Low Hanging

Yum!

More Yum!

Spicy green yum!

Healthy and spicy green yum!

One of the amazing things about gardening on the Lake Michigan shoreline is that we have a little micro-climate that supports growth long after things have frozen just a few miles west of us. Our everbearing raspberries are still bearing up a lot of fruit--about 2 full cups on Saturday, and we only have about a dozen plants. They are situated between our house and the fence of the house next door, a distance of about 6 feet. So not only has it only frozen twice this fall, they get heat radiated off the house to keep them growing.

Likewise, the arugula is still doing well. The sawhorses are covered by our white cold frame fabric when necessary (which has only been two nights so far). We hope to have it well into December, for a crisp green salad when our bodies need it most.

Bountiful Pantry

Here is our full pantry shelf. We (or rather, Tim) had time to can this fall.
The top shelf has dried cherry tomatoes in the white bin (a bumper crop!) and salsa to the right; just below that is dilly beans and pickles.
Here're all the canned stewed tomatoes. Not sure how we will manage to use all of these, since we also have a few gallons of pasta sauce in the freezer. And the vegetable delivery continues, bi-weekly, until Thanksgiving. Plus two cabbages and lots of arugula still out in the garden, and about 15 winter squash in the attic. We'll have plenty this winter!

Colorful Dinner

This is the vegetarian saute I made for dinner last night, and wrapped up in a tortilla with some corn salsa. Onions, red peppers, purple cabbage, and spinach, all from our CSA farm box from last week. I sauteed it in bacon fat. Is that so wrong? (the bacon was from the local Farmer's Market--maple cured with no nitrites. OK?)

First Frost!

I don't remember when this was last year, but this year we have a record of it. As soon as I hit publish.

Growth and Decay

Here are some lovely photos from August 15:




Hard to believe this is just 5 weeks ago. The garden is a mess now. The tomatoes have something that is making all the leaves turn brown and limp. It looks like they were hit with frost, but it hasn't been at all cold. I need to keep up better. But it was a lovely summer, cool and green, little rain in July, but plenty after that. Too cool for tomatoes. Not many this year, even though we planted a lot.

Tomatoes on the driveway

Here are the tomatoes which line our driveway. There used to be small shrubs all the way along here, which we took out to make room. This is looking east from the driveway.Click here for an earlier view, looking west, about 6 weeks ago.

Full garden views

Here's the garden, freshly weeded, from the west looking east: Here's the lettuce bed:

Here's a close-up of our new little tomatoes starting. They are about the size of grapes, but I think this variety is one that gets to be about the size of a tennis ball.

Garden looking west from the deck. Note fresh straw between the rows: