September Garden

The backyard garden is still producing this fall.

We found a long lost Trombetta Squash hanging deep in the indeterminate tomato jungle. It wasn't very tender anymore, but sure made a lot of shredded veggie for the freezer!

The heirloom tomatoes are finally producing some nice sized fruits.

Here is a rather large meaty one in little 3 year old hands and another picture of my hand full of garden-fresh deliciousness.

My peppers seem to produce best in late summer. The jalapenos are blooming like crazy and the bell peppers are growing big and long before they turn shades of red.

The sweet potato vines are making a nice thick carpet despite the grasshopper and beetle munched holes in the leaves. I'm hoping for a large harvest just before the first frost.

The okra also grows furious these last hot summerish days. The grasshoppers have put a severe dent in the beauty of the stalks, but they are still making plenty for us to eat several times a week and even dill some for winter munching. Caramelized-blackened sauteed okra is a family favorite dinner dish.

We have three varieties of pumpkins fattening on the vines: pretty peach colored ones, green fairy-tale mammoths, and small dark winter squash.

The cantaloupe harvest is winding down, but there are several watermelons still sweetening.

A collage of one late September morning's pickings.

Big tomatoes, little tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, sweet bananas, spaghetti squash, scalloped squash, green beans, okra, watermelon, cantaloupe, and a lone cucumber.

After weighing and washing the vegetables, 

I used my new gifted colander to drain them in.

Jars of preserved Hot Pepper Jelly and Zucchini (yellow squash) Relish.

Produce harvested in September : 195 pounds

(including 51 pounds of watermelon, 40 pounds of tomatoes, and 26 pounds of cantaloupe)

Produce harvested in September 2014: 113 pounds