October Harvests

What's not to love about eating out of your yard in Wisconsin in Mid-October?

Some of this is pure luck--I left a few small fruits on the plants on those potentially-frosty nights early this month.  Two weeks of fantastic Indian Summer later, I have lovely eggplants and peppers.  The broccoli, which is just our spring planting left to its own devices, is making tons of shoots.  (I actually froze a big batch of that earlier in the week, as we had just too much produce to eat this week!)

But some stuff, the radishes and greens, and that basil there, is from me getting my act together this fall.  Thanks to the greenhouse (thatwasnottobe),  I had started a bunch of cool-weather crops.  When we realized the project was going to be moved/delayed, I kept planting anyway, just to prove that the fiasco wasn't a total loss.  I set up my low hoops, and have row cover up for cool nights (keeping that basil alive a few weeks longer than it should be).  As we hit real freezing temps, I'll double up with plastic, and we'll just see how things do.  I just planted another round of cold-tolerant greens last weekend, so I think I'll get a fairly good preview how things will do next year in the big hoop.

In the meantime, we've been eating fantastic salads almost every night.   And tonight's menu--grilled eggplant parmesan, and a huge salad with grilled chicken.  Everything but the chicken and farmer's market cheese (well, plus olive oil, lemon juice/vinegar, and the flour in the homemade baguettes) is coming from right outside the back door:

Salad:  greens (mixed lettuce, baby kale and spinach, tatsoi), french breakfast radish, the last of the fresh cucumbers, zucchini, and tomato, broccoli, green onions, carrot, and garlic.
Eggplant Parm:  eggplants, tomatoes, basil, garlic, parm and provonella

Served with grilled garlic baguettes.  Ooh, and I almost forgot my other half is stuffing peppers with cheese and wrapping in bacon to grill!