Early Freeze

These last few years have spoiled us, in regards to our last freeze date.  I have almost come to expect that we won't have to worry about our plants until at LEAST late October.  Not this year!  Saturday we scrambled to harvest whatEVER we could before our first projected freeze that night.

Pears and the last of the apples were picked and moved under the stairs (temporarily) ...

Right next to the hibiscus and geraniums who are residing in our living room (temporarily) ... 

Green tomatoes, red tomatoes, bell peppers, chili peppers, jalapeno peppers and even a few eggplant were pick and took up their temporary residence by the back door.

I drew the line at picking the okra.  I could not FORCE myself to pick more okra at this point in the season.  

Right now, I'm still stick right in the middle of being disappointed that we lost all our plants, and relieved that the craziness of summer is almost over.  

On Sunday, the real work began.  Roasted peppers - yum!  I tweaked my roasted bell pepper spread and it is now DELICIOUS! 

(Okay, I know these look gross, but trust me, they are yummy!)  

Harvested the last of the basil for a huge batch of freezer pesto - YUM!

Lots of the ripe tomatoes were used for more tomato jam.  This weekend, I am going to try green tomato salsa verde.  Let's hope it's good ... because there are LOTS of green tomatoes.  :)

We also found a little time over the weekend for the Annual Udall Fall Festival parade.

The sirens on the fire engines were a little scary ...

But once the candy started flying, everything was okay.  :)