It’s a pleasant September evening here, and I’m almost all done feeling bad that summer is over. The start of school went smoothly, although the real test will be next week when the full days start.

I haven’t written much about the garden so I’ll give an update. The biggest surprise has been the runner beans. No beans ever developed from the flowers in the spring, but apparently the fall temps are to their liking, and now I have all these big pods with big beans out there. I picked some and shelled, blanched and froze them. Hoping to use them in a soup or stew sometime?

Blanching them brought out some purple mottling in them.

I also recently dug up some potatoes, and my Cantare plant produced a handful of very tender green beans. Just enough mashed potatoes for all of us at dinner, and enough beans for me.

Some of the potatoes had worm holes, but no worms, so…. good enough for me.

The day that I blanched the beans, I also blanched and froze market broccoli, and blanched and cooked two tomatoes from the garden into sauce, and froze it.

Way back before vacation, I blanched and froze a whole mess o’ basil.

I still have some basil out there but for the most part it’s passed its peak. Still have lots of tomatoes growing, although the squirrels have been getting a lot of them. Attempts at a fall sowing of carrots totally failed, not sure why. Broccoli seedlings are ready to go out. All the garlic and onions are harvested, cured, and in the garage. Two potato plants are still alive. Arugula is growing again in one of the back corner plots. Nearby, what I thought was yellow squash turned out to be pumpkins, and two are growing, albeit very slowly. Out front, I have two Rouge Vif D’Etampes (Cinderella) pumpkins growing, but it’s a game of beat the clock with the powdery mildew slowly killing the plant.

I have to give a shout out to Miss M. who took great care of the garden while I was on vacation 🙂

And then there’s the stars of this season, the watermelons. Before vacation, I ended up harvesting three other big melons, all around 10 to 12 pounds. Two I put in the garage fridge, and one we cut open that night… and it was ripe! Hallelujah!

And I still have three more melons out in the patch, and I haven’t seen the groundhog since I got back from vacation!

The watermelon was very good and sweet. But I can’t say they were a huge hit here. I ended up giving one away to someone on Facebook, and I pressed some on my parents as well. I guess we just don’t like watermelon all that much. The seeds were also kind of annoying.

I bought a ton of stuff at the farmers’ market on Saturday. So much, it didn’t fit in one picture:

Honey Crisp apples, Yukon Gem potatoes, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, broccoli, pork chops, eggs, sourdough bread, bananas, a cookie, an onion, and garlic! So now I have to preserve the broccoli and tomatoes tomorrow, and I think we’ll have the beans, potatoes and pork chops for dinner.

That might be my last garden update for a long time, because I’ve decided to focus all my efforts on fixing up the inside of the house with an eye to refinancing. I’ve been working on the dining room for a couple weeks, and I’m getting close to done. Next is the bathroom and the foyer — more wallpaper removal and painting. It’s fun, and I’m pretty into it right now, but I’m sad to have to neglect the garden.

I recently read “The Magnolia Story,” by Chip and Joanna Gaines, and that did get me pumped up to demo and design. Oh Chip and Jo, you do remind me of me and hubs and a certain period of our lives, except you are millionaires 🙂

This week: wallpaper; walks; soccer practice; Back to School Night; real meals.