Mid-September Harvest

This week will officially mark the end of our summer growing season. Strangely and unlike years past, I'm actually looking forward to the fall and winter. Growing you own food teaches you many virtues, including patience, and the fact that there's a time for everything. As the colder and darker months approach, the garden will rest and I'll get to take a break from the daily chores associated with it. Maybe I'll even find the time and focus to work on that cookbook I've been neglecting. Maybe.

It's only appropriate that we should celebrate the end of summer by harvesting our one and only pumpkin. I hadn't planned on growing pumpkin this year but Jonathan suggested it during one of our many trips to the plant nursery. This will be the first time we get to carve a pumpkin we grew ourselves.

Also, I couldn't help thinking of the recent cantaloupe recall when I picked the last cantaloupe of the year.


This might also be the end of our tomatoes and cucumbers. We can't be too heartbroken because we've had a good harvest this year. I also picked most of our Poblano peppers, which are tasting quite hot. The long beans continue to produce even when the bush beans are long gone.


This is most definitely the last of our slicing tomatoes. The vines are screaming to be pulled up. Anyway, they were delicious in a BLT sandwich I made the other day.


Finally, I harvested the first of our fall bok choy yesterday and they are looking terrible. The slugs and cabbage worms are really active right now, much more so than last year. The delicate green parts of the leaves were too hole-y to eat, but fortunately for us, the white crunchy bits (my favorite part) are still flawless. Thank goodness for small miracles.

Pumpkin

I wasn't planning on growing pumpkin this year, but Jonathan had asked if we could during one of our many trips to Lake Street Garden Center earlier this year. Of course I couldn't say no so I bought a transplant. I don't remember the name of this variety, but the vine has struggled all summer long and only set fruit earlier this month. Then the tropical storm hit and most of the leaves were shredded to pieces. What wasn't shredded is now covered in powdery mildew. If you look closely, you can also see that the vine linking the pumpkin to the rest of the plant is on the verge of snapping. I didn't have much hope that we would be picking a pumpkin in time for Halloween this year.


Then today, I took another look at the pumpkin and noticed that not only had it doubled in size, but also was beginning to turn orange. Who would have guess? Maybe we'll be carving our very own homegrown jack-o-lantern next month after all.