First snow of the winter

We have probably 15 inches of snow at our house now, as a result of two storms last weekend. Here are some shots:

In just a few months, this area will be filled with tulips, hyacinths and daffodils!



And soon spring crops will be growing here, spinach, lettuce, etc.



This will be home to tomatoes, zucchini, etc.



Next year we'll see daffodils, hyacinths, day lilies, yarrow, creeping phlox and hydrangeas here:





And come summer we'll have pots of basil, rosemary, oregano and thyme here along with hanging baskets overflowing with bright, sun-loving flowers!



Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! See you in 2009!

Pumpkin pie and apple butter

We still have plenty of apples in the downstairs fridge, even after making this, apple butter:





And my first pumpkin pie, from roasted local pumpkin! It was delish, and I hope will be just as good when I make one for Thanksgiving on Wednesday.

Mmm...apples

Today I made my first apple pie completely from scratch. It's not too pretty to look at, but it certainly smelled good while it was baking. We haven't eaten any yet, but I will be eating a slice later tonight!



Heart shaped produce is fun!



I picked red cabbage, lettuce, brussel sprouts and some more carrots from the vegetable garden today. I'm not sure Steve will blog these or not, so I'll put them here, just in case!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner!

It's election day!

I'm putting up two posts today, so there is one new one below this one in case you didn't catch that. :-)

We've had frost, but I don't think we've had a hard freeze yet. This past weekend I finally did some work in the gardens. I cleaned things up, cut things back, and planted mums, asters and bulbs. Hopefully the mums and asters will make it through the winter to next year.



I added bulbs on the west, front side of the house to try and balance things out. Hopefully next Spring I'll have a shot of tulips, grape hyacinths and daffodils here!



Some things on the patio have not been hit by frost - one impatiens, a firecracker fuscia, and the eucalyptus.



The Japanese maple out back looks nice!



And this is that bush that has great little white flowers in the spring.



And the miscanthus looks pretty good, too! I should move these out from behind the Rose of Sharon.



The herbs are still doing okay, and it's going to be in the 60's the next few days, so I haven't done anything with them yet.



The Tabasco peppers were just ripening when it got cold, but we still got a few red ones! When Caleb and Ethan were here, Caleb ate one! He suffered for it, and ate another one two days later, the crazy kid.

October Update

Apples and carrots were in full force in October. Steve peeled, sliced, blanched and froze a few bags of carrots so we'll have them for soups and stews and side dishes this winter.



And I made applesauce. We have 20 more lbs of apples in the fridge downstairs, I'm going to make pie and hopefully apple butter next weekend.

Oops...bad blogger

Has it really been (more than) a month?! Sorry about that... Things were pretty status quo in the gardens in September, and now things are fading, dying back, going dormant. No real frost or freeze yet, but I'm sure it will come soon. Steve and I were talking in the car today on the way to pick apples (yum - cider donuts!) and I realized that I probably spent more time this summer in the kitchen then in the garden. In the past I would spend plenty of weekend afternoons outside, but this summer we bought a chest freezer and committed to freezing as much local, fresh produce as we could to try and get us through winter. Many a weekend afternoon this summerI spent blanching, quick cooling, freezing and foodsavering! I should have blogged everything we froze... hmmm. Maybe I'll blog it as we eat it!

On September 20th we had "Brunch in the Fields" at our CSA, it was absolutely a beautiful morning and a wonderful event! Here is the set up before we all sat down to a delicious homemade from local stuff brunch!

Tomatoes kept both of us busy in the kitchen one weekend in September. We bought 50 lbs. from one of our favorite farmers, froze some and Steve also made sauce. After ruining a few t-shirts this summer I finally started wearing an apron while processing stuff!

The roses were blooming again late in the month.

The firecracker fuscia that Mom brought us is still going strong.

The aster is blooming, and looking good!

And this little guy (or one that looks just like this one) was in our green beans earlier in the summer, and here it is on our neighbor's house.

It's September already?

This summer is flying (has flown?) by. I can't believe it's Labor Day. Things happening in the garden include...

A woodpecker on the sunflower out front! (Sorry this photo isn't so great, I stood out on the porch in my towel after getting out of the shower to try and get a shot, so was in a bit of a rush!)



The pear trees are full of pears, and we have started picking - yum!



The sunflowers are still doing really great!



The peppermint rose is blooming again.



We learned a few years ago how absolutely beautiful cotton flowers are, so each year we grow a few - not only because it's kind of neat to pick cotton in our backyard, but for the flowers as well.



And, we had the most delicious, colorful, local dinner the other night. Everything is local, even the sausage is from the northeast. Green beans, cremini mushrooms, purple potatoes, red and green peppes, onions, tomatoes...yum!

A few new things blooming

The sunflowers in the back have started blooming, I can't tell you how much I love this one. The photo doesn't do the color justice, it's called Lemon something, and it is a very accurate name for it! The bumblebees also love it!





The hollyhock Lisa brought me on Memorial Day weeknd is blooming, but it is short! The ones Mom brought us have not really grown either. I'm hoping they'll all flourish next year.