It's a blustery day, with the leaves skipping off the trees downtown and swirling around before flying away, kind of like Ridley Scott was in town. It's cold and wet and grey, much like someone threw a switch and our Last Gasp of Summer (mild, golden days that light up the color on the trees so everything just sort of glows, again, in some filmmaker's lighting dream) is over.

So, it seems reasonable to inventory the work of the summer:

39 qts canned tomatoes
12 pts peaches + 7 pts & 1 qt left from last year
2 qts + 1 pt cherries
12 pts apricots + 2 quarts from 2 years ago
13 pts applesauce + 2 pts from last year (apples from Pop & Lianna's trees)
3 1/2 half pts + 10 1/4 pts roasted red pepper spread
6 1/2 pts tomato preserves
5 1/2 pts rhubarb from last year
9 1/2 pts raspberry jam
10 1/2 pts blackberry jam (scavenged wild berries)
7 1/2 pts strawberry jam
8 1/2 pts apricot jam
2 1/2 pts dried celery
7 1/2 pts dried green pepper
5 1/2 pts dried red pepper
3 1/2 pts dried yellow pepper
2 1/2 pts dried green onion (I grew these)
8 pts dried asian pears
6 gal bags frozen strawberries
4 gal bags frozen peaches
2 gal bags frozen cherries
5 pts frozen roasted red pepper
8 qts frozen blueberries
2 qts frozen blackberries
8 qt frozen raspberries
3 qts + 3 pts frozen spinach
5 qt frozen corn
2 qts + 2 pts frozen carrots
10 qt. frozen green beans (homegrown)
4 qt. frozen peas (about half homegrown)
8 pts frozen chopped zucchini
4 pts frozen shredded zucchini
10 1/4 pts frozen pesto
2 pts frozen pumpkin
6 qts frozen broccoli

2 whole pumpkins
5 whole butternuts (2 from our p-patch)
50 lbs. yellow onions (approximately, some homegrown)
48 lb. potatoes from our garden (homegrown)
18 lbs apples
unknown quantities of carrots (some still in the garden) and kale (all still in the garden)

The chest freezer is full, the kitchen freezer is full, the pantry is full. I've even got some home-milled flour in the freezer, and pounds of whole wheat berries. And the garage is almost done being rearranged (just as soon as I can find someone with more body mass than I who can wrestle a hard-to-leverage screw into place) and my cheese-aging refrigerator is in place (it was the cheaper alternative to getting a cave).

Time for warm and cosy things. Soup. Quilts. Books. Even mulled wine.

Happy Autumnal Blessings!

We planted some fruit trees in our neighborhood a week or so ago. Dry day, but brisk and breezy and not at all friendly to the reporter who showed up in a too-thin, mostly-decorative jacket. She shivered while asking questions, poor thing.

Anyway, the results are here, complete with a (much abbreviated) quote from me and a photo with Caitlyn in the background. She's the blond behind the girl who is the focal point of the photo.

With any luck, the trees will survive our inexpert, all-volunteer planting job, their first winter, and the attentions of our neighborhood kids. It'll be great when our community orchard starts producing!