Pizza

Saturday's pizza was so good, I made more today. The microhood works great, I didn't set the smoke detectors off yesterday or today. Whoo hoo!

Pesto Potato with Parmesan


Another Pesto Potato, Artichoke Hearts and Roasted Red Pepper, and Linguica Sausage

Pesto and Parmesan.

Good Maine Cooking

Mainers are a thrifty lot, savers extraordinaire and experts at reinventing uses for old equipment. The infamous toilet lawn planter springs to mind, although equally thrifty would be the reuse of old cast iron-porcelain bathtubs as livestock waterers. My former landlord in Greenville, Lonnie Rowe, used an old delivery van as a chicken coop, and made wildlife watching perches out of old tractor seats set on pipes in the ground.

This thriftiness transfers into the food category, too. Chicken and turkey carcasses become stock, meat scraps go in the freezer to become soup. Of course, poultry owners have a ready source of birds to productively dispose of every scrap of food. And should you trap a big old coon or a give terminal lead poisoning to a pesky groundhog, well, there's good eating if you know how to prepare it properly.

For my birthday earlier this month, Dan found a great old-time recipe book for me, All Maine Recipes, published by the Courier Gazette of Rockland in the late 1960s. It is chock-full of good Maine recipes, many for game such as venison or pheasant, with some modern ones, too, with many variations of the Jello salad --shudder. (I even found a recipe from my long-ago landlady Irene Yerxa of Bridgewater, Maine, and Dan saw a recipe from a woman he knew in Waldoboro, Athlene Damon. Maine is a small town spread over a big state.)

And there are several recipes for preparing garden-chomping rabbit, raccoon and woodchuck.

It is good to know I have a resource handy for preparing varmint should the opportunity arise. You just never know.

A visit from Holly

My pal Holly, yes, the newly-wed Holly, came to visit this weekend, arriving Friday evening after the snowstorm, and leaving Sunday after Saturday night's snowstorm.

She and Dan greeted me at the door with a margarita after my harrowing drive home, in which I narrowly missed being squashed between 2 SUVs in a 20-car pileup on the highway. Fortunately, I knew a back way home, and after 45 minutes of inching 2 miles along, I exited and took a back road and avoided the hours of waiting for traffic to clear.

We had a quiet weekend, what with all the snow, but had lots of fun cooking (apricot ginger scones), playing cards, a church supper with friends and more cards, and lots of laughter. Our new, larger tent had arrived, and Holly helped us set it up and check it out -- after all, only 37 more days until spring! Plans call for a joint camping trip somewhere with Holly and Dave next summer.

The new tent is big. It has a bit more floor space than my trusty 20+ year old Eureka (99x80 vs 90x60) and a lot more headroom. I think we could fit the old Eureka inside. I wish the new tent had mesh doors with a zip up cover like my Eureka tent did, but it is a nice neutral color. The thought of spending a rainy day in an orange and yellow tent is enough to make me take up drinking, so the soothing pale gray and navy of the new tent look good. Another reason to be counting the days until spring....

What we are eating, part 2

When last we checked, we'd enjoyed grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner on Wednesday evening. Later that evening, I roasted up some cauliflower with garlic and onion to use for soup the next day. Here's how we used all those groceries during the remainder of the week.

Thursday
B: homemade muesli with yogurt, (milk for Dan), coffee,
L: sliced meatball sandwiches, oranges
D: roasted cauliflower soup with root vegetables

Friday
B: Henbogle eggs and toast, coffee
L: Ali, lunch meeting on campus, Dan soup, oranges
D: Pasta with meatballs and red sauce redux (and boy was I sad to see the last of the meatballs and sauce!)

Saturday
B: yogurt, toast, coffee
L: leftover cauliflower soup, white bean salad with green beans and tuna
D: freezer meal of pork chops with whiskey cranberry sauce, pan blackened Brussels sprouts, bread

One of the things I noticed about the Hungry Planet photo series was how ubiquitous soft drinks have become. Dan and I rarely buy soft drinks, treating soft drinks as party fare. We are very fortunate to live in a town with great-tasting, non-chlorinated, non-fluoridated tap water --our town won the statewide drinking water taste test this year -- we drink water with every meal, and we even bring it with us to work and on our travels. I'm sure that cuts down considerably on our grocery expenditures.

As you can see, I plan on using leftovers for lunches whenever possible, and we will often see a meal re-created into something else later on in the week. We used only a small portion of many of our grocery purchases for last week -- we will need to purchase a few items such as coffee, coffee filters, milk, canned beans, and some fruit but that's about all. There are meatballs in the freezer, I'll cook a pork roast tomorrow for sandwiches and other meals this week, and we'll no doubt have a meal of soup one night, too.

It is work to prepare meals from whole ingredients, but with practice, it gets easier and it is work that feels right. Preparing delicious meals is well worth the time invested. Dan plays an important role in the process, too. I cook, he cleans. When I arrive home from work (usually after Dan) any breakfast mess is cleaned up and the kitchen is ready for me to cook, and after dinner, he loads the dishwasher and does the rest of the cleanup detail. It's a great system!

Too many tomatoes

Although we ate some fresh garden tomatoes, and canned 11+ quarts of tomato sauce, 2007 was not a great year for tomatoes in our garden. We had a cool wet spring, and a cool (delightful, really, in human comfort terms) summer, and our tomatoes didn't really take off until August, with production peaking in September, just in time for back to campus and the craziness that brings.

Of course, part of the reason for the low productivity is our decision to go away on vacation, and while gone, neglect our pruning and staking duties, which resulted in a giant green jungle. Hoping to increase our tomato yield through a little healthy competition, Dan and I have agreed to a tomato-growing contest this summer (his idea, I might add). While we still have to work out all the details, we've decided we'll grow the same varieties, starting the seeds together, etc., but once we determine a planting date, it is every woman for herself. I'm now immersed in perusing the 'net and my stash of gardening catalogs, trying to come up with the list of varieties we'll grow.

Potential varieties:
Sungold cherries (these babies are a definite)
Amish Paste*
Orange Banana*
Brandywine
Ruby Pearl
Green Zebra
Opalka+
Milano Paste+
Debarao+

The tomatoes marked with an asterisk* I grew last year, and in general was very happy with; but notice the plus mark+ beside Debarao and Milano? These are 2 new paste varieties I'm considering, because they are much earlier than the Amish Pastes or Orange Bananas. I saw the Milano Plum in the John Scheepers Kitchen Gardeners catalog, $2.95 for 50 seeds. Milanos are hybrid determinate types, ready in an astonishing 60-65 days.

The Debrarao were recommended by my friend Holly's go to organic gardening source, Dan Pratt of Astarte Farm in Hadley, MA and are ready in 72 days. Seeds are available from Johnny's $2.95 for 40 seeds.

Another gardening crony recommended Opalka (82 days) tomatoes from Pine Tree Garden Seeds, saying they beat the Amish Pastes by a country mile for taste, few seeds, and thin, tender skin. Of course, they are not early. And then there are Grandma Mary's Paste (68 days), but there is no mention of flavor in the notoriously wordy Fedco catalog, hmmm. As I said, I was happy with the Amish Paste (85 days) and the Orange Bananas (85 days), but now I'm dithering and these are only the paste varieties! What is a gardener to do? Suggestions are welcome.

What we are eating

Remember all those groceries? Well, here's what we've been eating this week. (Sorry for the lack of photos, I'll try and remember to snap some photos for the remainder of the week.)

Friday night
Grilled kielbasa and onions with Raye's Winter Garden Mustard on the whole wheat rolls. (Kielbasa from a local-to-my-friend-Holly smokehouse in Western Massachusetts)

Saturday
B: Eggs, whole wheat rolls, grape jelly, grape juice, coffee
L: Leftover pasta with peas, onions and cabbage from Thursday night
D: Tortilla chips and guacamole, squash enchiladas, Mexican rice, brownies

Sunday:
B: Yogurt, fruit, toast, coffee
L: Mexican rice casserole (leftovers re-vamped with beans, corn, cheese)
D: -- light snack and dinner with friends

Monday
B: fruit smoothies
L: leftover squash enchiladas, oranges
D: pasta with meatballs, spinach salad

Tuesday
B: oatmeal, fruit, coffee
L: Ali, soup pot-luck on campus, Dan leftover Mexican rice casserole, oranges
D: Pasta with Maine shrimp & peas, mixed broccoli/cauliflower

Wednesday:
B: cereal with peanut butter toast, coffee
L: Ali, lunch meeting on campus, Dan leftover meatballs & pasta with broccoli/cauliflower, oranges
D: Grilled Cabot cheddar cheese sandwiches with Raye's mustard, pickled beets, bread 'n butter pickles

What's on tap for the rest of the week? Hmmm I'd better get to work roasting some cauliflower!

Egregious greenwashing

This story of the Bath, Maine McDonald's and their new-found commitment to recycling really frosted my cake. In my mind, the real story is that they have only recently begun to recycle, and that leads me to question how many other restaurants, or any businesses for that matter, are not recycling and at what cost to local communities?

So far, Fraser [the manager] said, only about 10 percent of the customers have caught on. But behind the counter — where store employees recycle storage containers, egg crates and plastic pickle boxes, among other things — the effort has cut the restaurant's total garbage output in half.

"Before we started recycling, we had 16 cubic yards of trash per week," he said. "Now we're down to eight."

At eight cubic yards of trash per week, in one year that's 416 cubic yards just for this one McDonald's Restaurant. Kudos to the manager for getting the program started -- he deserves a lot of credit for bucking the status quo -- but how is it that no one figured this out before?

I'm appalled that the Times Record covered this as a news story (page 3) and didn't ask a few challenging questions. A news story covering America's/McDonalds meaty habits can be found in today's NY Times. Mark Bittman, a food writer, did a great job with the story, raising really important issues facing the country and our apparently insatiable desire for inexpensive meat. Yeah, that's right, a food writer. Sheesh.

Is that a chicken?

I swear the gentleman on the left in this photo, from the What the World Eats photo series, is holding a chicken.

What we eat

Regular readers of this blog know I think about food a lot. Growing food, buying food, cooking food, eating food, writing about food, food politics, etc., food is almost always on my mind.

The photo essay about family food purchasing around the globe really caught my interest. (Quite possibly because it give me something to think about other than work these days, the stress of which is causing to me chew on my pillowcase in my sleep.) So I decided to post my own photo with list and notes.

I'm a big proponent of buying locally, but this is an area I really struggle with during the Maine winter (this morning's 8°F temp is not veggie friendly, at least until I get one of these). With just 2 of us at home now, a winter share at our local CSA farm is just too much food, especially of food that Dan and I are, shall we say, learning to appreciate more, like kale. So, what we don't have in storage from our garden or local farmstand purchases, I purchase at a grocery store like most other Americans. This week, I spent $160 on that food. My purchases:

• • 1 Empire sweet onion
  • 2 avocadoes
  • 3 heads garlic
  • ½ lb piece ginger root
  • 1 bunch cilantro
  • 4 lbs yellow onions
  • 1 bunch celery
  • 1 head cauliflower
  • 5 lbs organic carrots
  • 1 lb spinach
  • 2 lbs parsnips
  • 3 lbs butternut squash
  • 3 lbs 80% lean ground beef
  • 1 lb Cabot pepperjack cheese
  • 1 lb parmesan cheese
  • ½ gallon whole milk (for yogurt)
  • ½ lb half 'n half
  • 8 oz sour cream
    
  • 1 lb coffee
  • 2 lb bag blue tortilla chips
  • 2 lbs (36) corn tortillas
  • 2 bxs Ghiradelli brownie mix
    
  • 3 lbs old fashioned rolled oats
  • 2 lbs honey
  • 16 oz can cannellini beans
  • 16 oz natural peanut butter
  • 5 oz tomato paste in a tube (Italy)
  • ½ lbs sea salt (France)
  • 4 whole-wheat rolls
    
  • 2 ltrs extra virgin olive oil (Italy)
  • 1 bottle wine
  • 12 bottles microbrew beer
    
  
  

Unless noted, all items are produced domestically, and some are organically produced. I usually have a few meals in mind when I grocery shop, but my primary method is to have a well-stocked pantry that allows me to be 1) inspired and have on hand what I need, or 2) uninspired and in a big hurry, and to have the makings of a quick, nutritious and from scratch meal.

Of course, I was in a rush at the grocery store, and forgot a couple of things --some dried pasta for the pantry, frozen peas, vegetable broth, and black beans. I also plan to stop at the Co-op in a nearby town for yogurt culture, pepitas, whole wheat flour and some herbs and spices. All those items will add another $25 - $30 to the list, I suspect.

What will all those items become, meal-wise? Dinners will include a big Mexican feed tonight (with company for dinner), shrimp chowder (with Maine shrimp from the freezer), squash soup and/or squash enchiladas, meatballs with tomato sauce and pasta or (for Dan, his favorite) meatloaf with potatoes, roasted cauliflower soup. Spinach salad, carrots, parsnips, squash will all be seen as vegetable sides. Lunches will primarily be leftover dinner. Breakfasts will include fruit from the freezer in smoothies, oatmeal, or, you guessed it, Henbogle eggs. There may well be a quiche or eggs for dinner some night, too. Brownies are always on hand for company or a chocolate emergency. We will make bread from flour and yeast on hand, and other pantry staples like rice and potatoes will also find their way into this week's meals.

You'll notice there are few pre-packaged foods, and that is not unusual. I did not have macaroni and cheese from a box until I went to college (boy, was cafeteria food in the mid-80s an unpleasant surprise!) and I learned to cook from my mother. Dinner at our house started as ingredients, and I've cooked that way pretty much ever since, although I will say Annie's macaroni and cheese and Classico (no corn syrup added) spaghetti sauce have been seen in my pantry. Since then I've discovered roma tomatoes heated on the stove with olive oil and garlic is better tomato sauce, and Kyle is not here as often to inhale the Annie's mac and cheese (and much else) from the pantry. I do purchase some treats from Trader Joe's when I get the chance, namely their ethnic sauces or my big weakness, TJ's tuna in curry sauce (YUM YUM YUM).

Many years ago now, a new-ish friend was at my home, and looked in the pantry and asked me where all the food was (huh?) I didn't really understand at the time that she meant where were all the cans of soup, boxes of mac n cheese, jars of spaghetti sauce, etc.? I was not enlightened enough to know then that the way I cook was not typical, and sadly, is becoming less so all the time.

A look at food budgets around the globe

The Slow Cook recently wrote about this interesting look at weekly food purchases around the world. The photo series was originally published in a book by Peter Menzel, The Hungry Planet. It was really interesting to look at what folks purchased and spent on food. It was astonishing to see the amount of processed and fast food (how depressing to see Tony the Tiger in Italy!) and sobering to see what the family in the refugee camp in Chad survives upon. I'm counting my many blessings right now.

Links to the additional pages: Part II, Part III

A good day for soup

The skies were clear here at Henbogle today, setting us up nicely for a big plunge in temperature, when the forecast is for a low of 3ºF overnight. The high today was in the mid 20sºF, but with a perky little breeze --perfect soup weather.

I've got a strong tendency to stockpile items like food, building materials, fabric, garden tools. The other day, when making room in the freezer for our pork delivery, I realized that I need to actually use all the food I have so carefully laid away (so far we've only cracked open 2 jars of tomato sauce, and a 3-4 of grape juice). In six months, I hope to be picking more strawberries and harvesting lettuce from the garden. It was high time to use those freezer veggies, so I stirred together a big batch of minestrone soup.

I had made a big batch of stock from one of our delicious freezer chickens the other day, so I sauteed some onions, added some carrots, celery, garlic, then the stock, potatoes, cannelini beans, cabbage, and from our freezer, swiss chard, wax beans, green beans, corn and pesto. With some homemade garlic croutons and warm from the oven ginger bread for dessert, I can almost forget the plunging temperatures. For a little while.

Cloning is just creepy

Earlier this week, the FDA determined food derived from cloned livestock is safe. More than ever, am I glad my freezer is full of locally, humanely raised chicken, lamb and pork (and strawberries, greenbeans, corn and swiss chard. And yes, I know it needs defrosting.)

I don't know why the idea of cloned meat is so creepy -- after all, we clone plants (also known as propagation from cuttings) all the time. The idea of cloning animals for meat production, though, is just too Soylent Green for me to be comfortable with it, and I am concerned for the poor unfortunate animals whose cloning experience was unsuccessful. Dolly the sheep had multiple health issues which may --or may not -- have been linked to her cloned status, and birth defects are common in cloned animals.

Part of my unease stems from the FDA itself. After all, the FDA's record of late could use a little beefing up -- Vioxx and Avandia spring to mind.

All in all, this just gives me yet another reason to stay out of the supermarkets. We just received a yummy stash of porcine splendor from my pal who raised 2 pigs in his backyard. I'm really looking forward to pork chops, made the old-fashioned way.

Too late now, but for next year....

Check out these herb wreaths from McFadden Farm in California, made from organically grown culinary herbs!

Not local, but very cool and useful. Unfortunately, the Maine climate and bay laurel are not compatible.

Winter preparations, just in time

Saturday we had a cold and very windy day, brr. In light of predictions for a big nor'easter on Monday, we bustled about putting clear plastic over the draftiest windows, and I roasted yet another turkey because I am craving some turkey sandwiches and a pot of turkey soup . Turkey with cranberry sauce, and hot open-faced turkey sandwiches with gravy now await.

This morning the weather service has forecasted even more snow all day on Monday, with accumulations of 2-4 inches Sunday night, and 8-12 more inches on Monday. Today, we need to finish as many more outdoor chores as we can. I started by filling all the birdfeeders this morning, but there's a lot more--
repair the broken barn window
put the lawn mower and riding mowers away
finish putting cardboard down under the flowering crab tree
pick up the cardboard that blew around the yard yesterday
get some more straw for the chickens
and do a final patrol to put overlooked items away, etc

Yikes! time to get moving!

Locavore logic

Eating locally can be a challenge and it can also be more expensive. It isn't for everyone, and it is important to me to respect other's circumstances and choices. But Dan and I are choosing to buy locally when we can, because we like our neighbors and I'd rather support them than some California mega-farm. (That said, however, I'm not giving up exotic spices, olive oil, or citrus fruit, etc.)

Kim at Yankee Food over in NH recently had a great post about eating locally. She really articulates many of my feelings about eating locally. What it all comes down to, however, is this: I'd rather give my food dollars to my neighbors, and in so doing, support them and their farms, and thus preserving the Maine I know and love.

Backyard gardeners rock

There was an interesting article in the NY Times today about the role of European backyard gardeners in protecting genetic diversity. Long live the backyard gardener! We're saving humanity from supermarket tomatoes, one garden at a time.

What was lost is now found: Double Chocolate Pound Cake

I was beginning to panic --my chocolate pound cake recipe had gone astray. It was based on one of my mother's recipes, but I'd made several changes to it, tweaking it here and there to better accommodate my taste and including new techniques I've learned along the way. It would take me many tries to recreate my changes, even if I could find the cake recipe again.

And then Holly called and said she'd found a pad of paper. She laughed, saying she knew it was mine because it contained many lists. She didn't realize the cake recipe was in the middle of the lists. I was so very glad to lay my hands on this recipe again!

Double Chocolate Pound Cake
1 ¾ c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 ½ sticks butter, divided
1 ¾ c light brown sugar
1 T vanilla
5 eggs
¾ c cocoa
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
¾ boiling water
1 c sour cream

Pre-heat oven to 350º F Grease bundt pan with a mix of 1 T each of melted butter and baking cocoa, blended into a paste. Heat ¾ c water to a boil. Add cocoa and stir together. Add ½ stick of butter and chocolate and stir until melted. Allow to cool slightly, then stir in sour cream. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour baking soda and salt. Beat 1 stick butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about four minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and chocolate mixture alternately. Bake until just pulling away from the pan, about 60 minutes.

This is a very adaptable cake. For Holly's wedding, I used organic dark chocolate with orange, added the zest of a large, organic orange, and made an orange sauce from the juice of the orange to use as a glaze. It was a terrific combination of chocolate and orange. I had hoped to make candied orange peel for a garnish, but ran out of time. This summer for Dan's and Michelle's silver birthday celebration, I flavored the cake with cherry liquer and made a cherry glaze for the top. I am so glad Holly found the recipe!

A tale of two turkeys

We had a marvelous visit to Dan's parent's in NY over the Thanksgiving holiday, with time to cook, to chat, for me to get a crochet refresher from Mom, and do a few chores for Mom and Dad, too.

We drove over on Tuesday, departing just as the snow started here in Maine -- fortunately just a dusting but enough to make me wish I'd purchased new windshield wipers before the trip. Traffic was not terrible, but busy enough on the Mass Pike to make me really glad we were driving over early.

Instead of driving west with a zillion other crazy Mass drivers, on Wednesday we did a few chores and in the afternoon, I made pie --pumpkin, pumpkin pecan, and apple. It went pretty quickly as I had made the dough ahead of time -- which also made the dough a little easier to work with, I think. Whatever the reason, these pies turned out pretty well, the bottom crust was crisp and they were beautifully flaky and tender.

We did have a pie tragedy. A piping hot pumpkin pie was knocked off the counter, did a mid-air flip and landed right-side up on the floor, but with much of the filling jolted out of the crust onto the floor. Fortunately, the pie plate did not break, but chaos ensued as we scurried to get the hot pie filling off the floor before the dog ate the filling, or the hot plate burned the linoleum. It was heartbreaking, (all those Henbogle eggs gone to waste!) but no one was hurt, we got to a sample the filling and crust without guilt, (see the before sampling photo, below left) and we have a new anecdote for the family stories archive. Perfect!

There was plenty of pumpkin puree left, and I had enough dough left for another crust, so I whipped together another pumpkin pie. I am just glad it wasn't the pumpkin pecan pie that crashed, as that would have been one sticky mess!

Making the pies the day ahead made cooking the actual dinner go pretty smoothly, even with the disadvantage of being in a different kitchen and using an unfamiliar smooth-top electric stove. It is crucial to plan backwards from the time dinner will be served, and make as much ahead as possible. I like roasted vegetables, so I usually try and make as much in the oven as possible, which also leaves the burners free for gravy and mashed potatoes, etc. Things were a bit tight in Mom's oven (note the oven rack mark across the turkey breast on the above photo), but I managed by cooking the squash ahead of time and reheating while the turkey rested. Of course, kitchen staff makes life easier, too.

Dan was a big help, doing dishes, washing the turkey and prepping the squash. He even julienned the carrots for me. I was trying to make life easy for Dan's mom, but needed her help with a few things, readying the potatoes and especially with finding the various dishes needed to cook everything.

I only swore twice, once when I turned off the wrong burner, causing the gravy to boil over, burning on the stove, and again during the emergency response that followed, when the roux for the gravy hit the floor, arghh. I'm getting better at producing these dinners, but by this point, with dinner mere moments away, I was on the edge.

Lucky for me, Dan's sister Jean was on hand to help out, she made a flour-water paste to thicken the gravy, and with that, dinner was served. Of course, this means that I was so wigged out I forgot to take the group photo I had planned, but we all enjoyed dinner and good company, and that is, after all, what it is all about.

Capping off the holiday was a flying visit to my friend Mrs. Holly to see her and get a taste of a second Thanksgiving feast. We had my favorite, little turkey sandwiches made on Holly's fabulous homemade dinner rolls. Holly is still enjoying her newlywed status, and we got to ooh and ah over photos and wedding gifts. The visit was far too short, but I hope we'll see her again soon for a visit here at Henbogle. Maybe for a solstice celebration? I can hope....

Turkey Time

In addition to getting all the fall chores done, we are getting ready for a visit to NY with Dan's family over Thanksgiving. It will be a real harvest meal, featuring our carrots, potatoes, pumpkins, herbs and some locally grown squash and onions from Carlson's Farm just across the river.

I'm going to be doing much of the cooking, and have been busily preparing here at home, making turkey stock and roasting pumpkins for the pies. I used two medium sized "Winter Luxury" pumpkins, (seeds from FEDCO) roasting them in a 425 degree oven until very tender. I'm curious about whether they live up to the catalog hype.

I'm planning on an apple pie, a pumpkin pie, and for Dan, a reprise of the Pumpkin Pecan Pie from last year. In addition to dessert, roast turkey, sausage apple stuffing, roasted squash, baked stuffed Brussells sprouts, and more. I'm looking forward to dinner already!

No wonder they died young....

The home-preserved tally thus far:
* 16 pints of Dilly Beans, + ? lbs. processed wax & green beans in the freezer
* 28 quarts of grape juice
*13 1/2 pints grape jelly
* 5 pints pickled pepper rings
* 7 pints of roasted tomato sauce
*8 quarts of roasted tomato sauce

Frankly, I'm pooped. It's no wonder earlier generations of Americans died early. If they did not succumb from childbirth or improperly processed tomatoes, no doubt they died of exhaustion.

Still on my list: 2 batches of pepper jelly with my gorgeous lemon drop peppers. I have a sinking feeling I'll see that hope flash by given the speed of events these days. Over the weekend, I processed another 5 quarts of roasted tomato sauce. I roasted the tomatoes Friday evening, then refrigerated them until this morning, when Dan helped me run them through the tomato mill to remove seeds and skins, then put it on the stove to simmer for the day while we attended to other items on the list.
The above tally does not include the large tubs of potatoes, carrots, and (yikes!) a few more tomatoes in the barn, nor the remaining leeks in the garden.

I picked the last of the Swiss Chard early last week, after realizing the hens love Swiss Chard, and any left in the garden would be reprocessed into eggs. The few remaining heads of broccoli are already eggs, sigh. I need to remember that next year. Still, the girls are doing a wonderful job cleaning up the garden, and they are so happy while they do it, what a treat to watch them at work.


As the sauce gently bubbled away, we loaded the truck with the mildew-riddled squash and pumpkin vines, and trundled off to the town transfer/composting station. As we pulled in to the yard waste area, we gleefully spied a fresh load of pine needles --just the thing for mulching the blueberry hedge, which Dan had weeded last week. I hope the pine needles are less conducive to the insidious creeping Charlie, (aka ground ivy, gill-over-the-ground and one hundred other names), since it thrives in compost and doesn't blink at shredded bark mulch.

Once we dumped the squash plants, we loaded the truck up with armloads of gorgeous pine needles and headed home. Within a matter of minutes the blueberries were mulched for the winter. I hope that in addition to the preventing charlie encroachment, the pine needles will add to the acidity of the soil as they break down, making our blueberries happy and productive. I still need to add 2 plants to the row, I've got to remember to look up the variety I need. All told, it was a pleasant and productive day in the garden.