FALL ABUNDANCE

Summer’s ending and fall is almost here. The Endless Mountains Fiber Festival was last weekend. Saturday it was misty and overcast, but nevertheless more people came out than we could have expected. My personal favorite souvenir from the festival was this amazing Canada goose done in crochet by Janet Povlock of Unadilla, NY. Her booth was right behind ours and I couldn’t go home without one of her geese. She also makes them in other versions, but all are exquisite.

There was a threat of frost last night so I made a last batch of basil pesto, picked a bunch of flowers and covered the eggplants up. After the tomatoes and potatoes were hit with late blight I thought it would take out the peppers and eggplants too, but that didn’t happen. I never grew eggplant before and they were a great addition to the garden. Almost every recipe for eggplant talks about sprinkling the slices with salt and letting them drain to get the bitter juices out of them. If they are sliced, dusted with flour, dipped in egg and fried in olive oil immediately from the garden there isn’t a trace of bitterness. We have been enjoying an orgy of eggplant parmesan at least once a week and have frozen the fried slices for later.

Even the late blight hitting the tomatoes was not such a horrible tragedy. I quickly learned that green tomatoes plus a bit of sugar and tomato paste makes a fine tomato sauce. The neat thing is that there is no need to peel or seed the tomatoes because the skins are tender and the seeds are tiny. That is going to be my plan for next year’s green tomatoes at the end of the season.

Judy also gave me a very nice green tomato relish recipe that we like.

Fred wrangled the winter squash this year, keeping them mulched and weeded. They were far happier than under my haphazard care and produced such abundance that there were more than enough for us.
I still need to shear two more white lambs, but the other three ewes and the grey lamb are done. The grey lamb’s fleece is so pretty and soft. I can’t wait to spin it!