Saturdays are my get up super early, in the wee hours of the morning, go set up our booth at the farmers market (I’m primarily the setter upper, the rest of the family sells), and then come home and garden until mid afternoon.

My Saturdays do not suck.

Today I had a feeling that the voles and or mice were getting ready to eat down some of our long ripening vegetables and squashes. We had near freezing nights, and this is generally when I lose lots of goodness in the garden to super hungry and super tiny rodents.

So the dogs and I went to town, or rather to the dirt patches! Ripping out winter squash plants, saving flower seeds, gathering edibles, and finding out that the insatiable rodents did in fact get to about ten of my winter squash.

This one was impressive. Chew marks on the entire outside, and inside, almost like a wood carving sculpture. They damn near ate the whole squash that was the size of a ten pound bag of flour.

One of the largest Turks Turban squashes I had, and it was chewed all the way around and into the center. This bad boy weighted in at nearly 19 pounds.

We did manage to harvest, albeit a bit early, two wheel barrels of various types of squash.

Tomorrow will be our steaming, mashing, and freezing day so we have squash all winter for soups, stews, and squash pies.

And the tender squash blossoms will be made into rellenos tomorrow, stuffed with wild mushrooms and our sweet basil, and deep fried in a super light batter. One of my light secret pleasures this time of year.

Heirloom cucumbers and the itty bittiest heirloom tomatoes … Sun warm and so freaking delicious while working outside.

While I would like to say we harvested all of our ripe tomatoes, it is only the tiny ones ripening. Our Pink Brandywines, Big Boys, Beef Steaks will all be harvested green, and turned into sauces, curries, chutneys, and …

…fried green tomatoes … Thanks to my daughter, I had some for a late breakfast and they were awesome! FGT and hot black coffee may be my favorite breakfast this time of year when I am out harvesting.

I will have nearly three gallons of French Marigold seeds by the time if freezes. They had a great growing year, and kept my garden virtually bug free.

The scent on my hands after picking marigolds and harvesting seeds is the scent that makes me feel like ‘summer’. I love that garden scent more than any other. I wouldn’t wear it as perfume, but I want it all around me for sure.

Taking a break.

Spore or one of the kids will make a bouquet or two or four a couple of times a week. Why? Because our garden gifts us this beauty for about four months out of the year. I cannot get enough of it.

Relaxing and noshing after the farmers market. I think being in the dirt, working in the earth, and eating what we grow brings us more joy than is even imaginable ~ Nancy