It has been a very busy and very wet September, which does not bode well for farm updates. Ithaca got hit with a record 4 inches of rain on the Wednesday after Labor Day, closing Cornell and flooding just about everything. (Though we were not here to see it - we were experiencing the flooding from a Pennsylvania perspective while vacationing with the Hokansons in the Poconos.) Luckily, most of the things we still had growing in the Danger Zone (carrots, potatoes, swiss chard, cucumbers green beans, and pumpkins) held on despite all that water. (The tomatoes...not so much.)
Now that October is almost here, our gardening days are almost over. We have potatoes to pick (which we have never grown before, so I am pretty curious about that) and more carrots, as well as our two great pumpkins(!), but that is about it. These pictures were taken right before we left for the Poconos, so they are a bit outdated...
Our green bean production was completely out of hand, and we were often unprepared for the amount of green beans ready to pick. David put as many as he could in his pockets!
We pickled many of the green beans this year and tons of cucumbers. (If anyone would like a jar of pickles for Christmas, please let me know.) These jars are just from one round of pickling!
We also made three jars of homemade tomato sauce from our limited tomato crop. I am really excited to use one of these with some of David's homemade ravioli... (hint hint, dear)
Our lazy broccoli finally made an appearance, though it did not produce very much. This is a picture of a crown just getting started.
Many of the other surrounding gardens grew more reasonably sized sunflowers that obviously had to be intimidated by our tall (and fierce-looking) ones.
In case you were not convinced that our sunflowers were big, here is a photo of me with one of the ones that we picked. Notice how the sunflower is bigger than my entire head (though my afro of curly hair was tamed in a ponytail, so I may have won the size battle had my hair been down).
Our Chinese eggplant finally came in, and they were totally worth the wait. I am glad this one plant survived all of those pesky black beetles.
Linus (Great Pumpkin #1) was starting to turn orange at the start of September (and is now probably close to being ready to pick)...
...while Sally still grew bigger (David's foot is next to the pumpkin as a make-shift scale bar).
I love how colorful all of these vegetables are!! We used most of these in a giant stir fry. You will notice the carrots look strange; this is what happens if you do not thin your carrot plants early on. As they mature, they run out of space to develop and begin growing together. Many of our carrots are really several carrot plants combined.
The beautiful pork stir fry Chef David made with our vegetables! Yummy :)
As always, it is sad to have another year of farming come to a close, and we will likely have only one more farm update. Luckily, there are many exciting things happening this fall and winter to occupy our time, like...
...Ben's baptism this weekend!
...my trip to Seattle to visit Kristen next weekend!
...the impending arrival of Baby Boy Bennett (late October), Baby Girl LaPierre (mid-November), and many other little ones (10 and counting)!
...and of course, the holidays (Butler for Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, then onward to South Carolina for Christmas)!
