Last Harvest

While we harvested the garden several weeks ago, before a freeze was forecast, the kale kept growing and I cut the last stalks of that just a day ago. By the time the middle of October rolls around, we're a bit tired of maintaining the garden and look forward to taking a break for a few months in the winter. Then the cycle starts again in early spring– too early for planting yet– when we start dreaming of the upcoming gardening season and can't wait to get started. Thank goodness for a fallow season so we can gather our energy for the summer garden!

The evening of the first possible light freeze, I decided to go out and pick vegetables rather than cover everything. We've gotten better and better at getting as much ripeness out of the plants, from defoliating tomatoes in September, to letting green beans and peppers begin to dry on the vine two weeks before the average frost date, encouraging the last young beans to finish ripening. The weather was deliciously crisp that evening, and everything still looked green, though there were signs of frost all over the next morning.

The dog is a great companion in the garden and loves fresh-pick vegetables. He follows me around whenever I'm harvesting so he can eat under-ripe tomatoes, over-ripe tomatoes, and tough green beans and sugar peas. He even relishes fresh picked tomato horn worms!

I filled the dining room table with all that I had picked that evening and the previous few days: mint, sugar pumpkins, butternut squash, jack-be-littles, lemon balm, chard, green tomatoes, red tomatoes, eggplant, green beans and kale. We dehydrated and froze and ate like mad for the next week. YUM!