Moving into fall with a full garden

We had pre-Thanksgiving houseguests this last weekend. It was so rewarding to us to be able to walk into the garden and harvest food to feed them. Lettuce and cucumbers went into salads. Basil and oregano went into pizza, along with stored garlic and preserved tomatoes. Fresh rosemary, frozen carrots, stored onions and garlic went into the crockpot for Flemish Stew and a whole chicken. We didn’t get to it, but we could have cooked up peppers, green beans and/or edamame. What a joy this garden brings to our lives.

Soy beans on the left, bush beans on the right, pole beans in back.

The monarchs are still flitting around the butterfly weeds. Those, along with zinnias, marigolds, and pansies are still blooming away. The first freeze should put a stop to that in the next couple of weeks.

I also thought I would mention that there aren’t any monthly planting lists for November, December, or January. It’s time to relax and feast on the bounty. Aside from winter cleanup and hoarding leaves for compost, your garden chores should revolve around dreaming about next year’s plans. February will be here before you know it, and you’ll have to hop to it!

Bottling the goodness

Jan gets very, very distressed when food goes to waste. Well, not enough so that he cleans out the refrigerator. But when Ella wastes food, or when garden produce goes bad. So this year, for the first time, he’s made a concerted effort to learn to preserve what I grow. ‘Cause, you know, that’s not my job. I just grow the stuff. What I grow is not nearly as important as my being outside nurturing plants.

His first foray into preserving was the pesto. That was a resounding success. So he bought a pressure cooker/canner, and set about making sauces from all of the tomatoes that I’m bringing in from the fields.

A red sauce for pizza, using herbs and garlic from the garden. A green sauce from the White Currant tomatoes, as a spread and special pizza or pasta sauce. A ranchero sauce using our tomatoes and peppers that we picked up at the Farmer’s Market. We’re in sauce heaven.

For practice, Jan also canned some cherries from Whole Foods.

It all seems to have gone very well. But you don’t really know, do you, until you open the jars several months down the line? And I’m having a heck of a time explaining the whole concept to Ella. She’s really not sure why in the world we would have yummy food in jars, and not crack them open and eat them!