Fall Has Been Kind So Far

It's definitely starting to look, if not now feel, like Fall.  We've been lucky the last couple weeks with unseasonably warm weather.  Peppers and tomatoes are doing their level best to catch up with where they should have been.  I canned 13 quarts of the tomatoes we brought home from (didn't sell at) market, and we have a fine batch of salsa.  Even the Fairy Tale eggplants, who usually peter out by now, have been hanging in there.
The rodent problem continues to be epic.  I can't remember if I've already discussed this, but we think maybe when the grain is in the field near the garden the rodents are worse.  Anyway, Teri and I are developing plans for additional barn owl boxes to be constructed and deployed over the winter.
There are a doe and two fawns who make the rounds from our front yard to the cucumbers to the green beans daily, or perhaps twice daily.  I'm afraid it doesn't look real good for the mom.  She isn't scared of people, and only really cares about Andy when she fully commits to the chase.  This weekend is Shawn and Ed will be hunting for bucks, but later they can go for does.  We've decided we don't really want this doe to teach another generation of the wonders of lawn and garden.  They're white tails for those who care.

Potato harvest continues slowly.  Last night we made grilled salt and vinegar potato slices from 101cookbooks.com.  They were good!  Having a mandolin makes the slicing a snap--a kitchen tool I don't use much but surely value when I do.

There's been a water crisis.  A broken pipe has seeped for a few years, but suddenly it was worse and the other day Teri's pump started screaming.  All water was turned off.  Turns out it was just a relay, which Teri fixed without trouble.  However, Teri dug a giant hole to uncover the leak, and the result is to cut off water to Gladys' house, from where we got the water for the garden.  Shawn fixed the leak from the gravity fed reservoir, but now more leaks are evident.  Anyway, we have a geri-rigged fix at the moment and will be getting brand new water lines to the garden in the next few weeks.  The peppers and baby radishes are happy to be getting some water.

It's field burning season in the Grande Ronde Valley.  I don't think the particulate matter has helped my cold any.

Shallots ready to be planted.

Ozzy loaded and ready to go--just waiting for the cilantro.

Carrots on our new carrot table cloth in the Saturday morning light.

Behind the scenes view.

Talking to good customer Steve and his mom.

Produce early in the market--Aunt Ruby, Green Zebra, Wapsipilicum Peach, Black Krim, Kellogg's Breakfast, Anna Russian, plain old tomatoes, and the eggplant.

Having removed the awning at the end of market.

Picked over.  We sold out of zucchini--who ever heard of such a thing!

I felt a photo of the Harvest Moon, even a crummy one, was required.