A Thanksgiving Table

I don't know what got into him....but Will spent a good part of Thanksgiving morning out in the carport...arranging all the fall vegetables onto a table. The table sagged with bounty (literally. It was quite beautiful, but I knew that, as cold as it was that day, folks would only see it in passing on their way to the door! No matter. It is indeed a work of art.
And one more Thanksgiving note: We wanted to use as much garden produce as possible for our Thanksgiving dinner. So, after all other menu items had been decided, Will got a wild hair and decided to make 'gumbo z'herbes'. This is a traditional louisiana gumbo made with 7 greens. Actually, his was made with 10 greens (!) A thing of beauty, but I must say, it has been many years since I have washed each and every leaf pulled from an entire BATHTUB of greens!
That is all for now. Will has interesting post-frost garden pics on his camera, but I haven't made it into that store yet....

Well, it's November

Down here, that means it's cool at night, sometimes very cool....and you wear a jacket to work or a sweater and then it heats up during the day and you forget that it's fall. Then the sun goes down. And, at night, the grass is wet and cold. And the air is dry. Some of the crops love this; the lettuce and other greens, the broccoli. But you think about the fall tomatoes, and the peppers, the basil and other things that will go with the first frost...which will be soon, maybe. You never know. It's kind of sad, in it's way. I see the flowers. When you walk near the zinnias they explode with butterflies. It cannot last.
I went out in the dark tonight with a big flashlight...trudged across the yard and into the garden to pick basil. Will was making a pizza and this was all he asked of me...it was little enough.
I clipped the middle out of one big plant and the scent rose and I stopped and put it to my nose. I remember this spring, when I picked the first basil and I thought...I haven't smelled this smell in 6 or 7 months, maybe more. It was heaven. So I tried to savor it out there in the dark.

Today, Will planted the garlic. It will over-winter, to be harvested in late spring. We will try to plant strawberries next week. Same thing. If you're not with it in november, you simply don't have strawberries in the spring. Wish us luck. We are overwhelmed with other things, and sometimes our plans don't come to fruition (so to speak). But the berries are a must. We have a 2-year-old grand-daughter and I believe it is imperative that she wander into the garden next spring to gorge on strawberries.

At least I know that these little greens will be with us, frost and freezes and everything, until we throw our hands up and plow them under next spring.