The end of the garden season is basically here. Frosts are starting to come around here. Last week a couple of light frosts caught me unaware. Thank-fully they were light so the didn't hurt much of the fruit (though many tomatoes were ruined and the basil is all shriveled up) but many of the plants had died. Tonight another frost is predicted and I decided that it was time to pretty much clean out the garden.
When I headed out I asked Jonathan and Megan to come and help me as neither one seemed to busy. It was quite nippy out (I was wearing 3 layers on top) and Megan came out dressed like this:
She seemed to think that the addition of a scarf would keep her warm.
Jonathan wasn't all that excited about working outside this afternoon so after I dug a few (volunteer) potatoes I sent him in to scrub them for our supper. He enjoys working in the kitchen more than the garden generally.
We don't grow our own potatoes as we are able to glean them but it was fun to have some volunteers this year that we could dig up. (They came up around our compost bin.) It is quite nice to have them as we did run out of potatoes already and haven't gleaned more yet for this year.
Our sunflowers grew this year to the tallest height that we have ever had. They tower far above our heads. Sunflowers are very fun!
This year we grew some corn for grinding that is colorful. We are totally loving looking at all the variety! We are curious if we are going to have some very pretty cornbread once we grind it up. We didn't harvest much of that today as we figure the frost will only help it to dry more.
Megan did mind some warmer clothes to wear and had fun helping to pick things in the garden. She was all excited to find a small squash and can't wait to eat it. I really will have to remember to fix it for her. Since Ken and I don't like squash eaten as a vegetable (we love it however in pies, breads and other desserts) I don't think to fix it for my kids but Megan and Jonathan really like it.
Mara came out to help with the harvesting too. She loves harvesting as much as I do.
Megan's basket of goodies.
Aaron helped to pick a bunch of tomatillas (which if you have any good ideas for using them all I would love to hear!) and some broccoli.
Today's haul:
I don't think this end of season harvest is as big as it has been sometimes since we have had a dry year and problems with our sprinkler system but it is a nice lot of food added on top of a bunch of food that we have already harvested. We have been blessed! I think gardening is totally worth it!
Our supper was one of those simple and lovely meals that come mostly from the garden. We enjoyed the last of the corn on the cob, hamburger soup with tomatoes, onions, zucchini, potatoes and parsley from our garden (and garlic from my parents garden), homemade bread with honey butter (honey from our bees) and then tea made from mint and borage from our garden and sweetened with our honey. We also enjoyed a centerpiece of garden flowers.
We do still have carrots, some dry corn, cabbage and a few odds and ends to harvest but mostly the garden is done for the season. Sometimes it is hard to see a season end but all in all I do love the seasons!
How is your garden doing?
When I headed out I asked Jonathan and Megan to come and help me as neither one seemed to busy. It was quite nippy out (I was wearing 3 layers on top) and Megan came out dressed like this:
Jonathan wasn't all that excited about working outside this afternoon so after I dug a few (volunteer) potatoes I sent him in to scrub them for our supper. He enjoys working in the kitchen more than the garden generally.
This year we grew some corn for grinding that is colorful. We are totally loving looking at all the variety! We are curious if we are going to have some very pretty cornbread once we grind it up. We didn't harvest much of that today as we figure the frost will only help it to dry more.
Today's haul:
We do still have carrots, some dry corn, cabbage and a few odds and ends to harvest but mostly the garden is done for the season. Sometimes it is hard to see a season end but all in all I do love the seasons!
How is your garden doing?
Wow that was a fantastic haul! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteNo frost here yet. The garden was not too great this year - I was happy for my CSA!
Here in PA the weather is quickly cooling ... since a heavy rain was expected today, we picked the rest of our tomatoes yesterday. We ended up with a big bin of green ones so we're trying to ripen them in a box with newspaper ~ hope it works because the homemade spaghetti sauce we tried this year is delicious!!
ReplyDeleteStill have sweet potatoes and peanuts in the garden ~ and some late zucchini we planted that I don't think is even going to come up. Oh and there are still some pepper plants up close to the house that are producing.
We've had a great garden year!
Loved the photos of your children and garden!
ReplyDeleteOur garden? Oh here in the south we're starting a winter garden. : )
The only way I used tomatillas when I grew them was for chili Verde sauce. It takes green tomatoes so it would be a good way to use them as well.
ReplyDeleteThe only way I use chili Verde sauce is to make chili Verde which is a soup with pork, potatoes and carrots and zuchinni. Very yummy!