Fall Harvest

I just pulled up the last of the mammoth snow pea vines today. I should have done it weeks ago, but amazingly, some of them were still bearing until just recently. Even today, a couple of the vines were still green, and I pulled some fresh pods off them. Not very many, but still...snow peas in late September. I also harvested a bunch of lemon cucumbers and a few of the green spacemasters, which I'll pickle tomorrow.

I picked up most of the fallen yellow delicious apples from around the tree, most of which were still green and had codling moth damage. Then I washed them off and cut them apart, separating the good parts from the bad. At first, I thought it might be a case of diminishing returns, but as the good apple parts began to pile up in the pan, I realized that that wasn't the case. The good pieces/parts filled the large pan I had, and after I'd boiled them a while and put them through the Squeezo to remove the skins and turn them into sauce, I ended up with a quart and a half of applesauce. Not only that, but this applesauce tasted so good on its own that I added absolutely nothing to it. No sugar, no cinnamon--nothing but apples, cooked and strained, then cooked just a touch more. I didn't can it, but it'll keep just fine in the fridge and be eaten up soon enough; the kids have been asking for applesauce, and now they have some. I'm just glad that not all of the apples from our tree will have gone to waste after raising a new generation of codling moths.

I also brought in a decent-sized bowl of green beans, and there should be enough to can maybe a couple more quarts. We didn't get as many as I'd have liked, but on the other hand, we did eat a lot more fresh this year than we have in the past, and we still have plenty of canned quarts left over from last year's canning.

Tomorrow I need to hit the bigger part of the garden and get all the tomatoes that are ready--maybe enough to can a quart or two of sauce, or so I'm hoping. The aphids have decimated most of the volunteer kale, but I think there's one plant still in decent shape, and there's self-seeded baby spinach starting to grow in the spinach bed. I brought in a few more of our white carrots, and then had to cut the largest of the new Rosa Bianca eggplants, as it had grown so large and heavy that it pulled the plant over onto its side. I think it'll straighten up gradually, as there are two smaller eggplants forming over on the opposite side. This latest eggplant is even larger than the last one. I'd thought Rosa Biancas would be small to medium in size and more pink and white, but these are nearly as big as the standard large purple eggplants, and they're actually purple and white in color. I'm impressed at what we've gotten from just the three plants--well, technically just the one plant so far, but the other two are forming fruits as well. All told, I'm delighted and amazed by how much harvest we've gotten from our small garden, and how much I've actually been able to put away for winter. We'll still have to buy some things to put away and some to suppliment us this winter, but we've made a huge step in the right direction this year. I ended up harvesting, processing and cooking all evening, but given that it's the Autumnal Equinox and a harvest festival, it seems fitting.