Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Garden Pleasures, October

Here it is October 11 and the garden is still going strong. On Saturday, we picked most of what was left of the Swiss Chard. It is one of the last crops to get eaten. I have to confess that I don't really like it that much, but as our choices for fresh garden produce get more and more limited, it starts to get more appealing.

It comes in the most amazing array of colours. After we picked it, we seperated leaves from stalks and blanched the leaves.

After blanching, I squeezed them and froze them in meal size chunks. I use them like frozen spinich, for lasagna, soups, and anything else you'd throw frozen spinich into.

The stems got chopped, blanched and also frozen. They're great in soup and stews.

Whatever was left over was thrown into the chicken coop, where some happy hens had a feast!

We have a new crop of peas, almost ready to eat!

And the fennel is looking big and delicious. Check out our swallowtail caterpillar at the top right....it also thinks the fennel is pretty tasty. We've been watching him grow for a few days now. I didn't realize he was in the shot until I cropped it just now.

We're back to eating lettuce. The summer is just too hot for lettuce to grow properly.

Zuma (our dog) found this sweet house finch lying on the deck this morning. I picked her up and held her for a few moments, then put her in the hedge. I think she must have accidentally hit  the house and been momentarily stunned. When I went back to check a few minutes later, she was gone.
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