KC's Pumpkin/the Garden

Here is KC and his pumpkin, which he grew from a seed in a tiny cup. This boy is going to be a gardener like his MorMor, I swear! Hard to believe it was time to harvest it already...

This year our community garden was such a blessing to me. Not only did I prove to my fellow gardeners that I CAN garden (last year's garden fell to weed-choked ruin when I hurt my back and could not work there most of the summer), and I've had so many tomato recipes to bottle and freeze.

Made yet another batch of red sauce on Saturday. It simmers on the back of the stove for hours and hours (after about 2 hours of prep peeling and chopping!) and we ate some tonight. Some more will be for lasagne later this week...it's going to cool down quite a bit by the end of th week, and the rest I will freeze. I have 25 cups frozen already and this batch made 30 cups. I still need to make salsa for my brother, but the garden production is coming way down, the end of the season is in sight. Only 3 more weeks for our CSA, too. We'll start getting the winter squashes in over the next few weeks.

Trees in our yard and in the neighborhood are looking a lot like that CVS commercial where a hand splashes the green leaves with red...there's dots and dashes of red all over the treescape. A dab or two of orange and yellow, and the constant ping! Pop! as nuts and seed pods fall to earth (ping when the maple starts hit the roof of the camper!). Chipmunks are screaming at each other in the backyard, jays are zipping here and there hiding their caches of food...and so many of the summer birds have been gone for weeks. Haven't seen or heard the bluebirds at the garden (on a hill top) for the last 10 days or so. Between the tropical rain we had last week and the cool weather, I think they, too, have fled southwards.

We may not be heading south, but we will be prepared for this winter in our freezer and pantry! Thanks be to the goddess and the earth spirits for all the bounty that we have harvested this summer!