Summer's True End

Day 32

Dianne harvested the last of our summer produce. A clump of peppers which have were actually planted this Spring by our neighbor La Nae has been growing in the small bed on the side of the house. These were almost renegade plants. Growing at the free will watered occasionally by me and I am sure more by La nae but the grew and they seemed to have grown well. The peppers are large by State Fair standards but they are well formed and tasty. Green peppers and hot peppers (red and green) full of flavor and promise. Dianne pulled them up by the roots dirt and all. They are probably still alive sitting on the sink waiting to be processed however we choose. I'll just chop them up and freeze the peppers in small baggies. The small baggies make perfect amounts for meatloaves, sloppy joes and chili oh yes, and pizza toppings.

My dad used to pull the tomatoes at the end of Summer. He'd yank the whole plants out of the ground and hang upside down in the garage. There would always be hundreds of tomatoes of all sizes and different shades of red, many green. They would hang and ripen. We often served fresh tomatoes at Thanksgiving and beyond. I don't know but I think the peppers would do the same, slowly turn different shades red till finally all red some would yellow but all are good. I knew when I came home from school and saw the tomatoes hanging in the garage that summer was truly over, the promise of warm days were gone till Spring. The freeze would come with in a week and everything in the garden which was not harvested would be “burnt down” to the ground and the cold weather would set in.

The cold has held off for quite a while this year the grass is still green and needs cut and the willow's leave still have yet to turn and flutter to the yard. The rain clouds have broken and the even sky is clearing...I am sensing a freeze is in it's way.