Fall takes Hold

Usually, I am not a fall season girl.  Summer is my time of the year.  Spring is a close second.  Winter is for cocoa, cider, fireplaces and hibernation.  Fall is ragweed, goldenrods, and razor dry air.  This fall has been no exception.  However, what is different this year is that I am newly inspired to get my kids to take advantage of a fleeting few weeks of nice outdoor weather that bridge the unbearable heat to southerners freezing our a**es off.  Perhaps my son joining the Cub Scouts has also fueled this.  He has his first overnight camping trip in a couple weeks, so we broke out the tent and sleeping bags last night, and he and Jon spent the night under the tent under the stars in our front yard.  They came in around 7:30 this morning after the birds woke them and went back to bed upstairs, but that's nature for ya.
This afternoon we went to a fly fishing clinic in a beautiful nature preserve.  Only Jon got the hang of slinging the fly rod, but we all got a few casts in and enjoyed some beautiful weather.

The garden is also slowly growing; it's definitely not the summer time trailblazing growth.  It's a more subtle development.  The roots have taken hold, there is a new set of leaves; the grape tomatoes and eggplant still grow slowly.  The basil hangs on.  My reluctance to cut down the bloomed stems eggs on the remaining bumblebees to continue to pollinate.  The days may be waning but nature pushes forward.

Fall Preview

Since I have been grounded from travel this week due to inadequate after hours child care status, I have had a lot of time to enjoy the waning days of Indian summer and the burgeoning of fall all the while getting a lot of badly needed office work done.  Being grounded rocks.
Today I spent almost 3 hours rooting out big chunks of weeds and spent summer vegetable plants from the main garden.  I saw a black widow spider and discussed how to tell the difference between a venomous and non-venomous snake while on the phone with a New England friend.  Gratified in my work done, I ventured to the fav garden store to supplement the fall garden.  Lettuces already in the works, I'm going to try some rainbow swiss chard, broccoli and cauliflower, and some beets - only 2 each of the last 3 items.  Last years cauliflower grew to the size of a peach and then just quit on us.  Beets - well I am just skeptical.
Anyhoo, just get yer-selves ready for next week's preview pics.  And I am still waiting on recipes, folks.  Let's go for something with the swiss chard or beets.  I think I can figure out the rest.

Woohoo - Fall! And Regret.

Today was not the first day of fall, but it sure felt like it here - only a few days late.  We've been waiting and waiting and waiting for the cooler weather.  25 days of September had highs in the 90s.  Yes, today is the 27th - so we had the 4th hottest September in 70 something years.  But the cool weather instantly inspired all things fall for me.  I cooked a big pot of chili heating my kitchen back up the 90 degrees that I escaped just yesterday. I started thinking about squash and apples and Chinese hot pot.   I wore long sleeves and steadfastly refused to push them up when the kitchen got said hot.  We opened the windows.
So, while I was stirring my big pot of black bean chili (with some eggplant sneaked in for veggie bulk), I looked at my can of roasted tomatoes.  And I felt regret for the end of tomato season.  Oh sure, I can get tomatoes at the supermarket year round, but, seriously, it just ain't the same.  And then I realized that there will be no more peaches, no more zucchini, no more blueberries, no more super succulent, sweet and tender corn on the cob.  I am so sad.  Like then end of a summer time fling, I leave summer satisfied, but secretly long for one more kiss from a sun drenched Caprese salad.  Rats.  I guess that is the beauty of eating seasonally.  We enjoy the best of the best, and then they leave us wanting more, waiting in anticipation for the next first fresh taste.
Oh well, on to fall.  Autumn is fledgling here.  Send me your favorite fall recipes, please.

Fall is Coming, I Swear!

I've been feeling the first inkling of fall coming.  When I let the dogs out in the morning, the air is actually not muggy.  The highs are below 90 degrees.  I actually feel like looking at something long sleeved.  Yep, fall is on the way.  The over grown garden is in emergency need of a weed-ectomy.  And once a harvest has happened, I'm not very good at removing the dying plants.  But here is my first inkling of fall:  sweet potatoes!!  This was pulled from 2 plants.  We are baking them tonight as company to shrimp pasta with home grown basil and anchovy a plenty.  I don't think I've ever had a sweet potato fresh from the ground a la Scarlett O'Hara.  I'll let you know how it goes.

And Down Comes the Rain

Woohoo!  There have been fantastic rains followed by nice periods of bright sun for 2 weeks.  The garden is prospering for the most part, and I am stoked!  I have lots of great pics to share with you.  Check out the corn!  Wow is all I can say.  I am pretty impressed - especially with the fact that this has taken very little effort up to this point.  We are even doing a great job of feeding the birds and squirrels our ripened strawberries.  Jon built a chicken wire coop around the berries the other week, and lo and behold, a few days later, we come back to find a spot where the "fence" had been slightly raised and half a giant red strawberry gone.  Really - it went under the coop.  And why did it eat only half the strawberry??  Would it not be more prudent, if you were already stuck under the coop, to go ahead and eat or take the whole thing?  Stupid smart squirrels.

I am thinking, and certain people are telling me, that we got too late a start on the sugar snap peas.  That is the plot that we worked the least, so the weeds seem to out number the plants about 50:1 right now.
So, what do you think, anyone?  Do we try to let it ride or rip them out and wait for late summer to start working on some fall tasties?  I was thinking about some bok choi or this Chinese spinach like thing called Gai Lan.  I'd love to hear some other ideas.

But back to the gardening.  You will see, I have a lot of dill coming out.  I had 4 plants last year, and it just seeded like crazy!  The basil did not seed as aggressively, but I still have about 6 or 7 little beauties coming out in the plot in our front yard.  I'm already thinking about some homemade pickles and gravalax and salmon with dill cream, . . . and I have no idea what else I can do with dill.  Perhaps dill zucchini, because that is the first veg I see coming.  So beautiful.  I can't wait.