More Musings from the Junque-pile

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday was rainy and muggy as all get out. This morning dawned chilly and sunny. I'm not even sure it's supposed to make it higher than 70 today. I'm happy for not sweating, yet sad that autumn is coming. Me no likey da cold weather.

Things were busy yesterday despite the rain. daHubster pulled out the potato cage and spent a good chunk of time *carefully* digging up our potato crop. Those little guys have very delicate skins. Since this was our first year trying to grow potatoes, we weren't sure what to expect when we dug them up. Would there be a lot? What size would they be.  I was actually pleasantly surprised with the amount of taters he pulled out of the ground. And they were all shapes and sizes, from the size of a pea to the size of an orange!  There was quite a lot, too...probably about 10 lbs worth. Not bad for a $1.50 investment of seed potatoes, planted about a month too late. They are currently wrapped in burlap in the basement. Everything I've read about potatoes says they need to dry for about 2 weeks.

Yesterday I hit the farmer's market hard for more peppers. since my little guys didn't produce the luscious amounts of bell peppers I wanted, I wanted to supplement them with the gorgeous, ripe reds, yellows, and orange bell peppers that the market is offering right now.  I found one vendor that must have had a bumper crop, and was selling orange peppers 3 for $2.00. Reds and yellows were 75 cents each. BARGAIN!  Peppers are still around $3.00 in the grocery store. EACH! That just gets my goat. I spent a few hours chopping my load of peppers for the freezer yesterday afternoon, plugged into my iPod.

I also pruned my basil plants, the leaves were starting to fade, and I didn't want to lose the whole thing. I love the dried basil. I used it all winter in soups and sauces. This year I planted Purple and lemon basil in addition to Large Leaf. I think next year I will stick to just the large leaf. The lemon basil smells great, and the purple is pretty, but I think I prefer just plain old basil. I wonder if I threw some more seeds into the basil pot if I'd get another small crop before it gets too cold for them outside. Hmm...

I also bought some more bunches of green onions that I also chopped and dehydrated (outside) overnight. Green onions are so pretty in their little air tight glass containers when they are dried. And tasty too. I threw a handful into some scrambled eggs for yesterday's breakfast. Delicious.

End of summer is my favorite time. I've fallen in love with putting food away for the cold months. Figuring out bargains, then chopping, drying, canning, freezing...it's all good!