harvest moonfest, fall veggies and jack frost carnage

 the first frost hit thursday the 4th of this month. there was about a week of cool weather with temperatures right around freezing every night, and eventually all my non-hardy garden plants died, except for the ones i brought inside and the ones i covered with blankets. all my tomatoes, basils, and both naranjilla plants are still alive. now it's warmer again, but very fall-like.

 the last saturday of september, right before the weather turned chilly, i hosted a harvest moon celebration. homegrown veggie cookout, tomato tasting, vegan potluck, and so much beer. it was a fabulous time and the weather was perfect--low 80s/upper 70s to start, and stayed in the 60s late into the night.

 this is the tomato tasting table. i put out samples of all the varieties i had ripe at the time. the crowd favorite was chocolate stripe, a strikingly beautiful, salty, super-flavorful beefsteak (my favorite too):

 i made wild rice, homegrown veggie salsa, and grilled squash and potatoes. victoria and kim brought a very tasty and complex savory pineapple salad, jeanne and kyle brought some huge, fancy homegrown eggplants for the grill, andrea brought a fantastic vegan huckleberry crumble made with berries she picked herself. there was way too much delicious food.

 unfortunately i didn't get photos while guests were here. it was a challenging day, i'd had a cold for a few days in the week leading up--so instead of cleaning house/yard and prepping as planned, all week i was letting dishes pile up and being tired and unmotivated. i ended up having to do everything on saturday, starting at 7 in the morning and finishing minutes before people began arriving. it put me in such a surprisingly good mood though, since i'd already gone past the point of exhaustion, i was deliriously happy the whole evening.

 poor little potato was stung by a wasp during the party! i hadn't noticed there's a wasp nest at the base of the apple tree, and he stuck his head right in there and got stung on the ear. it was the saddest thing. he didn't yelp or cry, but he ran around like he was on fire, shaking his head and looking horrified. after a while he calmed down and was just deeply, deeply sad the rest of the night. he sulked around the yard throwing himself at peoples' feet for sympathy. he was fine the next morning, and the swelling went away after just a few days. but he's still afraid of the apple tree.

 recent harvests and garden photos:

 nepalese bell peppers have elegant flowers. the peppers themselves are crazy looking:

 my giant pot of basil is taking up more than its share of space in the mudroom. i was planning on keeping it into the winter, but now i think i'll harvest and preserve it or try to use it up fast.

 corno de toro gaillo and sweet bell peppers. they started turning ripe colors after i brought them inside. best bell peppers i've ever grown--heavy, thick walls, delicious.

 anatomically correct japanese black trifele tomato.

 udumalpet eggplant.

 tomatillos are so very pretty.

 my apple harvest this year was completely non-existent. the squirrels stole every single apple.

 i didn't even know squirrels liked apples that much. i'm at peace with the lack of apples, because the squirrels left all my other plants alone. didn't take a single tomato. i'd much rather have tomatoes than apples.

 i can't believe summer is over and it's almost halloween. has frost hit yet where you are?

how potato helps me get ready in the morning

he insists upon climbing up into the bathroom sink every morning, but then he's stranded because he can't get back down without assistance. silly little gnocchi.

early september harvests

 my garden is in full swing now. yeah, it's late. it's always late. this year it's partly because i got everything planted so late in the season, and partly because i'm growing a lot of long-season heirlooms.

 first pair of lemon cukes. i always have bad luck with cucumbers. this year i planted them three or four times, and almost every time the seedlings were taken down by either slugs or earwigs, no matter how hard i tried to protect them. finally got them properly started in early july.

 lots of green left on the branches. hurry up and ripen!

 wall o'maters. i put up a row of about 15 tomato cages all attached to the wire fence that separates the garden from the rest of the yard. that way they wouldn't topple over. and it made a neat little tomato hedgerow.

 these gourds had the same problem as the cukes, getting eaten over and over as seedlings. now they're huge! you can't quite tell from the photo, but the vines have climbed all the way to the very top of that lilac tree behind them. most of the gourds are high up. harvesting could be tricky.

 squashes got a kinda slow start too, but now they're rolling.

 i juiced a big batch of cukes and tomatoes, and the chickens LOVED eating the leftover pulp. i haven't needed to compost anything all summer thanks to the chickens.

 mega-egg! someone laid a double-yolker last week.

 i picked up a couple little tiny egg pans. it really is a handy size. very easy to wash. also very easy to leave in the sink and not wash for a few days, which is part of the reason i got two.

 and they make for a very round meal. this almost looks like some kind of bland future-food from a dystopian film.

 i'm all about eggs over easy, but i've finally started branching out a little bit. i made stir fried rice, and hard boiled eggs:

 they were pretty impossible to peel nicely though.

 a few fun tomato specimens!

 it's my second year growing reisetomate, a.k.a. clusterfuck tomatoes, one of my all-time favorites in both looks and taste. they're like fused clusters of grape tomatoes.

earthly delights tomato tasting

 jason and i went to the earthly delights farm tomato tasting tonight. some of the tomatoes came from earthly delights and morning owl farms, the rest were brought by attendees--j brought black and red boars, and i brought monkey asses.

 the tasting was awesome. so many tomatoes, so many incredibly different, intense and wonderful flavors. i saved seeds from a few favorites to grow next year.

 i didn't realize this little csa farm is right in our neighborhood! just about three blocks from my house.

dogshaming (+chickenshaming)

 my dogs have many shames, but compared to a lot of the other shameful dogs, they're pretty well behaved.

 "putting anything in the bathroom trash can is the same as feeding it to me."
this trash can is now just a vessel for carrying things to a larger, lidded trash can.

 "manifest destiny: i spread out my bedding materials in an ever-expanding territory grab"
andy is gradually laying claim to the living room.

 "i eat my mom's hair! (while it's attached)"
he likes to wake me up with cuddles and hair munching.

 "i feast on chicken poo and rotten apples from the yard"
potato had his first vet visit yesterday--bowels full of tapeworm, probably thanks to some random nastiness he ate in the backyard. mon pauvre petit pomme de terre. he's fine now, and back to nomming wormy ground apples.

"we poop on the porch"
making it much easier for potato to find his snacks.