Over-exuberant Gardening

I know I should be grateful that the fruit of our earlier labors has been so prodigious, but I can't help thinking that I really am tired of canning.  Don't get me wrong; I love canning and seeing the pantry shelves pile up with lovely glittering jewels.  It makes me feel good. 

It is just that there are only so many hours in the day.

Yesterday's forcast was for 30-32 degrees overnight.  This meant a panicked rush concerted effort to bring in what was left in the garden that is susceptible to low temps.  I came home from work after lunch to help Will bring it all in.

This is a reasonable amount of squash for our consumption.  We generally plant butternut squash instead of buttercup squash but a friend gave us plants she started in her greenhouse.  I do think they are cool looking!  The wee delicata's in the background are amazingly sweet.

I appreciate their stripey-ness.

The flower end of the buttercups have an interesting texture and pattern.

Peppers in the basket were a nice surprise...they were hidden under leaves on the pepper plants which had dissapeared under the tomatillo plants.  We will be making sweet pickle/pepper relish this evening. MORE tomatoes.  Mostly heritage in the box in front.  Some of the green tomatoes were fried last evening at the Lila Wren's request.  The leeks were a gift; they will go in potato-leek soup (at Duncan's request).

Tomatillo's and even more tomatoes.  We'll be making salsa verde this evening also.  The tomatillo basket was overflowing but I shared with a few friends.

Eggplants or aubergines did overly well this year!  There were two varieties; one japanese or asian eggplants that had a lighter skin and were much thinner, and another that were supposed to be egg or globe shaped...which were not.  They were long and a chubbier- skinny eggplant!  This is about 20 pounds worth, and after my friend Jodi came and took about fifteen off of the top.

Seventeen pumpkins (not all in the photo) of varying sizes, and yes; we picked sprays of green cherry tomatoes to enjoy later.   Psychologically we had a hard time leaving even the green tomatoes in the garden even though we had way too many tomatoes to begin with.  That is not to say we didn't leave any tomatoes there....we did.  There were way to many cherries to pick!  Will estimates our tomato harvest at ~300 lbs.

This is probably about three bushels of basil.  Some will be distributed to friends and the rest dried or turned into pesto.  This is not a typical harvest in the U.P.!

We ended up with a very light frost, not a killing frost.  The plus side is we don't have to rush next time a frost is predicted.  The down side is....we have to deal with preserving all of this that much sooner!

Lila is taking a canning class at school that meets twice a week.  She is learning how to use a pressure canner and they canned beans on Monday.  The school has a lovely garden that was started by the kids; click this link for a video story done yesterday from a "local" news station out of Traverse City.  Lila could barely stand it because she is certain that the jar of beans the reporter is holding was the one she canned.  Much better evidently than having your face on the news!