saturday, sunday: how i love you

Oh frabjous day, being home all day on a Saturday and Sunday: so sweet, especially after the super-busy of last weekend when we were hardly ever together.  Not to mention that I'm delighted it's October --  really, truly my favorite month of the year.  I love the way the air smells and feels, the crunch of leaves underfoot in the woods, the end of the intense gardening season and the transition to winter.  And oh, the bounty of right now is so good. 

It's super apple-harvest time, and oh joy, we also dug up the potatoes, some of which we'll eat tonight.  The parentals are coming for dinner, so we've got a feast planned, bounty from the garden, bounty from the meat section.  There's the most delicious smell of marinating steak when you open the fridge right now.  So good.

But wait, while gardening yesterday, extra special bonus: a gigantic brown prayis mantis.  Unfortch, this photo is better of my sweetheart than of said-mantis, but still, you get the idea.

We let the mantis go in the tomatoes.  Which means it's probably the best thing about those sorry plants.  A second disappointing year for tomatoes, which we blame entirely on the fussy heirloom varietals we purchased this year.  I hate to say it, but what I wouldn't give for the Early Girls and Best Boys of earlier vastly-more-productive gardens. That's sad, right?  I know it's partly to do with the weird weather we had, but we have never ever had such a bad crop, so many ugly, rotten tomatoes on the vine, than with these Brandywines and Mortgage Lifters, etc.  I feel bad, but next year, in the interest of actually growing edible food, we're going back to the reliable plants.  Maybe one heirloom, but not exclusively like we did this year.

In a minute I'm heading out to pick the basil and make one final big batch of pesto to last us a few weeks. I say that, but last time, it was so delicious that we basically ate our way through it until there was no more. I may have to freeze some just to ensure that we actually some to eat in November. 'Cause that's the whole point for me. I like to grow things all summer, eat some and save the rest, to ensure that taste-blast of summer in my mouth in the dark months, when at best we'll eke some cilantro, lettuce and kale out of the garden.

Mmm, and yeah, we'll be making some kale chips today, too.

It just doesn't get better than this, I'm serious. Such a great day.

And those apples?   Pretty excited to eat them tonight after dinner in the form below, super-cinchy apple tarts thanks to the store-bought puff-pastry.  Yahoo!