Waiting for a freeze...

How about a little canning and wild crafting glam??

Fox grapes along the creek gathered while standing in a tractor front loader...

 

become an itsy weeny grape pie... 

Scrappy abandoned pears become... 

cinnamon pears for a winter's day salad....

and fall berries become a mantel centerpiece... 

Fall is here, although the calendar and the temperatures don't quite support that declaration... The leaves are dancing in the breeze and there is a certain crispness in the mornings that hints to the knowledgeable that sweaters will soon be the order of the morning. Dew hangs heavy on anything left out overnight and it is later and later in the morning before things dry out.

Hay is coming to the hay barn and, at last, the tomato vines have decided their work here is done. I have one or two more canners of tomatoes and we will be finished with them. Thank. Goodness.

Apples were not quite ready last week, so they are still on the horizon and the pigs, Hammie, Sausage, and Bacon, will be processed October 26. We treat them to all the leavings from canning and have started adding a little corn and higher protein food to help them put on a little fat layer. Yorkshires are quite trim, by nature, so any fat on them just adds to the flavor of the sausage.

Soon, we will watch the snow fly and wonder where the summer went. Until then, I sip my morning coffee on the porch as the sun comes up casting diamonds through the air and welcoming all creatures great and small to another beautiful day.

Still Have Jars.....

It is beginning to feel like fall, at last! Today our temperatures are in the 60s, which is lovely! There is a sweet little breeze teasing the trees and fall is palpable.... at least for today..

My task this week has been, sigh, working in the Canning Factory, aka Lazy Bee Farm. Another 42 quarts of tomato sauce has been tucked upstairs for winter along with, to date, 24 quarts of small potatoes. When we worked the farmer's market, we sold these as "top of beans taters." Now, I notice that the grocery store has appropriated that moniker, too!

This weekend, being Labor Day, we will pick our "found" apples, orphan trees we have watched for several weeks for fruit. Applesauce and dried apples will be the order of the weekend, along with, I hope, apple pie filling and sliced apples. Today, though, it is more tomatoes....

My other projects for the weekend are to clear out a corner of the yard to move butterfly bushes we found at the wood's edge (how did that happen? We can't decide!) and a beauty bush from my parent's house. I have some hostas to divide, as well, and they should do fine there. I love it! Landscaping on a zero budget! The best kind!

My fall garden was put in today, too. I have broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, beets, peas, and brussells sprouts. A fall garden is new for me, but I am eager to see how it does. The way the seasons have shifted, I anticipate a nice little crop for the fall.

What are your plans for Labor Day?? Laboring? Or having fun?