Garden Wrap Up

Garden season is over now and the best of the garden is saved for last in my opinion!  I might be saying that because I got really sick of two months of zucchini and then really sick of several months of tomatoes.  But at the end of the garden's life, ideally after the first frost, is carrot time!  We had two rows and got to keep most of them since the thieves realized that pulling them up is not like on cartoons where you just grab the leaves and pull.  You need to actually dig them once they get big otherwise the tops just snap off leaving the carrot buried. 

Here is the pile from one row after I hosed the mud off. 

 

There were some deformities, which I believe is from improper thinning and the plants growing too close together. 

 

This one was the most absurd and deformed mutant in the batch.  I don't know what I was thinking when I left that cluster of plants unthinned!

These carrots are so delicious.  They taste so much better than ones from the store.  I don't know how to describe the difference but it is noticeable.  There is no way we can eat all of them since there were many pounds of them.  I filled four of those reusable grocery bags with them and they were so heavy they were hard to lift.  We chopped and vacuum sealed most of them to freeze.  We did this last year and it worked well.   It took quite awhile to get them all processed.  Justin washed and peeled and I chopped.  My left hand is still slightly orange from holding them on the cutting board.  I went swimming this morning and thought the chlorine would take care of it but the orange tint is still there. 

 

That's a lot of carrots heading for the freezer!  I chopped some small for soup and some larger for cooking as a side dish or in a crock pot.  Maybe this new baby will actually eat and then I can make baby food. 

And now I present the result of a summer of tending...our monster zucchini!  We left one on the vine to see how huge it could get because they will grow out of control if not picked.

 

Here it is next to a desirable zucchini that you would want to eat. 

 

Here it is next to a standard bottle of wine.

 

Here it is next to Ben's riding tractor.   I think we could have ended up with a bigger one but had some losses over the summer, the most recent to the thieves.  I hope they enjoyed eating the nasty overgrown thing! 

 

OK, now it will probably be headed to the garbage!  Sorry, big zucchini!  The big ones are not good to eat since the seeds get big and they just don't taste as good.  They can be used for shredding up and baking bread or cakes but this one is even too big for that I think.  I am over zucchini  themed foods for a few months anyway. 

 

I should mention that today is a special day...Allan came to live with us four years ago!  Time has flown by.  I still am amazed at how perfect he is for us and I am so glad Justin chose him and that he made himself at home so quickly! 

 

 

Here is a picture of him sitting with me the first night he was at our house.  He is so cute and little and the living room in the background is so pristine and free of toys and other crap!   It seems like a different life...