It is my favourite season of the year, and this one is as perfect as they get. Rain here and there, interspersed with warm sunny days. I can still forget to bring a jacket when I leave the house, and get away with it. I still don’t need to switch from summer shoes to boots. But I no longer have to worry about whether it will cool enough to sleep at night, or how much we are spending to keep the AC running. It’s not running.
We are blessed with multiple fruit trees at our place in Tigard. There is a thriving apple tree that might be McIntosh by the colour? A thriving fig tree, which is a bit of a disappointment since I don’t like figs. But I am trying to make myself eat them and learn to like them, because my mother loved them. Right now, sliced fig on a cracker with a slice of sharp cheddar is a taste combination I can enjoy. We have an Asian Pear that was loaded with gorgeous fruits last year, but this year has only a few tiny, cracked, deformed things. I don’t know why. The neighbor’s Asian Pear is loaded with gorgeous fruit as ours was last year.
The squirrels eat apples. The chickens eat apples. We eat apples, and still we do not eat enough. They cover the ground and every couple of days I pick them all up and dump them somewhere: into the chicken pen, into the very back yard beneath the rhododendrons, into the compost bins. The rest, which is buckets and buckets and buckets, I dump into the yard waste bin and it is hauled off to contribute to city compost.
I have never owned a contraption like the one pictured above. Pedro and I spend a lot of time in second hand building supply stores, for our projects, but now also increasingly for the kids and their new home in Salem (closing is September 22, and they get to move in October 16th). I was looking for something else but spotted the apple corer/slicer and bought it for $3. It takes care of the entire apple in 2 seconds! Absolutely brilliant. My idea now is to cook down apples and freeze the sauce to use as compote or in muffins, or in pies this winter.
The above photos are for Lou, at Louis N. Carreras, Woodcarver blog. I commented that I have some volunteer squash that are hybrids and I can’t guess what they are a combination of. He suggested posting photos. So anyone: send me your guess. The ones above are pumpkin+what?
The spaghetti squash ones are on the kitchen counter right now, and it’s the 16th, so cooking duties for the second half of the month just switched to me. I am going to cook them and see what they taste like. The others are too pretty to cut up and they now adorn the front of the house.
Pedro’s hops plants are thriving. We planted them for looks. I love keeping a few of the hops around in the house, too, because they smell amazing. I love beer, and I especially love hoppy beer, and you can smell it when you hold the hops up to your nose.
The sunflowers are diligently planted by the squirrels. We had much fewer sunflowers this year and also this is the first summer with a new family at the house next to the garden. I am now wondering if the other family there put out sunflower seeds for the squirrels, and the new people do not? In any case, our garden is always filled with sunflowers, which are a mess and get in the way of everything, but they are so beautiful that Pedro and I leave a good many of them to grow anyway.
I think those are most of my seasonally appropriate photos. I am in a happy September mood today and it might be because I love this season so much. I had fun bringing you into my golden-orange world.
Oh. There is one more photo.
Before I lose it, here is the number for your Senior Center that takes extra fruit and veggies. 503-620-4613. I am sooo very envious of your copious quantity of all things good. Thanks for the ping back on the recipe. I hope it was as good as I indicated it to be. I used applesauce in brownies this morning. My oxygen lady comes tomorrow and I trade her for brownies. 🙂 You know this is also my favorite time of year. The heat is gone! No more 80’s + Occasional rain which we desperately need. I too love the smell of hops but never have access to any. Of course there is a little beer in my fridge. 😉 Figs are SO good for you, I hope you find a good way to use them that is palatable. In a salad maybe? I have it as jam with a little chili pepper in it. Safeway sold it for a while and I bought several. Can’t get it anymore. I like dark choc with chili too. Who woulda thunk it. Love spaghetti squash too but store bought is tasteless. Love it instead of noodles if it’s not overcooked. Don’t use applesauce in cookies though. I’m stealing back some time today. I want to do so many things so I’m staying home a bit more. You are doing such a great job there. Love and hugs, M P.S. Jupyter is beautiful sitting there.
I am so glad you are taking back your time for yourself. You have every right to do that. 🙂 I learned about chili and dark chocolate from the movie Chocolat. I was at Fred Meyer yesterday and stopped at their cheese counter and explained my challenge, and the person there was very helpful in guiding me through different fig + cheese options. They actually recommended fig spread if I don’t like figs. They brought out a spicy chili fig spread and put that on a cracker with cheese for me. It was SO delicioius.
Thank you for the Senior Center number! I will save it for next year in case we have zucchini overload again. Thank you for saying so about Jupyter. I am just in love with that cat. She is still a kitten-ish, and so much trouble, but I just love her.
Lovely photos. A plethora of fruit and veg, which is why we stick to flowers.
There is a special wisdom in that. 🙂
Wow, Crystal, I’m impressed. You could run your own farmers market! Love the colorful photo of Jupyter making herself at home on what I assume is the dining table. Spoiled indeed! Grin.
Pedro has always preferred lots of bold colours in the house, and I am happy to accommodate. Kellen made him the custom placemats too. Jupyter simply wants to be in the middle of whatever we are doing. 🙂
I’m with Pedro, Crystal. 😁 Love the door. And the placemats. Go Kellen! As for Jupyter, that’s more dog-like than cat-like. But don’t tell him. Grin.
Savoring this post this morning. I haven’t had fruit trees for over 20 years but I remember their abundance. (Also, unfortunately, the family of raccoons that would descend if we couldn’t get the fallen fruit fast enough). As I age, my taste buds are changing, and I just love squash! Mashed, soup and chunks with a pat of butter. Delicious post!
I love squash too. Unhappily, I never seem to find myself sharing a home with anyone else who loves squash the way I do. Ah well, more for me! Here, we have rats that eat the apples left by the squirrels and the birds. As long as they eat while I’m not watching, we’re good. 🙂
Crystal, this is a keepsake post because it really shows the fruits – or should I say harvest – of your wonderful garden!
I just wish that we could sample the zucchini bread from a post
The bread reminds me of something fun from this summer. In July, my mother and I went to an indoor rummage sale. And we had a lot of fun and as we were getting ready to leave, an Amish lady was selling a very small loaf of pumpkin bread. It was $10 and the reason I bought it was because she had such a great sales pitch. And I just wanted to invest in her also
Anyhow, my mother enjoyed every bite and ate it over three days
So it was win-win and your zucchini bread reminded me a little bit of what her pumpkin bread looked like
So kind of you to invest in the entrepreneuring woman! and it worked out for you because of the delicious bread. I made another batch with this same recipe the other day, and doubled it. But I planned ahead to give away three loaves, so we had only one left for us, and again, it was devoured in two days. I have to be clever about it so we don’t wear zucchini bread as our permanent winter layer.