Xmas baking and bashful carrots

Garden burnout is beginning to subside as 18 inches of snow erases all signed of last year!

Jenn and Jess have begin the Xmas baking. My contribution (booze-fueled fruitcake) has been finished since late summer. I am also thinking about another batch of wine as Jenn likes the malbec I made last year.

I have almost finish most of the fresh carrots (including this bashful one) but we have plenty of potatoes. The last few weeks have seen soups made almost entirely from the harvest (excepting salt and olive oil and bay leaves).

I actually dropped by the grading store this week to pick up an Xmas present for Jess and I've been quietly pondering the crop rotation for next year. The tomatoe sauce we made with my tomato mill has been fantastic so more tomatoes!

Pumpkin muffins and Hallowe'en fun

Snow flurries (not yet sticking, though) and cooler temperatures have brought the gardening season to an end. Now it is all about eating! I'm certainly appreciating the apple sauce in oatmeal and the dried soup stock ingredients.

I'm currently roasting our pumpkins to make the base for muffins and a cake. Interestingly, one appears to be a traditional pumpkin while the other has been interbred with a spaghetti squash.

Jess' Lego costume was a huge hit trick-or-treating last night as well as at the school costume parade. 

I finally dug out some Jerusalem artichoke root (above) and some daylily roots. The daylily was far stringier and harder to clean. Both tasted appropriately starchy. I wonder if there is some opportunity to naturalize the artichoke in a local park? Guess we'll see what comes up in the spring.