Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello again!  Well, here we are...Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2011.  Lois and I have tons of stuff to be thankful for - each other, our home, our friends, our health and so much more. Not surprisingly, we also are thankful for our garden, which gave us so much bounty over the past nearly nine months. And the bounty continues, if only in a small way, as we brought in some fresh sugar snap peas this morning from the garden. That's right...we still have peas coming in on November 24. This is the very latest, by at least three weeks, that we've ever had something fresh to pick from the garden. We've had no hard freeze yet in the city, but I would suspect that many areas out in the county probably have. The picture below was taken yesterday when we got a sudden and short lived break in the clouds at mid-morning.

                                               Sugar snap peas on 11/23/11

We froze quite a bit of what we grew and some will be served tonight - the green beans in the g. b. casserole,  and the fresh peas on the salad. We used much of the zucchini to make and freeze the "Poor Man's Crab Cakes" and have 34 pounds of tomatoes frozen for soups, sauces, and stewed tomatoes, etc. (but not on tonight's menu). The only thing we canned this year was green tomato relish. I can't say we miss canning - the vacuum freeze system we have makes life a whole lot simpler. And, of course, some of the berries went into making ice cream. And speaking of berries, the raspberries are still producing small amounts. I picked a fresh handful just a few days ago.

                                      The small freezer we use for tomatoes.

Of course, I can't neglect to be thankful for Little Squirrel who provides constant entertainment with the antics she goes through to let us know she wants more peanuts. She did everything but knock on the kitchen door yesterday and only got out of the way when I opened it. She also climbs to the kitchen window sill, sits up on her haunches, chatters a bit and stares at us. The blue jays are gorgeous to watch, but certainly aren't as social as Little Squirrel.

                                       Little Squirrel waits for a peanut

 We've already begun planning next year's garden. We'll be using spaces then that we haven't used in the past to grow vegetables. And we really have to wait to see whether the cherry tree decides to produce ripe fruit....because if it doesn't, we're going to have to do what a young George Washington did to his!

Again, Happy Thanksgiving!