Scrambling with produce

It's been a wonky week, mainly because we woke up to snow flurries on Monday morning.
We haven't had the accumulations that Calgary is getting, but still, I groan.
Snow in early September?!! Ugh!!
It means we have to scramble to take in the garden before it freezes tonight,
since I don't have enough blankets to cover everything!

Codie McLaughlan took this pic for the Edmonton Sun a couple of blocks from our place.
Fortunately, Edmonton didn't get much whiter than that.

I donned my most waterproof clothing (which didn't turn out to be very waterproof) and spent almost five hours in the garden, salvaging vegetables that, fortunately, hadn't frozen. It was one degree centigrade, and the wind whipped the snow around so that I wondered if a blizzard was on its way. I found myself shivering a few times, which made me decide it was time to change my soaked and very chilly garden gloves. I went through a pair an hour, with little cotton mitts inside them that kept some of the warmth until they got too wet.

My Belgian friend, Gaby, tells me that I look like some sort of astronaut!

There was a lot of organic matter for composting, 

Nine bags of leaves layered amongst bean and squash plants.

and more fruits and vegetables than I realized!  (14 spaghetti squash!)

As always, there were a few cukes that had hidden themselves well and had grown to outrageous size. 

I also harvested Ralph's Romas, 

and found that the biggest, four-fist-sized tomato had a little frosty spot on it...
so 1/4 of it was my lunch for today.
There was definitely more of everything than I realized!

We harvested our pears last weekend, thank goodness, so all that's left to deal with are the pumpkins, kale, chard, onions, leeks, beets, carrots and kohlrabi. 

I managed to salvage four tomato plants growing in my compost bins

and move them into the greenhouse on Saturday (we'll see if they amount to anything),

and our pepper pots are happily settled there, too. 

There should be lots of lovely peppers for spaghetti sauce making in October.

We are extremely fortunate that it didn't freeze outright. There's a lot of work ahead to make the most of all this produce, but it's worth it for a fifty-foot diet. And there's nothing like tomato and cucumber sandwiches this time of year. My favourite!

Thanks again, God, for our garden, and your abundance!