Harvest Time!

We have been reaping the rewards of our fun garden this month!  

It is so much more enjoyable having a garden helper who is in continually in awe over the progress each plant makes.  Every day when we would go to check on and weed the garden, Mia would go into ecstasies over the size of our pumpkins. Now we get to revel in our squash glory as we pile them high next to our front door and make all sorts of soups, breads, cookies, etc.

What a fabulous time of year!

Our nine surviving butternuts:

One of my two beautiful eggplants.  I could hardly bring myself to pick these--  they were so lovely.  Alas, both were sacrificed to a tasty batch of babaganoush. 

I often find some pretty scary photos of myself, parts of my self (Mia's eye-level does not produce the most flattering perspective), and other things...courtesy of Mia...on my phone, and have to spend a lot of time deleting.  This one I found, however, is in focus and captures me in true, weathered-looking form: sweet t-shirt, two-day old hair, sunshine wrinkles, and dirt under my nails!  

Most of the produce we'd gather would look like this before reaching the table.  For the longest time I was feeling panicky about a large rodent hovering around our house, until I caught Mia in the act of tasting each individual zucchini. It also happened to our cucumbers, green beans, and carrots. An attempt was made on an eggplant and an okra. And for the MONSTROUS size of our tomato plant (it was grown from seed and took over a 10 ft by 4 ft space), we ended up with a relatively small number of ripe tomatoes because of this sneaky girl. I think I managed to get TWO unmarked zucchinis into a meal and the rest just bore some extra love. 

It was a chore keeping some of the root veggies in the ground until full maturity.  I found Mia at the sink one morning in early summer washing this carrot she had prematurely harvested.

It was a solemn moment when we determined that our two last beets were ready.  Mia got to do the honors.