Final Harvest

Now that it is truly fall, and the weather is getting cooler, the final harvest from the garden has been done. Many tomatoes, jalapenos, habaneros, and ground cherries have been obtained. Some of the tomatoes are green, as they were rescued from the early frosts.


Additionally, a trip to the apple orchard was made to obtain apples for sauce, and apples for eating. This year I got Empires for eating and McIntosh for sauce. I got an excellent deal on the sauce apples - $12 for 20lb of apples! I generally do not put sugar in my applesauce, as I figure most of the recipes I use it in call for sugar anyway. And the people who eat it direct can have it tangy, as I like it, or add a bit of sugar to taste. Making applesauce is surprisingly easy - if you have a food mill, that is. Just wash the apples, chunk them into pieces (I like eighths.), put in a pot and boil with a little water until they are very soft. Run them thru the food mill, skins and seeds and all, and presto! you have applesauce. Yum!!

So, here is what the final harvest looked like.


It includes the above-mentioned tomatoes and peppers. We also harvested, and I canned, a ton of green beans. I am sure my mother is still wondering how she ended up with a child that LOVES green beans, particularly the canned variety, when she has abhorred them since Day One.

A Hike in the Woods

Today we took a short drive from our Small Town to one of the county parks. It is about a 15min drive on a Very Windy Road and has a lake to see. It is also has available trails for cross-country skiing with snow. We decided to hike some of the trails, so that I could see what they would be like for skiing on in a few months.


Off we started on the hike. It was lightly raining, but we were dressed well, so it was not too cold. And the overcast skies made for nice picture taking. The leaves were all kinds of colors - which was part of my reason for going on a hike. The changing of the leaves is amazing anew every year.











It is so interesting to see the different colors, textures, and shapes of the leaves that fall.

Near the end of the trails (we took trails 1, 4, and 3) you could go up some man-made steps to a tiny chapel in the woods. The chapel was built in the mid-1800s by German immigrants. It is a tiny room, only about 4x10, with a ceiling maybe only 6ft high. Even I had to stoop to get into the door. There is also a great view of the lake that the park is named for:


Of course, we could not have such an easy day of hiking... On the way out of the chapel, we discover that someone has no idea where their cell phone is. In the car? Nope. So off we go again on the trails to play detective and find the cell phone. Which is a dark grey. Not much darker than a wet trail with leaf cover.

And, we have to be somewhere for dinner, and are meant to bring a dessert. Steps are retraced for about 1/4 of the hike, then we decide to try the parking lot as much donning and doffing of attire was done here prior to the hike. Phone is not in the car, nor near the place we stopped to look at the map. It is also not by the lake, or on the path up to the top of the ridge. No, the phone was found (Yay!) after rehiking 2/3 of our original path.

In short, we did a 2hr hike twice in 3hrs. Definitely got good exercise for the day.

And we got to dinner on time, having made No-crust Apple Pie for our dessert. Yum. It was determined by all who ate, that a repeat of the dessert shall be had at some point.

Stocking Up!

So far this season, I have produced in my kitchen:

Jelly, grape variety - 15 jars

Juice, also grape variety - 3.5 quarts (mostly because I was getting sick of jelly)

Salsa - 8 pints (with more coming as tomatoes/jalapenos ripen)

Venison chili - 5.5 quarts

Pasta Sauce, red variety - 12 pints

Crushed tomatoes, yellow variety - 5 pints (or so, as I had to use jelly jars for some of it)

Pesto Sauce - 15 cubes (ice cube-sized), not in picture, as they are frozen


Doesn't it all look beautiful all stacked together? Along with a few items not yet put up - namely more beans! and also tomatoes, sweet peppers, jalapeno peppers, and a lone habanero.