The harvest is almost done!! Yippee!!

My daughters are now back in classes. Yesterday was the first day of autumn quarter. I spent the day stocking the fridge with quick and easy to grab foods for the whole family, and harvesting the last of the late apples.

My daughters did a herculean job with the harvest. The three of us did what 5 of us usually do. The girls gave up their 2-week vacation and helped with harvesting and preserving. And so, I have promised them some sort of vacation this coming winter. Don't know what that will be yet, but something fun.

There are still crabapples, late pears and cranberries to harvest, later in October. I am hoping that my son and husband will have time to help with those fruits. Harvesting is a large job. But the rewards will be evident this winter, when we'll have this home-grown fruit on our table.

I am still figuring out how our schedule will work this fall. My daughters have many evening activities (requiring my chauffeuring skills), an irregular morning schedule (some days one of the earliest buses, other days the latest bus), and new Sunday obligations (both morning and afternoon -- choir related).  I find that working this all out is best done on paper. I made out a schedule, and am seeing which days look more intense than the rest, so that I can figure my own around-the-house work schedule accordingly.

I have a bunch of stuff to tell you all, and will get to it over the next week. For now, here's what our family is eating for lunches this week:

• cinnamon-pumpkin-applesauce (about 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin stirred into applesauce, with a hint of cinnamon -- quite good, and packs some extra Vit. A and fiber)
• a casserole of baked beans, chipotle sausage, tomatoes and onions
• pumpkin muffins (they bake faster than pumpkin bread, saving electricity) with cream cheese
• carrot sticks and peanut butter (no kidding, my daughters like peanut butter as a spread/dip for carrot sticks)
• pumpkin-peanut smoothies
• apple cobbler
• yogurt
• apples
• toasted cheese sandwiches
• leftover refried beans and tortillas from Sunday

This sounds like a whole lotta food, but we don't eat all of this everyday!!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to having a bit more time to keep up with all of you. Hope you're having a great week!

Lately . . .

The end of last week turned extremely busy, and I'm just now catching up. A friend passed away a little while ago, and I serve on the Hospitality Team at our church. We put together a nice luncheon to accompany the memorial service on Saturday.

In addition, my daughters and I have been harvesting the apple trees and the one super huge plum tree. The apples just get picked and stored, but the plums have to be processed in some way (making jam, chutney, splitting/pitting for prunes and freezing). My fingernails are badly stained, but oh well, that's just part of the job.

Also, a big front is pushing in today, and have been picking and storing tomatoes, as I can. The first major storm front also usually brings late blight to the tomatoes, so if we want to use them, I've got to get them harvested.

I had hoped to get in a couple of side excursions this week, but we may be very busy with harvesting before the weather turns very cool and very wet, and getting last things done for fall quarter.

Still, lunches need planning. As our fridge and freezers are packed to over-flowing, meals are based first on fridge contents, and second on bits and pieces from the freezer. (You know, all those half-full containers of this and that can really take up freezer space!)

This week's lunch menu includes:

• ham and egg fried rice (using squash, garlic and greens from the garden)
• Harvard beets
• beet green quiche
• vegetarian chili
• plum pie
• apple pie

Two pies this week, as we couldn't decide which we wanted more! One daughter made a large batch of pie pastry for me on Sunday, so the pie-making is easy for the week.

I hope that you're having a great week! And enjoying the change of seasons!

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