final backyard harvest

The weekend could be another major step in getting the backyard done.  With the help of neighbor Fred, a man is coming with a tractor to tear up our useless driveway and till the backyard.  Depends on the weather.  Hopefully it won't snow until later in the day on Saturday, or at least just be a light snow so we can still work.  In preparation, I harvested the last of the veggies from the garden planted a week after we moved in.

In case you didn't notice this tiny little eggplant, I took another photo of it:
Another shot showing off the different colors of the harvest:

fall garden update, October 7

The fall garden will have its first test this weekend, when the temperatures are supposed to dip and snow is in the forecast. Everything is still going strong at this point.  The new seeds I planted a few weeks ago germinated quite nicely and are doing well.  We've been hitting the kale and swiss chard fairly frequently, and even cooked up some of the broccoli greens when I thinned them out.  Here's a shot of the entire bed:

The major question mark in my mind as I planted this bed was how these peas would do.  It has been interesting to watch them grow.  They didn't climb very high, which I assume is due to the decreased light and temperature as the fall progresses.  I have a feeling they are pretty much done at this point.  We'll see what happens this weekend.  But I am glad to see that there are a few peas:
This is the only one I have harvested so far.  It was delicious!
I'm a bit skeptical that the peas in the fall are worth the extra effort because there are so many other veggies that are hitting their peak at that time.  I may try again next year.  We'll see.

fall garden: first taste

First harvest of the fall garden this morning.  Arugula, no surprise.  We could have harvested several days ago, but waited until today when we had some tomatoes (thanks to our neighbors Fred and Amy for the pineapple tomato used in the sandwich).

Pretty much delicious.  I guess this would be a B.A.T. - bacon, arugula, tomato - sandwich.  The arugula was moderately spicy, and makes this sandwich way better than its cousin, the B.L.T.

today's harvest

I had the afternoon off today, so spent some time outside doing yardwork.  More on that in the next post.  But one thing I did was harvest all of the ripe veggies from the back garden.  You'll notice a couple clusters of grapes - delicious, and there's a lot more still on the vine.  I'm particularly fond of the bright red cayenne peppers.

Some of the grapes still on the vine.

Update on fall garden in front yard.  We had some warm days this past week, and the new plants loved it.  They seemed to get bigger each night.  The arugula is definitely ready to harvest, and it's probably time to thin out the kale, swiss chard, and broccoli.  I'll let the carrots and onions go a while longer before thinning.

The pear tree out back is heavy with fruit, but it's not quite ripe yet.  I'm not sure what to expect in terms of insect damage, but hopefully it will be minimal and we'll have tons of pears to eat and dehydrate.