The End is Near

No, I'm not talking about 2012. I'm talking about our garden. The end is near; only a few short weeks away. We have about three weeks left and then we have to wait to plant another garden until next year. The winter is going to be long, but I don't mind that. Winter is my favorite time of year. It's cold, and crisp, snowy, and cold. I love the cold. Truly, I do.

At any rate, I'm kind of glad that the garden is about over for this year. It was a lot of work, but it was enjoyable. Now I'm ready to sit back and relax and use all the items we canned and froze throughout the year. I made some more blueberry zucchini muffins the other day. I made about 60 of them using only one zucchini. Our zucchini plants are fading now, but still using up the last bits of their energy to produce some rather large vegetables. We don't let them stay on the vine for more than a week. Well, one time we did just to see how big it would get but it didn't get any bigger than the ones we get each week, though it did have a pretty thick skin on it.

The sunflowers are on the decline as well, and we just might be a good deal of seeds from them. James cut off one sunflower to see if we could harvest the seeds, but it was still green and not ready yet. Within the next few weeks we'll take down the sunflower heads and lay them out in the sun to dry out. I'll have to update you on the end result of those.

One of the pumpkins was ready, so James picked it and he is now using it as inspiration for a Halloween painting he is doing. It's looking really good, and once it's complete I'll be sure to post pictures so you can see the amazing talent he has. The pumpkin was small, but there are several others that are about the size of the carving pumpkins you see in the store, so we know those are right on track. I can't wait to make some pumpkin pies and pumpkin chocolate chip bread with the ones James doesn't carve for Halloween, and to roast some of the pumpkin seeds. It will be good.

The watermelons are growing insanely fast. We were worried when we planted them that they wouldn't have time to grow before the season was over. I'm not sure if they have some sort of survival guide kicked in or something because every week we go to the garden they are at least three times bigger than the week before. Last week they were about the size of a cantaloupe. I'm optimistic that we'll get a decent sized watermelon by the end of the harvest time. We have so many growing, so if some of them don't make it, that's fine by me. Next year we plan on planting the watermelon much sooner. We've learned that watermelon grow fantastically well out there, so they are on the list for next year.

The tomatoes are doing well too. We've got a lot of canned diced tomatoes, and last week we were able to can about 13 jars of tomato sauce. Kudos to James' mom, though. Without her we wouldn't have so many wonderful jars of delicious fruit and sauce to use throughout the year. She has been able to keep some of the food as well and use it too, so it's a good trade off. We told her we would grow the items if she helped us can them and she agreed. So, I think in the end it was a good partnership.

Halloween is coming up quickly and James and I are so excited. We have some friends coming over soon to help us decorate and I am so looking forward to that day. I just love hanging out with that couple and being able to hang out and chat while decorating for Halloween just makes it all the better. I love Halloween, and I've actually been busy working on some Halloween projects that I'll post soon. I have a few more things I need to do in order to complete them, and then I'll post a Halloween entry. It's going to be awesome!! Enjoy your day, everyone.