Backyard Farm

It's wet, it's cold, it's dark.  But I don't mind, I relish autumn. Apples, wool, and woodsmoke; soup, fresh hop beers, rich red wines, and baking just to warm up the kitchen.  I love the change of seasons, well at least this first part.

And although I ran out of steam at the end of the summer this year, due to various distractions and general disappointment with the  summer growing season, I still like to get out in the garden even if it's just for lots of cleanup.  I've been harvesting fallen leaves from some of my neighbors to fill my compost bins and spread over bare dirt spots as a mulch.

I never got around to planting all the fall/winter crops I intended to plant.  I did manage to plant some Lacinato kale and some peas.  So I haven't been doing much in the garden, but that doesn't mean that the garden has continued to work without me.  There are still edibles being produced and each time I venture out I am suprised and amazed and a little ashamed.

The kale is producing enough to make big batches of kale chips, and the peas a few handfuls each week.  Kale chips are terrific and let you eat dark, leafy greens while pretending you are eating potato chips.  And the Jerusalem artichokes I planted a few years ago, intended to be an automatic food crop, have become just that.   Even though I have been lazy about regularly harvesting them, they go on happily multiplying undeground.