Goodness! Autumn is finally upon us. I am so stoked to be able to go through the garden and harvest all that summer goodness. Sunflowers, squash, beans total success!

Corn made nice chicken food and some good old fashioned seasonal decor out front. Our sunflowers became a ladybug garden. Well, or an aphid farm. Depends on how you like to look at it. I prefer ladybug garden, myself. That seems to indicate some sort of success, where as aphid farm implies some sort of failure on my part. Why? Oh, I don't know!

 

 

Anyhow, after pulling up tons of gourds, pumpkins, butternut and hubbard squash the kids used the left over corn and sunflower stalks to make forts around the place. They are so darn creative. And they really helped take down the remnants of the garden. It is hard for me to be in the moment of taking all that down and letting go even though it is past. I should learn from that Buddist monk who comes to Chico each year to create the beautiful mandala and then destroys it. But, alas, too much attachment on my part.

Harvesting dried beans makes for a nice family night on the rug getting them all out of their pods. One row of black beans (well, a little less than a row) yield about 3/4 of a quart mason jar. My white beans were a bit of a disappointment. But we stuffed them in the jar anyway. We get what we get and we don't get upset!

While we are experiencing autumn bounty, the girls have started 4-H this fall. Valerie is taking Fiber Arts, Fiber Sheep and Cooking. Amira is taking "clover sprouts" where she will get a sample of a different type of project each month. The girls and I have had some fun field trips already. A couple of weeks ago "Fiber Fusion" came to the downtown plaza. The girls got card wool, see spinning demonstrations and weave on a loom.

The following weekend we headed down to Dixon for the "Lambtown" event. We learned about the different breeds of sheep, saw sheepdog demos, shearing and a "sheep to shawl" competition where these women took the wool, carded it, spun it and wove it into something. I had a lamb gyro. (How could I not?!)

Valerie also had her first cooking class this week. It was all about lacto-fermenting foods and learning about the good bacteria that live in the intestines and why they are so good for us. ("Hey, Kids! Can you say Enterocyte? How about gut dysbiosis?" Now, this is my type of cooking class!)She made saurkraut, beet kvass and dill carrots. They are fermenting on the counter right now.

And for snacks at 4-H, the kids got deviled eggs and raw milk. Such a far cry from the girl scout experience where snack time was like a food dare. My favorite example was the "fat free/sugar free pudding" cups washed back with a Capri Sun juice bag that will forever remain in our environment. Much like that "pudding" that will forever remain in the body as there is no way some of that stuff can ever break down. Okay, enough. I must let this go. Talk about attachment!

Hey, speaking of food issues, I ordered my butter from a farm in Petaluma recently. I got a big old 10lb block of the stuff. Check this out:

Of course, the cooking class was inspiring to me to get preserving all that fall harvest! I made jars of lactofermented jalapeno peppers. I didn't have any whey to put in the jars so I broke open a probitic capsule and put a bit in each jar along with salt and well water. I'll see if those guys are bubbling in a couple of days.

So, from this:

 

 

To This:

I also made some jalapeno poppers. Mmmmm! We'll be having those tonight with some home grown butternut squash soup.

Last night I took our bounty of anaheims and made chile rellenos. The rest I strung up and hung out with our autumn garden decor.

Here's Amira with her friend Madelyn showing off the decor.

Now, the eggplant was a little tricky. How does one preserve eggplant so that one will want to eat it later? (This is a Thai green eggplant I grew from seed started last winter).

Pickled eggplant doesn't sound great. Neither does canned, dehydrated or frozen. Blech. But, I found a great recipe for the old fashioned Italian way of preserving it in oil. Here is the recipe I used.

Eggplant Preserved in Olive Oil

Eggplant
Garlic Cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
Sliced, seeded peppers
Apple cider vinegar
fresh basil and oregano leaves
Celtic Sea Salt

1. Peel and slice eggplant. Salt it and layer it in a collander over night with weights on it so all the liquid comes out.

2. Soak eggplant in apple cider vinegar one hour.

3. Layer eggplant, sliced garlic, oregano, basil in several layers in glass jar. Push down to get liquid to rise and pour off liquid.

4. When jar is pretty full, top generously with olive oil and use a spatula to get air bubbles out. Put the top on and let it sit on the counter a few days to let the flavors meld. Then you will want to store in the fridge. I guess historically there hasn't been a risk with oil preserving. But garlic, these days, apparently poses some sort of risk. You can bring to room temp. and serve like an appetizer. Yum!

 

 

So, for now we tuck our garden in for the winter. Get the onions, garlic and brassicas going and just appreciate what we've pulled from it this year. Aerial view courtesy of Michael's pet iPhone on the roof.