The morning dew becomes cold on Saint Bartholomew’s Day. Tomorrow will be the day of Saint Bartholomew. He was one of Jesus’ twelve apostles. It is a legend that on his special day, the dew’s of summer mornings begin to turn cold. This is a solemn, subtle sign that autumn is sneaking up on us.

My Northampton County grandma who kept up with August fogs to calculate snows and their amounts was also in the mornings of August in the days after Saint Bartholomew’s Day. The number of cold dew’s would determine how much and how many ice and sleet events the winter would produce. The heavy dew’s of late August pave the way for the frosts in October and November, and farther down the road ice, sleet, and frozen mud holes. This must have been what grandma had in mind as she did the math on the dew’s during the month that followed Saint “Bart’s” Day.

Legend does say the dews of mid-August get heavier and cooler. We have to guess that her formula was the cooler and heavier the dews, the greater the odds of how much ice, sleet, and frozen precipitation we would receive. We are glad that on her busy day, she had time to check out the dew.

Keep feeding your late, late tomato crop. The late, late tomato plants are enjoying relief from the days of Dog Day heat that are now in the past. They still have a lot of warm days left to produce plenty of red and green tomatoes to ripen in the house after frost comes. Keep them watered with the water wand in shower mode when it does not rain for a few days. Keep late tomatoes fed with Tomato-Tone organic tomato food or Vigaro tomato food with calcium and pull up soil on both sides of the plants to cover the vegetable food.

Setting out a row or bed of onion sets. As we move toward the end of the month of August, the soil is ready for setting out a row or bed of onion sets for a harvest all the way until next spring. Most nurseries, hardware stores, and seed stores now have onion sets in white, yellow, and red for less than $3 a pound. Sow onions in a furrow about four inches deep and three to four inches apart. Set them root side down in the furrow and cover the sets with a layer of peat moss and then a layer of Plant-Tone organic vegetable food. Hill up soil on each side of the furrow and tamp down with the hoe blade. Water every five days when no rain falls. Side dress with Plant-Tone every 15 days. Once the onions sprout place a layer of crushed leaves between the rows to keep soil warm and protected from frost at a later date.

Planting a row or bed of mustard greens. As we near the close of August, it is the ideal time to sow a row or bed or patch of mustard greens or mixed greens for an autumn and winter harvest. Notice that we said a winter harvest. Yes; you can enjoy a winter harvest if you cover the greens with a layer of crushed leaves on both sides of the row or bed before a heavy frost or ground freeze. Crushed leaves will not be blown away by the winds and will insulate the sod in the row or bed. You can sow curly mustard in a row or bed by itself of you can choose from a mix of rape, mustard, kale, broadleaf, tendergreen, spinach and turnip. All these varities cost the same per ounce and can be mixed in any ratio you prefer.

Plant seed in a furrow and cover with a layer of peat moss, (this will give cool weather soil a good texture when the frost and freezes arrive). It will also provide better water retention. Cover peat moss with an application of Plant-Tone organic vegetable food before hilling up soil on both sides of the furrow. Side dress every fifteen days with Plant-Tine and hill up soil after each application. Apply the later of crushed leaves before a heavy frost arrives.

Late August rains have paved way for the cool weather vegetables. Not only are the dews of August heavy, but late August showers also helping ready soil for cool weather vegetable crops. Turnips can be sown as well as greens, onion sets, collards, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, Siberian Kale, and curly mustard. Place a layer of peat moss in all furrows when you sow or plant cool weather vegetables to improve soil texture, retain moisture and promote germination.

Use Black Kow on autumn vegetables. Black Kow composted cow manure cost a little more than $5 for a 25-pound bag and will work wonders on the cool weather vegetable crops. Just spoon it in the furrow on top of peat moss and seeds for quick response. It works well to promote growth of larger turnips. You can purchase this product in 50-pound bags but it is harder to handle and move around the garden plot.

Kale is now becoming America’s favorite green. Kale is becoming popular because it has so many uses. You can make a sweet salad with its leaves or chop or grate and grind it into slaw or cook it as a pot of greens. It is very winter-hardy and can be harvest when temperatures are freezing or even when snow covers them. The very best variety of kale is Siberian Kale but there are also several other varieties that are also good producers. An ounce of kale costs about the same as other greens. Sow in a furrow and plant as you would any other greens.

Keep feeding the cool weather turnip row or bed. If you haven’t already done so, turnips should be planted soon because as a root crop, they need time to develop large turnips. If your turnips have already sprouted, side dress them every 15 days with Plant-Tine organic vegetable food and hill up soil on each side of the row. You can also give them a drink of Miracle-Grow in a sprinkling can of water and pour around base of the turnip plants.

Christmas cactus thrive on the front porch. The Christmas cactus are thriving on the front porch in a semi-sunny location. They do not like direct sunlight because it will cause their foliage to turn red. These cactus are more than 10 years old. We have two new ones that are red in color that we rooted in December and are now in containers and hopefully on their way to blooming in late November.

You can root a Christmas cactus by placing a shoot in a bud vase or bottle filled with water and place where it is semi-sunny. Keep bottle or vase filled with water. It will sprout roots in about two weeks. Leave in bottle until roots reach out toward bottom. You can later transplant it into a container of Miracle-Gro cactus-citrus potting medium. The secret of blooms in November and December is to place cactus outside in a semi-sunny location and feed once a month with Flower-Tone organic flower food. Water once a week. Bring them back inside the house in late October before first frost arrives.

Harvesting the sweet and bell peppers and freezing them. During the late days of August and all the way until frost, the green bell peppers and hot cayenne peppers will be producing their harvest. Bell peppers are easy to prepare and freeze. They come in handy in winter for recipes such as baked beans, spaghetti sauce, chili beans, hot dog chili, and other recipes. All you have to do is harvest the peppers, wash them, cut open, and remove seeds. Cut into quarter inch or smaller pieces and place in quart or pint plastic containers and place in the freezer. Whenever a recipe calls for green peppers, shake the amount of peppers while still frozen into the recipe and close the container. For hot dog chili, you can run peppers through the blender in “grate” mode while peppers are still frozen.

Freezing peppers in summer will save a lot of prep time when you use peppers for recipes during winter. You can freeze hot cayenne peppers the same way but use latex protective gloves to prevent burning your hands. Another way to prepare cayenne peppers is the old-fashioned method of using a needle and thread and string the red cayenne’s one at a time on the string and hanging it in a dry lighted area.

Making a bowl of baked beans. You can make a meal with a bowl of baked beans on a mid-summer afternoon. This recipe is truly a meal in a bowl. You will need one pound of bacon, one pound of Jimmy Dean mild sausage or ground round, two can of Van Camp pork and beans, one large bell pepper (grated in blender), one stick light margarine, one two ounce jar diced pimentos (drained), one fourth cup light brown sugar, two teaspoons of yellow mustard, half teaspoon Texas Pete, three tablespoons catsup, half teaspoon apple cider vinegar and one tablespoon barbeque sauce.

Broil bacon until crisp and break into small pieces. If you use sausage, fry, drain and mash or break into small pieces. If you use ground round, boil until tender and mash into pieces. Melt margarine and fry the grated peppers and onions in the margarine. Mix all other ingredients, mix in the meats. Pour into a 13x9x2 inch baking dish or pan sprayed with Pam baking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Sprinkle finely shredded cheese on top.

Hoe-Hoe-Howdown: “Senior Moments” While on a vacation trip, an elderly couple stopped at a restaurant on Interstate 77 to eat lunch. After they finished their meal, the wife left her glasses on the dining room table, but she did not miss them until they were several miles down the interstate. By that time, the husband had to drive another mile or two to exit. Her husband griped, fussed, and complained all the way back to the restaurant. He criticized his wife for her carelessness, forget-fullness, and thoughtless act. When they finally arrived at the restaurant, and the wife left the car to retrieve her glasses, her crow-eating husband said “While you are in there, get my hat!”