The Last of the Harvest

We've already had one frost so far, so I'm a little behind on rounding up the last garden goodies. Oops. :P Unfortunately the few green peppers, hot peppers and puny cucumbers that were left did not survive the frost which is a shame, but luckily the raised beds by the back privacy fence are more sheltered and were fine. So not all was lost at least. Hurrah! So I gathered up what fruits of our labor were left and brought them into the kitchen.

We ended up with 2 huge bowls full of large green tomatoes (I'm thinking a big batch of fried green tomatoes and some green tomato parmesan are in order...mmmmm), a handful of red or nearly red cherry tomatoes (most of which were consumed today by hungry children), and on the herb front I collected 2 large bunches of thyme, 1 bunch of lavender, 1 bunch of mint, and 1 bunch of lemonbalm.

I'm sad to see the growing season come to an end, but I love the beautiful changing colors of autumn, the crisp smell in the air, and the crunch of leaves under my feet. Nature winding down getting ready to slumber.

I also look forward to taking some time to slow down a bit...curl up on the couch in front of our cozy little heater, snuggled under a soft, fuzzy warm blanket with a steaming cup of homemade dark hot chocolate sprinkled with marshmallows while the winter winds whip outside my door and do some embroidery, read a good book, or maybe even attempt knitting again. *smile*