' As Luck Would Have It'

Really, either I'm letting age catch up to me or I'm just plain tuckered today.   Fall is such a busy time when you grow a garden and tend the acres.  My basket is always waiting to be filled.

 Besides the many loads of basil and parsley for drying, there were beans this year.  It's a first for me. I planted Yard Long Beans, thinking we'd like them for the table similar to a green bean.  This variety, however, disintegrated into a mushy, tasteless mess.  So, I thought I'd try letting them ripen as a dried bean.  Let me tell you, fixed this way, cooked until soft, salt, pepper and a little butter, what a treat.

 They are time consuming to shuck but so worth it.
I think I will try making baked beans out of these soon.  By time I pick and shuck the rest of them, I should have a couple quart jars full of dried beans.  That works!  Tho very tasty, I haven't decided if I will make space for them again next year even tho they were grown on a fence.

 I pulled my last celery stalk.  WoW~with the root end cut off, it still stood all the way up to my hips...they all must grow this way.  By the time I cut the leaves off for drying, chopped the small ends and trimmed the stalk, it was still larger than any I've seen in the stores or the organic farms.  I'm very pleased also, that the flavor 

so sweet and enhanced with our first frost.  These will definitely find a spot in next summer's garden.

 After brining a rack of ribs and bacon for a couple of days in brown sugar, salt and water, Bill started the grill on low, chopped an apple branch for soaked  shavings to provide more flavor, and 7-8 hrs later, what a delicious supper of pork ribs we had.

 The thicker chunks beneath the ribs were the slab of bacon which we cooled to room temperature, then popped in the freezer for a few hours to make it more manageable to cut on the slicer.  The taste of fresh bacon in the middle of winter will sure be a treat.

 My fall days would not be complete without staring at more, .................you guessed it, to-ma-toes!

 For a while, I had eaten so many that my mouth was getting sore from their acidic side.  Today I just canned them 'regular,' plain, easy-peasy will pleaseme!

 Now, about my luck...they, whoever they, is, says that if you see a Praying Mantis, you will have good luck.
First of all, these little fellas are not supposed to even Be  this far north or west.  I have seen them on the East coast, to first realize that they are aggressive, defensive little jobbers.  I can attest to that.  Out in Jersey, one once would not let me pass my window.  OK, I argued, you are not going to win this one because this girl has  got  to  get  to  work.  It kept jumping toward me and since I didn't know any better way back then, I let him fool me for awhile....finally I just screamed and ran past him....he was about 8 inches long and those eyes....

 They really are kind of creepy-looking with those spikes for shoes and double speared rears, ready to pounce on their next meal...they are meat eaters, so this fella could really have feasted for years on this ol' gal.

 He kept flaring his wings out and up, twitching those forks on his butt and rolling his eyes, all the while, not getting off the gate so I could get into the garden.  So much for ' good luck,'  I'm thinking.  He finally did move over and off the gate to let me pass but he kept one of those many eyes on me at all times.   I did the same. 

 Maybe I Did have a bit of luck, for look what I spotted in the brush...my first sighting  of Winterberries, and it's only September.?  These, too, are early to arrive.   When the leaves drop, and if the birds don't beat me to these, I will have some red for my Christmas decorating....did I say Christmas?   You did not hear that.  It's only September.

Thanks again, for listening to me ramble on.  You are a peach for taking time out of your busy day to stop by for a chat.

BlessYourHeart