A couple days ago I gathered three full plastic grocery bags of tomatoes, mostly green, but a few ripe ones too, and another bag filled with Jalapenos. Plus a few more green peppers and I even found some potatoes to boot. Probably close to 30 lbs of produce all told.

The tomatoes are a real blessing since we didn't harvest any at all this Summer. I don't know what I'm going to do with all the Jalapenos. I think I'll just puree them and put them in zip-locks and freeze them for now.

Plus, I went out there today just to pull some weeds and I found a mess of new lettuce growing from seed cast off from what I'd planted this spring, and some tiny dill plants sprouting too. That's way cool! I'll get at least one more salad out of that lettuce and I'll cut the baby dill and dry it for our spice shelf. Both of those should start growing again early next Spring too.

The soil in the garden is better than ever. It's so loose and rich. I'm really kind of stunned at how much it's improved again this year. All that leaf mulch from last Autumn has been worked in by the plants and worms and it's getting close to as good as I've ever seen anywhere. Next year should be pretty good again.

I still have about 24 quarts of pickles in the fridge. We've given dozens away too. I gave three quarts to Ulhiker's wife. One when I met her about a month ago, and two more when Ulhiker and I met to go hiking. (I'm pretty sure she's hooked now

Since I can't hike for the next week or so, (deer season starts tomorrow) I'll spend it cleaning up the yard and garden. I mowed the front yard today. Last time I'll do that this year, and gathered a trailer full of leaves and branches that had fallen. I'll grind them into mulch to cover the garden in a couple more weeks and with that the season will be over.

Except... I might put a visqueen row cover over that lettuce. It's possible that some more seed might sprout there and I'd love to see how long I can keep it growing. I've never tried that before, but that lettuce is looking strong