Plant something: Not yet. I still want to get those cover crops in, but need to clean up some of the garden. I removed tomato vines and may plant these beds tomorrow. I am new at this and I need to think ahead to which beds will be early spring crops and which will be planted later. I know it makes a difference in which cover crop to plant. I am thinking oats might be good for the earliest crops (they will probably winter kill) and rye for the very latest crops. also thinking of comping grains with vetch. I might plant mangel beets in heavy soil (hope its not too late). and white clover in the paths. I want to do some planting in February (lettuce, peas, spinach) so maybe I should just mulch that bed and not put cover crop in?

Harvest something: sweet potatoes all dug , potatoes, green tomatoes, basil, last of green beans (just a handful), okra is at its end – it still has flowers, though. Nasturtian flowers and pods, more tomatoes for seeds (the yellow pear), scarlet runner bean seed, arugula, beet greens, turnip greens, chinese cabbage, broccolini, kale, peppers

Preserve something: curing sweet potatoes upstairs and stored a bunch under the stairs. Put a bushel of potatoes in the root cellar.

Waste Not: more brewery grains for the compost

Want Not: stocked up on sugar and another 5 pounds of rolled oats.

Eat the food: sweet potatoes, winter squash, mashed potatoes, eating lots of fermented pickles, tomatoes, and peppers. I cooked a big hubbard squash in my thermal pot – I cut it into large pieces and put it in the pot with 2 inches of water and brought it to a boil. I placed it in the thermal sleeve and checked an hour or two later and all was cooked. Can anyone suggest good recipes for winter squash? – I have a bumper crop this year.

Build community food systems: sending neighbors home with winter squash. food preservation and gardening talk with friends and neighbors.

Plant something: Nothing this week. Raining again.

Harvest something: Green Beans, last of the red peppers. Still no eggs, but the girls finished molting and seem to be eating better.

Preserve something: Too busy reading Independence Days.

Waste Not: The usual recycling and composting

Want Not: Restocked sugar used in jelly making. Rearranged the freezer in preparation for the beef we ordered from a local farmer. It has been sent to the packinghouse and should be ready in 10 days.

Eat the Food: Vegetable soup and cornbread, baked chicken, stewed potatoes and fried okra, pintos and squash relish, and strawberries.

Build Community Food Systems: Shared jelly and honey with several neighbors.

Plant and plant tending – repotted lovage, lemon thyme, rosemary. Still waiting on tomato and other seeds to germinate – my first year of trying this, and I may be doing it wrong. Weeding and mulching. Protection from snails.

Harvest – rocket (now going to seed), herbs.

Preserve – nope, and going backwards by eating preserved food (still, that is the point).

Waste not/Want not – only usual recycling and composting, attempts to keep bare minimum of stores in the pantry.

Eat the food – must have been doing this – with one or two meals out with visitors, but nothing stands out as memorable.

Community food – BB’s workplace vege blackmarket is currently producing limes.

We’ve had flurries and a very hard frost–the season is over for the most part.

Now is the time the spinning wheel comes out and the knitting needles and sewing machine are busy. Patching jeans and summer clothes before they go away for the season is top priority. Thankfully, in my house, no one is changing size every 6 months anymore.

Deb in WI

Harvest something: endive, basil, coriander, mint, lettuces, tuscan kale, broccoli leaves, collards.

Preserve Something: cooked & froze 4 meals’ worth of chickpeas

Prep & Storage: ordered a ‘tasting’ case of Rosnay organic wine, stocked up on tinned toms & beans & bulk falafel mix.

Reduce Waste: Mr B scrounged a dumped deckchair which should be just what he needs to repair the bench we rescued from the neighbours’ de-clutter – plus usual composting & recycling.

Eat the Food: roast veggie/tofu salad with home-grown greens & herbs; nachos with kale & broccoli leaves; chickpea curry with homemade chutney; ‘pizza scrolls’ with leftover grilled capsicum (bell pepper) storage olives, macadamia nut cheese; soup with homegrown greens.

Build community food systems: nothing for me this week.

In suburban St. Louis, MO last week:

Plant something: nope. Instead I brought potted plants inside. Wasn’t going to let them freeze.

Harvest something: Squash, pumpkins, leeks, collards, beets, carrots, sorrel, popcorn, nasturtium flowers, persimmons

Preserve something: my DH dug the 2 month old sauerkraut, made from local cabbage, out of the crock which had sat on the basement floor. He put the kraut in jars in the fridge. It’s crisp and delicious; apparently the basement floor stayed cool enough even in summer to keep it crisp. I started shelling the black beans I grew this summer. I’m drying popcorn in the basement, using the dehumidifier only until we get the beans and popcorn shelled out.

Waste Not: Only turned on the furnace long enough to ensure that it worked, and once more during bath time. It’s 57F in the house otherwise. So far it’s tolerable, although turning the heat up to 62F during bath time sure felt good! Using only people heaters (electric heating pads) and only in the evening, when we are staying seated.

Want Not: Ordered a year’s supply of olive and canola oils, another 25 lb bag of brown rice, and some Fair Trade teas while we still belong to the food co-op. Soon I’ll begin to source the bulk items we buy from other, hopefully local, places.

Eat the food: beans and potatoes; squash with persimmon filling the seed cavity; the season’s first chili (bean with TVP since we are mostly vegetarian, and using my hot peppers, herbs, and garlic).

Build community food systems: nothing this week.