Late summer to early winter

I've been lazy in posting photos, and some of these shots should have been posted a while back. So here are some memories of late summer up till now.

We had plenty of tasty, colourful tomatoes coming out of the home garden from June until October: Purple Cherokee, Big Beef, Gold Nugget, and Fox Cherry. I think my favourite, flavour-wise, was Purple Cherokee. I also grew some plum tomato varieties in one of my landowner's gardens, though the varietal names escape me now.

Laire and I managed to preserve quite a few of them in vinegar following a recipe in the excellent preserving book, Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning. We also pickled green beans with garlic in brine as well as in vinegar; both versions were delicious. Beets, carrots, cucumbers and summer squash also found themselves on the chopping block, so to speak. I may have gone a bit crazy with the lactofermented stuff, though. I'm finding it a bit of a challenge integrating salty pickled foods into my meals...

This shot from above one garden at Latimer & Josephine was taken in the morning on one of the last market harvest days. It was crisp and clear, save some valley fog and contrails.

Even on the chilly days I had to stick my hands in cold water to wash the greens. Next year I hope to have an indoor washing station so that I can continue to sell salad greens and root vegetables through the fall and winter. I took a picture of the Spicy Mix to put on file. Maybe someday I'll have an online catalog of produce available, as is done effectively by Cookstown Greens in Ontario. For your interest, the Spicy Mix pictured consists of mesclun mix (just mixed baby lettuce), red mustard, arugula and mizuna.

One day a blistery storm swooped into town, turning a sunny fall day into an icy barrage of rain for a few days. I remember changing my mind about planting garlic. This shot was taken from the hill across the Observatory St. bridge as you turn the bend into Rosemont.

We still have tasty unharvested concord grapes hanging on our arbour at home. This is after weeks of rain, snow and several hard frosts, and they still taste fine. I would have harvested them earlier if I'd known how to deal with them. I think we'll just end up making lots of jelly. I considered making a wine or pyment from them, but concord grape wines are apparently only good to drink after at least a couple years of aging, and at this point in my life I don't think I have that kind of patience. So jelly it is.