering the growing rows. While I don’t have good luck simply mowing it short to kill it off in the spring, I plan on lightly tilling it in so all that organic matter can go into my soil.

Since we had such a warm October, I did have to water the cover crop pretty frequently. Thankfully, it still germinated and is filling in better and better each day. It will continue to grow until the ground freezes. Since it’s a cold-weather crop, it will go dormant over winter and be ready to start growing again in the spring.

Making More Room For The Girls

Next up on the October 2024 semi homesteading update has to do with the chickens. Now that we have even more chickens this year, I wanted to do an add-on to our chicken run. (Thank goodness my husband loves me and will help me out with my crazy projects!) The girls have plenty of space in our coop but the covered run isn’t the biggest for all the ladies now.

During the winter, I enclose the run in plastic to protect them from the Illinois winter wind, temperatures, and snow. We use Flex-O-Glass, which is a clear, durable plastic for covering the run. We get at least three years out of one roll, so it is more than worth it for us (it keeps me warmer when doing chicken chores, too!). (Product Link: Flex-O-Glass, 36″ x 75′)

Anyway, I know that all those chickens “cooped up” in the run would mean that pecking from boredom was likely to happen. And since my older girls are pansies and don’t like to go out in the snow, they would need more space to hang out in.

Hence the chicken run expansion. Basically, I wanted to double the space that goes past the coop.

Creating The Expansion

We purchased the lumber for it and repurposed some old tin that my parents had, which is the same tin we used to cover the first part of the run. We had plenty of sand for their litter on the original side, so I just scooped that shovel by shovel from one side to the other.

Next spring, we’ll work on landscaping around the coop, adding more sand, painting the hardware cloth black, and re-doing the gutter system. But it’ll work for now! The only thing left for this year is to wrap the run in plastic but that’s now a November chore.

Last Of The Flowers – October 2024 Homesteading Update

At the beginning of October, we were still able to enjoy some really pretty flowers. This will unfortunately be my last of the “flowers” sections of these updates likely until spring comes around again.

I’ve been collecting some of the strawflower blooms to dry out. The blooms will stay just as vibrant and beautiful as they did on the day they were picked, so that will be a fun addition to my desk for the wintertime.

I still have a few marigold plants that I left behind in the garden when we cleaned it out. I’m hoping they will dry out naturally a bit more so I can then save their seeds.

And, of course, the fall mums. I am in love with this particular mum’s blooms. They start out pure white and then start to have a yellow center. As the blooms age, the yellow fades and turns purple on the edges. It’s a really beautiful plant!

Sourdough & Some Recipes I’ve Made

As soon as the cooler weather hits, I try to get my sourdough starter woken up and back to being nice and bubbly. When I am not using her (her name is Doughlene, by the way), she stays in my refrigerator. After just a couple of feedings, she is back to doubling and I can use her for baking all sorts of goodies.

One of my favorites to make is sourdough bagels. I also tried making my late grandma’s sourdough bread recipe, but I need to tweek it a tiny bit before I post that recipe on here. Another new recipe I tried was a whole grain banana bread – one of my kids’ favorite treats.

I also started putting my dehydrator back to work. Some of the items on the list this month were banana chips, beef jerky (with a homemade marinade), and tomatoes. (Here’s the one I have and love – Product Link: COSORI 7-Tray Food Dehydrator)

Miscellaneous Pictures – October 2024 Homesteading Update

As usual, I’ll leave you with some miscellaneous homesteading pictures. I take so many different pictures throughout the month that it’s hard to get them all on just one post so I like to do a photo dump at the end of my updates.

First up are some antiques I purchased this month. I found a great vintage sieve that came with two wooden pestles and a stand. I also was able to purchase three Wagner cast iron skillets in great shape that match my late grandma’s skillet I restored (but are different sizes).

Next, I finally got around to packaging and labeling all of my saved seeds for this season. I have everything from different types of heirloom tomatoes to lots of flower seeds and even some onion and dill seeds. I’ll store those away for next year’s gardening season.

I made lots of apple recipes this month like homemade apple sauce and crockpot apple cider. Some I made with homegrown apples and some I had to do with with store-bought ones. Either way, I just love all the colors and different flavor profiles that each variety has!

All Things Fall

October is also a big month when it comes to my family. I grew up in a small farming family and we like to go to my parents’ house and help out when we can. The kids love to spend time with them this time of year.

And then just a couple of other random images from October I took. Between closing out the garden, adding on to the chicken run, getting ready for Halloween, and everything else in between, this month flew by. On to November!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!
– Chelsea

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