Checking off the list

The most fascinating culinary tip of the week was this serving suggestion for bacon: cook it. Skillet not included.

Serving Suggestion: cook the bacon

Even though it doesn’t feel like it outside, the New England Aster know that it’s fall.

New England Aster, one of the last flowers of summer

We are working frantically to check off all the things on the Get Ready for Winter list. The sauerkraut finished fermenting, and Hilda canned it this week. We’ve gotten the dry beans out of their shells, picked out the moldy and malformed ones, shaken off the dirt and packaged them in ½ pound aliquots.

Dry beans left to right: Lena Cisco's Bird Egg, Calypso, Vermont Cranberry, Black Turtle, Scarlet Beauty

I baked beets this morning and made pickled beets with hard boiled eggs for my lunches this week. I cut up the last of the cantaloupes. Not as good as the first ones, but still better than grocery store melons. I washed raspberries for my yogurt.

I went out to get herbs for marinated roasted red peppers this morning (I roasted them last night) and saw that the herbs were still in good enough shape to dry. Add that to the list. In addition to sage, rosemary, marjoram, thyme, and oregano from the herb garden, the volunteer dill is in its second flush in the garden. It’s perfect for drying. It would be perfect for pickles too, but the seed from last year sprouts too soon, and the seed from those plants is too late. I have learned that you need to inspect the herbs carefully before you put them in the dehydrator because you will never, ever find the black leaves, grass, and dirt afterwards. I learned today that sage and dill smells together are not all that pleasant.

Beautiful dill on the dehydrator tray

I rushed home from work Thursday so we could dig the potatoes before it rained on Friday. The potatoes were larger this year. Instead of 10 small potatoes per hill, there were a few giant ones. As long as they aren't hollow in the middle, this is a good  thing. Big ones keep better. It took two hours, and the potatoes were muddy. After all that, it didn’t rain. The potatoes would  have been cleaner if we'd waited. Oh well. The potatoes are dug anyway. I finished rubbing off the mud this morning, put them in boxes, and stored them in the root cellar. Good to have that done.

A giant potato

The potato harvest

The apples are quite wonderful right now. I picked a bunch for applesauce and saved out the best ones for my lunches. Hilda and I did tastes tests of the different varieties. My favorites were Macoun and Freedom.

Macoun, left; Freedom, right

It seems like this morning was a week ago. Through my frantic day, Hilda was canning the plum tomatoes that are now ripening. She joined me at the potato cleaning right at the end and said, “Tell me honestly. Do you think we have enough canned tomatoes?”

I laughed. “Of course. We had enough before.”

“Because I’m tired of canning tomatoes,” she said. “All my life I wished for a late fall, but now….”

“Be careful what you wish for,” I replied.

We agreed she could start on the applesauce. We are looking forward to November, when we can give thanks that the gardening season is over.