Mid September Independence Days

See what I found this afternoon!!

A Silver Spotted Skipper caterpillar.

It was munching on my edamame plants. I harvested the last of them after work:

A 5 quart pail from 4 feet of row. Not too shabby.

It seems like it has been a really long week already and it's only Monday. Whew. A bit much on my plate at the moment. Between work, getting back into the swing of children's activities, appointments, worries about family, garden, produce and construction- it's a bit full. And that's not even taking into account all the general maintenance stuff such as cleaning, cooking and laundry. Bleh.

But, enough complaining. It's time for my usual Monday Independence Days update where I can take a look at what I've accomplished over the last week. Hmmm, maybe the week isn't as bad as I thought.

1. Plant something- not a thing. Still waiting for my ordered plants to ship.

2. Harvest something- Pumpkins (we are now up to 10 with more on the way!!) squash, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, basil, and edamame.

3. Preserve something- froze a bunch of edamame and I still need to blanch and freeze the ones I picked this evening. That's not going to happen this late in the evening so I know what I'm doing tomorrow after work ;)

4. Waste not- Used cloth bags at the grocery store, as usual. Brought home half an apple crisp from the pie sale (even though I didn't really want it) so it didn't get wasted. V has been busy sanding down old planks that had been painted. They were the original wall between what is now J16's room and the 'fruit room' as my mom calls our food storage room (freezer, shelves, space for squash and potato storage). These are beautiful pine planks that we will now use for building the bookshelves in the rumpus room. Soon we will need to order more drywall and then the fun really begins!

5. Want not- got apples from the orchard to stock up for the next few weeks, not much else went into storage except edamame.

6. Build community food systems- supported our local orchard (YUMMY) and tried to advertise the fact that the quiche I13 and I made for Sunday was mostly local ingredients. A few people were impressed, but sadly, not all.

7. Eat the food- Hm, I can't think of a specific meal this week that stands out. There was our local quiche. Oh, and I made a fabulous black bean, corn and tomato salsa for yesterday afternoon when Roger and Sharon (my former garden partner and his wife) came over in the afternoon. The only thing in it that I couldn't vouch for personally was the black beans. Maybe someday I'll grow my own.

Oh, and on a generous note- if anyone in the IC area would like a Galeux d'Eysines squash/pumpkin- please, let me know. We like pumpkin but at the rate they are producing- at about 15+ lbs each- that's a LOT of pumpkin! I don't think we can feasibly eat 150 lbs of pumpkin before it goes bad and I definitely don't have room in my freezer for that much. At least one is reserved for Mom and Dad and I have 2 other possible takers. But, seriously- let me know and we can work out something. I hate to think of them becoming compost. And, the bonus- they are incredibly tasty. So, drop me a line. I've got 8 out in the shop right now and 2 more to pick probably before the end of the week.