Monday Garden Club- Giveaway Winner!

Wow, it took about an hour to figure out how to save a portion of a web page and insert it into this post, but it was worth it. The winner of the preserved pint of peaches is (drum-roll please)

comment #3, my friend and sister blogger M (Out In Them Sticks). M, I'll email you later this morning to get your address and send out your jar of peaches. Thanks everyone for entering and more so for being faithful readers of my little blog. I have had fun blogging about my garden this year and loved seeing all of your gardens as well.

And with that I must admit that my garden is almost officially done. I picked the rest of the good (not squishy or split) tomatoes yesterday along with the winter squash and few remaining green beans. I gave up on the broccoli last week after picking, washing, cooking and serving what turned out to be wormy broccoli. Other than the sudden appearance of worms, the broccoli has been the best producer this year. The bugs didn't arrive until last week and I had a decent sized harvest every week since mid July from 6 plants.

The only thing that is left in the garden are the brussel sprouts. I have picked a few stalks but there are some smaller ones out there that could take advantage of the rainy weather we have been experiencing yet hardy enough to not be bothered by the cool temps. Oh and the carrots too. I dug up about half and left the other half right in the ground to be dug once I use all of the carrots in the fridge. That's it... I think.

After I harvested everything, the Gardener started taking it all apart. He cut down and pulled out all of the sunflowers. He even remembered to save a couple of heads for next year's seeds. He also took down all of the fencing and pulled out all of the big plants and other garden shrapnel. I still need to dig up the gladiolas and the dahlias but everything else will get plowed under as soon as the sprouts (and carrots) are out.
While the Gardener worked out in the cold yesterday, I cooked in the kitchen. I made 3 containers of tomato sauce (spaghetti sauce with tomatoes, carrots, onions, celery, garlic, green peppers and mushrooms) to freeze. After I cleaned up the tomato mess, I canned 6 jars of applesauce made with (FREE!) apples from my neighbor. The gardener doesn't like his applesauce fancy at all so I hold back from putting any cinnamon in but I did add 2 tablespoons of honey for sweetness. I also pureed it all with my hand-held blender (best kitchen tool ever!) to a smooth creamy consistency. Delicious! I may cook another batch this afternoon...

Other than that I'm just trying to keep up with all of the produce and find freezer space for it all. I can't wait until I actually get to use some of it. Right now I feel like if someone would look at my basement shelves or in my freezer, they would assume that I have a food hoarding problem.