Fall arrived while we were gone

Well, we are back from vacation, a wonderful ten days with friends out in California. While we were gone, Fall settled in for good. Nights are getting pretty cold, though days are still lovely. The tomatoes in the garden are definitely winding down, though nearly everything else is still going strong. The eggplant plants are as tall as I am and producing beautifully. I wish I knew of a good way to preserve eggplant, but I don't (if anyone does, please tell me about it!), so we'll be eating a lot of it over the next few weeks. The peppers are finally ripening up, but a bunch have rotted as well. I think next year we will look a little harder for cool-tolerant, early ripening varieties and see if they do any better.

Now that we are back, I need to turn my focus back to putting up what I can from the garden. The kale will keep producing happily (I hope!) into November or December, but there is so much of it that I want to freeze some for use through the rest of the winter, too. One of our winter staples is potato soup with kale. I need to make pesto with all the basil that is going to flower. A bunch of it is Thai basil, so I think I'll experiment a bit with that--maybe a pesto with lime juice and hot pepper. Parsley needs to be chopped and frozen as well (it freezes beautifully with no treatment), and some also made into pesto with mint, feta and walnuts. Carrots to be blanched and frozen. So much to do...but it's fun, if I can just find the time.