LAST OF GARDEN

Last week S. and I put most of the garden "to sleep."  We knew that frost was forecast for later that week, so we picked all of the tomatoes in the front garden.  We stripped the plants of green tomatoes, threw the plants onto a pile to go to the compost and carefully spread the green tomatoes on tables in the Sales Building, covering them with newspaper.  Did you know that you can keep green tomatoes covered in a cool place in the fall and they will gradually ripen?

On the table behind them under the old curtains (from the 70's, can't you tell) are boxes of potatoes and one box of carrots.  This building is not heated, but they will be good here for many weeks.  We'll just use them up as they ripen.  Here are two more tables of covered tomatoes:

                        

There were a lot of tomatoes in another bed in the back garden, but since we have probably more than enough tomatoes I convinced S. that we should just leave those other tomatoes.  If someone wants to come and pick them, they would be welcome.

Last Saturday I picked all the ears of corn that remained in the back garden.  We had been eating them for about two weeks and sharing the harvest with friends.  It was great corn!  I had been very disappointed that only 18 of the seeds I planted (out of 43) actually germinated and produced a plant, but OH MY! those plants!  They towered over my head and produced about 5 ears each!  There had been some frosts all right, but the corn still there was all right, so on Saturday I picked all that remained, blanched and cooled them and put them in the freezer.  There are 30 nice ears of corn in the freezer for eating later when there is no fresh corn available.

Today after the morning walk I pulled up the Fava Bean plants that remained in the front garden.  I stripped off the bean pods that seemed to have beans in them and threw the plants on the pile of wilted tomato plants, all destined for the compost pile.  The blue pail in the foreground holds the pods that have been picked.

                         

Here are the few remaining plants:

In the house I stripped off the pods and had a very modest amount of beans.  I started a pot of "vegetable stew" with some olive oil, chopped onions, a cut up mild Italian sausage, and garlic.  When that was sautéed I added some chopped tomatoes (skin removed), the beans and a zucchini that I picked this morning.  That didn't look like enough for dinner, so I got out a package of Bear Creek minestrone soup, added the water and stirred that in. Some frozen corn kernels would be good in that. Just before we eat I'll add one can of beans in sauce.  That, plus the cheese biscuits that I made on Saturday and we'll have just the right meal for a cold, damp, cloudy day!