Summer has arrived

I've been enjoying plenty of greens from the garden this year, including spinach, arugula, cress, scapes, and herbs, but now the better days begin. The small tomatoes are starting to come off my plants and the big guys will follow. Also, my garlic patch is near ready to dig up. A few garlicy friends from last year's location decided to grow this year. I hadn't been taking care of them because I wasn't sure who they were, but they did alright on their own. Here are a few. I was happy to see that the red variety was growing because I forgot to save some of those to plant again this year. I'll be more careful this time.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Another successful year. I contributed some standard favorites - sweet potato casserole, orange sweet potato cups, macaroni and cheese, cranberry sauce, dried cranberry and plum challah, dressing, teas, a peanut butter pie, and - of course - the turkey. And I did it with only one fire this year!! Each year I like to try something new and this year's new addition was a local turkey!!. I bought it from the Mennonites who live in Antietam Battlefield and they processed it for me the day before I picked it up. What a beaut! She was a 18.5 lb gem who thankfully fit into the oven in just a way that I could get another dish in there to bake at the same time. Here are some photos of part of the spread. We also enjoyed a delicious spicy spinach artichoke dip, asparagus, spinach salad, blue hubbard squash soup, tomato tart, broccoli slaw, yam salad, mashed potatoes, Hütte peach cobbler, apple crisp, pecan pie, red velvet brownies, and some delicious wines. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Radishes - Chinese Red Meat

I was very excited to grow these puppies in the garden this year and finally it cooled enough to make it happen. I still have a small copse of these guys in the yard. I'm borrowing that term from the tree world. The growing process was curious. They first grew with small red roots growing above ground. Then they grew fat and seemed to bury into the ground, at which point they turned green on the outside. I couldn't wait to cut into them - and look how pretty!

Table updates

I was in NYC for a couple of days, so the new table was put on hold. Here is what I was able to get to today and then another photo of how it will potentially look with the top boards on it.

It's November

and here's what's up. I began building a farm table for my kitchen using plans from a blog that my sister loves. Here's a photo after the initial steps. At this time I was cooking, building, grading, and preparing food for the freezer. I've been freezing soups and greens - bok choi, chard, radish greens, turnip greens, and some other special things that I don't know what to call but I bought them at the market. Can you see all the activity in the photo?

And here are some radishes and bok choi I harvested today.

Peacherine

Here's a little Joplin to start the day.

Other delights

Every day I pick something from the garden and eat it with a meal. Here are some photos of a few fall gems, including bok choi, mustard, spinach, and radishes. And in case you haven't noticed, my blog posts photos in the reverse order from how I upload them.