Late Harvest Creations.

It is October. The sun is dipping lower in the sky and the days are shorter. Because we live in the pacific northwest fall means less sun and a return to the rainy season.

With less sun on the garden, many things aren't growing any bigger. Tomatoes aren't ripening on the vine. Melons that got a late start won't ever get big enough to eat. But, I am not willing to just let it all go. For me, the challenge is to find ways to use what we have. Tomatillos, green tomatoes, onions and the last of the green chiles will become sauce for enchiladas and whatever else this winter. Squash will get roasted and turned into a puree for soups. Same with pumpkins.

The cabbages like the cool weather and will be ready to harvest soon. The heads are dense and look lovely. i am bound and determined to make kim chi with some of it. I am not sure what to do with the rest to preserve it. We still have carrots and kale that will come into their own before the first frost and will be added to a stew, I am sure.

The chickens are giving us at least one egg a day and I have hopes that before the winter comes rolling in there will be more than one in the nesting boxes in a day.

This garden has been a refuge for Jenn and I this summer. We are already planning our cover crops, talking about what to do different next year, and plans for expanding the chicken run in the spring. Just because the growing season is over doesn't mean the work is done.

Two Eggs...

Although the laying isn't consistent yet, when whomever does lay is laying, double yolks seem to come up rather often. Eggs come about every other day and we have given some to two friends who have helped us maintain this urban farm through all the surgeries and treatments.

The yolks aren't as orange as I would like, but the girls are young. I tired a bite of one this morning and they taste great. I had been a bit squeamish about eating the eggs for some reason. Like, I might be eating Dolly's unfertilized baby. weird, I know, but it has passed.

In preparation for winter, we are squirreling away food. I've never canned or made pickles or jelly or jam but with all the food we've grown, there has been plenty to practice on. I did peeled tomatoes with basil and a few jars of pickled beans today. Tomorrow, I'll chop and seed some heirlooms and freeze them. We are trying many methods of food preservation to include drying herbs, and Roma tomatoes. I can see myself using them with pasta around January when tomatoes in the market taste like paper. Next week, I'll harvest cabbage and attempt a kim chi. After that, who knows. There are pumpkins still growing, squash, and so many more beans that we if we can them all, we can be eating green beans everyday for months!

Jenn has worked hard to make the farm produce, and I've kicked in some too. We did what we set out to. Grow food, share it with friends, and have a steady and healthy supply of organic food for ourselves. Does it get any better than that!

This is crazy

I knew that we would get a bountiful harvest. I know we would have good food to share with friends. I knew there would be enough to can and preserve and turn into pickles, but I did not realize just how much food a 10 by 25 foot piece of ground could produce. We have not had a need to go to the farmer's market in nearly a month and the only thing we really buy at the store are spinach and oranges.

The chickens have yet to lay an egg. I know it will come in the middle of September. That's my non-educated guess.

Jenn maed plum preserves that didn't quite set up, but it will make for nice syrup, a part of a compote, and I'm betting it will be good on vanilla bean ice cream or pound cake or angel food cake, or a whole lot of things. The grapes we harvested from the alley have been cooked and are draining nicely thru the cheese cloth and it will be jelly time this evening.

I am working on pickling, cukes, green beans, and I think I am going to do a jalapeno and Thai chile mix.

Seeds are still be harvested and dried for next year, and we bought a pink toilet to plant with herbs and flowers. A not real pig named Charlotte has been added to the artscape.

Stop by sometime, sit a minute and take in the beauty. You never know what you will find. This morning it was baby lady bugs!

And, Now.... Produce!

It seemed silly to write just because. I could have said, "still growing" about a million times. Flowers, vegetables, and the yardbirds. Just couldn't make my self do it. I wanted ti be able to say that the bounty is upon us. That we are giving food away because we cannot eat as much as this garden is producing. WE ARE THERE PEOPLE!

The corn is sweet and lovely. Tomatoes are slowly ripening on the vine. Zukes and squashes and blueberries and beans and snap peas and lettuces and even cucumbers have been plucked from their stems. Salsa has been made. Zukes have been grilled. Tomatillos and onions and tomatoes have been turned into a blended sauce for chicken or enchiladas. Salads have been made with radishes and onions and carrots that were in the ground about fifteen minutes before they hit the taste buds. Basil and parsley are standing by to be mixed with nuts and lemon and cheese and oil for a pesto of sorts.

I am swimming in the delights of our hard work and there is more to come. We have melons, and pumpkins and a second round of spinach and chard and broccoli out there. Gourds will soon be large enough to be dried and turned into bird houses to placed in the garden next spring. The cabbages are starting to have real head in their centers and slaw is in our future to go with the slow cooked pork I have promised my friends I would cook when it cools off a bit.

Soon, there will be enough sage and thyme and rosemary and oregano and lavender to dry for winter. Who could ask for anything more. Ok, we could ask for the chickens to lay some eggs, but they aren't old enough yet. Soon, though, soon.

Pretty Pictures Tell The Story, Don;t they?

Too tired from hospital visits, and wounds, and swelling and ultra sounds to write, but wanted very much to put some photos up for folks to see.

Jenn and Donna have created an edible paradise and I love them for doing what I cannot do right now. Oh, and the chickens are nearly full grown and ready to lay eggs.

I am grateful for the abundance we have, the lessons we've learned and the seeds that will become the fall harvest. Onward we go!

WOW...

What a little love and some caring from the women who tend this plot. It is so lush and lovely out there. The corn is nearly chest high. EVERYTHING is thriving, except the broccoli. Most of it already went to seed. We will see what happens to the rest of it.

So, not time for many words today, but here are photos.... they say more than I ever could.