Dining Well

This might be the garden's most bountiful day this year. We picked heavy - picking tomatoes that were even slightly red and cucumbers down to 8" long. There will be fewer pick'n'packers next week, so this seemed the sensible solution.

I won't grow tomatoes to maturity in the greenhouse next year. They grow just as well in the garden. The greenhouse will be for starting them, but not finishing.

Each week we're sending one pumpkin to Fare Share. The volunteers there now know that the pumpkin needs to be portioned out. Not many people can deal with eating a large pumpkin. But, if you get 1/8th of this baby, you can make muffins or a stew or soup and not have lots of leftover raw pumpkin.

I grow them because they have such a beautiful shape. Here's what the seed companies say about Vif d'Etampes: Old french heirloom pumpkin from the 1800's. Beautiful flat shape. Amazing thick yellow flesh great for pie or soup. Early maturing. Also known as Cinderella.

Tomatoes are bearing heavily. I'd canned another 7 quarts since last Wednesday and we picked over a crate today.

Greenhouse beets are doing well.

I recently learned that our neighbours who use the food bank prefer their herbs unmixed. Chives, oregano, summer savory and sage. Sounds like a Thanksgiving meal to me.

The late hostas are at their peak. They are very fragrant. Goldenrod are just starting and all of the usual suspects: zinnias, ammi, phlox, dill, verbena, salvia, celosia, Queen Anne's Lace, and rudbeckia fit nicely with the hostas and goldenrods.