On Thursday morning the thermometer read 27 degrees, and white covered anything that was not in direct sunlight. The first hard frost of Autumn had hit, signalling the soon-coming end of the gardening season.
A conflict is raging within me.
The sentimental side of me is sad, realizing that the days of fresh-sliced tomatoes from the garden are over until next year. The dreamer in me regrets that I did not preserve (either canning, freezing or drying) more of them, and remembers that last spring I really thought that I could put a much larger dent in our annual processed tomato budget. The realist in me is thinking, "Oh, thank God! I'm so sick of the piles and containers of tomatoes in the front room and in the kitchen. I'm sick of cutting boards that can't hold back the pools of tomato juice. I'm sick of tomato juices dripping all over the kitchen floor. I'm sick of cleaning the kitchen floor. I'm sick of peeling skins off of partially frozen tomatoes. I'm sick of tomato seeds sticking to everything and everyone. I'm sick of feeling guilty for not doing more. I'm sick of the color red. Oh, thank God."
Back in the garden, the kale, swiss chard and broccoli all look really good. It appears that the cabbage plants are actually trying to make a second run at producing. The root crops (beets, rutabagas, and turnips) are crazy big. But everything else is done.
Weather permitting, I will be cleaning things up in the garden this week and roto-tilling all the areas that are done for the year. Then it's time to plant and mulch the garlic, and wait for the 2012 seed catalogs to arrive. There is something seriously wrong with me.
A conflict is raging within me.
The sentimental side of me is sad, realizing that the days of fresh-sliced tomatoes from the garden are over until next year. The dreamer in me regrets that I did not preserve (either canning, freezing or drying) more of them, and remembers that last spring I really thought that I could put a much larger dent in our annual processed tomato budget. The realist in me is thinking, "Oh, thank God! I'm so sick of the piles and containers of tomatoes in the front room and in the kitchen. I'm sick of cutting boards that can't hold back the pools of tomato juice. I'm sick of tomato juices dripping all over the kitchen floor. I'm sick of cleaning the kitchen floor. I'm sick of peeling skins off of partially frozen tomatoes. I'm sick of tomato seeds sticking to everything and everyone. I'm sick of feeling guilty for not doing more. I'm sick of the color red. Oh, thank God."
Back in the garden, the kale, swiss chard and broccoli all look really good. It appears that the cabbage plants are actually trying to make a second run at producing. The root crops (beets, rutabagas, and turnips) are crazy big. But everything else is done.
Weather permitting, I will be cleaning things up in the garden this week and roto-tilling all the areas that are done for the year. Then it's time to plant and mulch the garlic, and wait for the 2012 seed catalogs to arrive. There is something seriously wrong with me.
