Phew!

 

Frankly, I’m glad it’s almost over.

There are no more apples, peppers, or tomatoes to deal with. Bumper crops are wonderful, but contending with them takes a lot of time and effort. Fortunately, we have some willing recipients of some of our produce which both makes us feel generous and reduces the canning/freezing/dehydrating workload.

Despite several frosts there are still beet greens growing on a comically large, unpicked beet. The Swiss chard (a relative of beets) is also putting out new leaves from the base of the plants. The kale plants stand defiantly, daring us to cut them. Even the raspberries have a few more treats for us if we look carefully. Some spinach is growing from seeds that were left to grow after the plants bolted back in late June. We had a little pea plant growing near where the peas had been.

It’s time to put the garden to bed, but we are reluctant to cut down a lot of the dead things because the birds seem to be feasting on flower seeds and such. It’s also true that daylight is at a premium these days. No more gardening after dinner!

We still have carrots to pick, but we’re mostly done with the harvesting for the year. Now it’s time to get serious about eating what we’ve stored for the winter!