I Grew it Myself

I have officially decided growing pumpkins, gourds and squash, are my favorite garden vegetable. It’s one of the best feelings in the world to see those beauties collected from my very own garden and know that I don’t have to pay $$$ at the farmer’s stand for the same gourds. 

We have a random apple tree with two varieties growing smack dab together. I made a fresh apple crisp with them and it turned out pretty tasty, if I don’t say so myself. Usually I use my own canned apple pie filling for crisps, but I’ve been disappointed with my pie filling efforts recently. Even with using Granny Smith apples, the finished dessert ends up with mushy apples. This was a nice change, by using fresh. Definitely not as convenient, but having apple slices that still had apple texture after being baked, was quite pleasant. 

Looking out to see Natasha in the raspberry patch is a daily occurrence. She picks them clean and eats more out there than what she brings in to us. 

Our neighborhood used to be a vineyard, and happily, there are still Concord grapes growing on the fences in our backyard. Natasha and I picked and sorted grapes and made grape juice. I plan to gift these to our neighbors as “local fruit of the vine” at Christmas. That was Daniel’s idea and I’m thrilled with it. It seems like a it’s always a struggle to know what to gift neighbors at Christmas. I like to stick with something consumable, but these days one never knows if folks have special dietary needs or are already swamped with sweets. This seems to be a good option, being *quite* local, homemade, personal and quite natural. 

In place of the typical hoodie that every American seems to bring out of the closet when temperatures drop, I opted for a knitted fisherman’s sweater this fall. It has the cozy factor I was looking for, without the too-casual-look that hoodies tend to have. It’s been quite nice on morning walks.