Still looks like summer...

Last year on Sept. 24 the daytime high temp was 60 and the low 38.  This year is got to nearly 90. Missed setting a new record high by one degree!  Zinnias are happy to keep growing!



I am preserving summer by freezing tomato soup...yum!  Found the recipe on SouleMama's blog.

It's hard to tell, but there is a fence in the background.  The birdhouse gourds have taken over half the garden.

They start right behing the zinnias, and have gone up and over the fence, and across the woodpile.  Some of the gourds are as big as basketballls...

WHAT are you going to do with them, you might ask.... hmmm.. not real sure!

Sunrise...sunset

Beautiful day!!

The beginning....

...and the end of a beautiful day.

Great garden eats

While the nights grow longer and COOLER, the days are still quite warm, and the garden keeps on giving!

We steamed and blanched fresh (white) corn today....YUMMY!  Will be great to take a package of sweet home-grown corn out of the freezer when days are short, and the air is cold.

Today we picked two gigantic bowls of tomatoes, and more just as ripe in the garden. May be making some fancy bruschetta sauce tomorrow...will see...just one more day til I am back at the office, up to my eyeballs in work.

The odd-colored ones are Cherokee Purple....an heirloom that doesn't look that great but is excellent eating.

Sometimes when I am rinsing fruit in the sink, or taking hot jars out of the dishwasher, I think about how different it must have been to can or make jam over a woodstove. I just have to turn on the burner, and I have reliable heat that I can turn up or down as I need it.  I am canning food mostly for fun...certainly we will eat it, but I am not struggling to put up enough food  to feed my family all winter.