1st week of October 2008

Veggie Medley We are doing lots of digging this week getting the sweet potatoes out of the ground along with more potatoes. Here is a picture of what is going into our fall meals with much of it being root crops like potatoes, beets, carrots, turnips and radishes. The bok choy is also flourishing which is excellent in stir fries. Baked butternut squash is another of our fall favorites. Leftover squash is made into pumpkin pudding using a recipe from my grandmother and we even bake it in her old granite baking dish that is affectionately named "the pumpkin pan." It was very delicious eaten while slightly warm but I perhaps ate more than my share because one of our sons complained he didn't get any!!

Fall Flowers It was sad to see some of the flowers get disked down the other day but I knew their lives were near the end anyway. I went out to pick a bouquet for our table this week and had to be more creative in using what was available since many of the summer annuals are looking scruffy. Here is what I came up with using Autumn Joy sedum, tansy, wormwood and horehound. I also have been gathering a few things for making dried fall arrangements like sugar cane tops, sea oats, and purple millet. There are still plenty of edible flowers to dress up our salads though - nasturtiums, calendula, johnny jump-ups, pea blossoms and borage. I also should start looking around for any perennial flowers that need moving or dividing this fall to give them a jump start on spring growth.

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