Gardening & Food: Labor Day Weekend at Home

I've been a little behind in my postings...I've had material and ideas for a lot of entries and am not very quick in sharing them with you. If only work didn't take up so much time ;) Seeing as the leaves are now changing and falling to the ground and we've had a killing frost to eliminate any hopes of more fresh items from our gardens, I think it's about time I share photos from visiting my family's place on Labor Day weekend.

Visiting my parents' place in peak harvest season is definitely a treat. After all, who can resist fresh veggies and fruit? And when items are in abundance you can guarantee you'll be taking some wonderfulness home with you. This year the garden was even more bountiful than usual. My parents had so many tomatoes for example, my Mom took excess heirlooms to school with her to give away. Can you imagine? Free heirloom tomatoes?!? I hope her co-workers appreciated how much those would have cost at a grocery store :)

Some highlights from our garden-fresh weekend meals include grilled pizza in traditional style (i.e. homemade dough and sauce from scratch with fresh veggies from the garden), my dad’s famous omelets (his version of a Western with bacon, green pepper, onion and cheese) topped with delicious fresh salsa and served with toast and homemade jam (blueberry, grape, and raspberry!), Hamburgers with fresh salsa (including tomatillo), and fresh basil pesto with heirloom tomato mozzarella caprese. My mom has been really busy with her canning this year too – salsa, banana peppers, pickles, sauerkraut, jams - and their garlic was so successful, my dad braided it into a rope for storage.

Here are some photos to show the fruits of their labor. Maybe some day I'll have my own beautiful canning closet and braided garlic rope...