Nearly done...

I've had a small list on the fridge of things left to do before the gardens are *really* done. Now, I've only got one thing left to do, and that's pickle some more beets.
A local farm stand was about to close, so G and I snagged up another 5 dozen sweet corn, a 25# bag of beets and a huge bag of onions. We also had 8 cabbages to deal with in the garden and a couple rows of chard and kale. The last beastly groundhog took down the kale but seemed to leave everything else alone UNTIL Saturday morning when I went to let the chickens out and feed them and I noticed the biggest cabbage was half-eaten! I literally growled out loud and stomped over to the cabbages in my pink, fluffy slippers and scrappy bathrobe to inspect the damage. I growled again and began tearing cabbages out of the ground in a huff. Dirt was flying everywhere and my jammies got plenty dirty.

I came back into the house with 7 cabbages and threw them into the sink. I washed, chopped, and salted them (green and purple cabbages) and shredded several large carrots and threw them all in a crock for sauerkraut. I curse the groundhog, but at least he/she got me moving on the kraut I've been meaning to make for weeks.

Now that cabbages are gone, the groundhog has taken down most of the chard. That's fine, I processed most of what I wanted from it anyway. I'd trap the darn varmint, but I loaned our trap to friends who had a raccoon coming into their cat door every night to eat cat food from their mudroom!

I also had a ton of garlic to plant, both soft and hard neck varieties. I did that last night. Besides waiting for the leaves to fall and a few tomato plants to take down, I'm just about done with the garden. And that feels good.

Bring on the weather that pushes me to make bread and soup and meat pies and more. :)