Officially Fall

The calendar says it is officially fall, but you wouldn't know it with the return of such warm temperatures. I lucked out and didn't lose my entire garden to frost, even though our thermometer read 31.5° last week. I think all the trees that surround my garden kept enough warmth in there to counteract the brief time it dipped below freezing. There were a few leaves on the pumpkins that curled and turned black. I'm really grateful it wasn't worse since I hadn't covered anything.

I'm still enjoying fresh tomatoes and husk cherries. I've canned three pints of a tomato/veggie sauce (it included an eggplant, a few carrots, onions, garlic, and a crookneck summer squash). Those were all drizzled with olive oil, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and shredded basil leaves, then oven roasted for several hours before being puréed for sauce I'll use in hot dishes this winter. While those were in the oven, I peeled the rest of my ripe tomatoes, then simmered them with chopped onions and a few garlic cloves. Those were also puréed and yielded another four pints of sauce. I'll probably use them for soups. There are lots of online recipes for canning tomatoes. I've shared a few in the past, so I'm not re-sharing today.

The deer are still visiting the garden daily. So far they haven't attacked the green beans. I think the husk cherry plants and dill surrounding that row have prevented discovery. They are eating the leaves off the scarlet runner beans though. As I'd thought they would, the beans produced another picking. I hope to get another soon for the other bean salad dish I want to make. I made the following recipe with this picking:

Citrus Carrot/Green Bean Salad

2 Tbl EVOO

1 1/2 C shredded carrots

1 shallot, chopped

1# green beans &/or wax beans, trimmed

1 lemon, zested & juiced

Blanch the beans over boiling water, to which you've added a tsp of baking soda, for 4 minutes. Remove from heat, rinse under cold water & drain. In a skillet, heat oil 30 seconds. Add carrots and shallot. Cook 1 minute or until shallots are soft. Add beans and cook another 2 minutes. Add 1 Tbl lemon juice and 1/4 tsp zest. Toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serves 6.

I didn't read carefully, and so I added all the zest and used bottled lemon juice. (I made lemonade with the lemon.) It didn't hurt the salad at all, in my opinion. I plan to add toasted nuts (probably chopped walnuts) and possibly some feta to my leftovers.

Another great summer salad recipe that I used recently (for my golf league banquet) featured wheat berries, corn, tomato, and peaches. This one will definitely get made again next summer. My corn crop was a bust, so I used frozen corn. I did have leftovers, and having the nuts already in the salad wasn't a problem. They stayed crunchy.

Summer Wheatberry Salad

1 C raw wheat

3/4 C fresh corn (1 ear)

3 Tbl fresh lemon juice

2 Tbl EVOO

1 tsp kosher salt

1 clove garlic, minced

1 C cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 C diced peaches

1/3 C green onion, sliced thin

3 Tbl fresh mint, chopped

1/3 C sliced almonds, toasted

Boil pot of salted water, add wheat and cook until tender, but still chewy, 15-18 minutes. Add corn, cook 2 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain well. Put in a large bowl. Combine juice, oil, salt, & garlic in a small bowl. Add to wheat with the rest, except nuts. Toss well to combine. Toss in almonds right before serving.

For once, I've managed to dig the gladioli bulbs before it froze hard. The Peruvian lilys are also out of the ground. All of these are "curing" in the garage. That will keep the deer from further leaf nibbling. Next week I'll get the tops lopped off, then they'll get bagged up in another potato sack. They'll be stored for the winter in the shop that is kept at 40° all winter. The dahlias still need to be dug. Those tubers will join the bulbs in the shop.

A few days ago, as I enjoyed my cup of tea after breakfast, a fox leapt up onto the front deck. He was trying to look in through the front door, but it was closed. So he came over to the windows right beside me, stood up against the frame, and peeped in. I'm pretty sure the early sun bouncing off the glass kept him from seeing me. I snapped a few photos before he moved off. He's been back a few times. We've seen him on the ring camera. The barn cats (not ours) that also wander through on occasion had best be wary. The fox is welcome to all the voles and mice he can catch. We do like seeing the wildlife so close.