Blackberry garden harvest pie!

The holidays are almost over for the year. It has whipped by quickly and I am in anticipation for the upcoming grow season. I hope I can manage it while working full time. I'll just be doing a lot on the weekends, I guess.

Anyway, I snapped a couple of pictures of vegan desserts that grandma made for xmas...they were delish! Even one of the desserts was a pie made with blackberries from the garden that had been frozen this summer.

At the holidays, I paint winter scenes for family members, and here are two I painted and gifted.

This is one painting I did & gifted as well

 Of course, if you aren't already, you can see my other works of art at my other blog, Art Landfill or on my Instagram for pictures of art and my gardens.

I painted this winter scene too 

Lovely holiday stuffed acorn squash recipe

Oooh made something delectable that is a delicious dinner wrapped in fall season flavors! In fall, gardeners usually harvest winter squashes. Acorn squash are one of those fall season delights that are perfect for a holiday dinner.

For this meal, I cut he top and bottom of the acorn squash so that it can sit flat in he oven. I preheat the oven for 450 degrees. Then scoop out as much of the squash and chop with some onions, spinach, and vegan soy sausage in a skillet of oil. Toast two slices of bread, chop, then add to the soy sausage mixture. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until squash is soft.

Meanwhile bake squash in the oven while fying soy sausage mix, then add mixture to the acorn squash vessel. Bake for 30 mi utes or until squash is soft on the outside skin.

Of course I didn't take a picture of this meal  but I'll make sure to get a shot when I make it with the butternut squash for the upcoming holiday dinner.

But I did snap a picture of this rice, carrot, cabbage cooked with ginger, garlic, sugar and the microgreens I grew garnished on top.

Fall autumn quince dessert

There are fruits and flavors that remind us of the fall autumn season: cinnamon, pumpkin, pear, apple, persimmons, and oranges. Actually I ate a pear from my garden today, and it was good for a Kieffer pear.

The lesser known fruits of the season are quince and figs...which I incorporated in a tiny delectably simple dessert.

Pineapple quinces

I have never grown quinces, nor have I tasted thrm before, but the other day I came across some at the store so I thought I'd try them. I cut one up today and noticed this fruit is unique from others in that it is like a sponge and is inedible raw. I looked into quinces, and sure enough I realized they need to be cooked.
I have a flavor bible book hat recommends pairing quinces with some of hose other fall flavors. So, I used the quince that I had already cut into cubes to cook in a small pot with apple juice, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla extract, chopped pecans, and cut up figs harvested from my garden.

I cooked this mixture for 15 minutes on low, then drizzled it over top of vegan toast with melted coconut "cheese." I call this a hillbilly gourmet because toast isn't quite fancy but it is somewhat a fancy dessert because of the high quality fruit ingredients. It's quick to melt some vegan cheese on top with a beautiful array of flavors that comfort you.
Here's a picture of a similar dessert with the quince...I didn't take a picture of the one described here because I ate it immediately!

The porch back into a greenhouse for houseplants

A couple of weeks ago, I cleaned off the porch and ripped off the old transparent sheeting. My dog lives in the porch so everything was grimy and desperately needed a good cleaning.
I had been keeping ceramic tiles stacked all over the porch too, so I got them cleaned off and stacked in my garden shed to make space for the tropical houseplants.
The houseplants will die from these freezing nights now, so I had to get these covered. In my spare time, I put the plants on the porch then cut the pieces of transparent plastic sheeting  to fit the sections of the porch. I had collected pieces of wood to drill or hammer screws and nails to the wood to secure the plastic. I double layered the plastic as well as added layer of prote tion from the cold.
I still need to add the second layer of plastic to the door side of the porch. This design isn't professional or even amateur, I just put it together hillbilly style, and it will keep my plants protected and my dog warm in the upcoming winter season. I'm not sure they'll survive outside all winter and I'm running out of space in my house for the plants, but I might end up bringing them in when it gets into the single digits.

And I have added to this halloween scene because I'm a sucker for this time of year!

Seasonal festive holiday Nature eco gifts

The fall garden still has some bounty left, like all the flowers and herbs. There are some cherry tomatoes and peppers I'm still harvesting. Actually I harvested peppers then pickled them yesterday before I had to go to my work's gala event.

When I got home, I cut up these squashes in the pic below and cooked them with rice, ginger, garlic, salt, carrots, and apple cider.

Flowers pressed

 With the pressed flowers, I'm using them to make holiday gift ornaments, as you can see below. Many of the flowers were wild and others I picked were some I planted from seed or bought from Lowes.

I'm cleaning the garden beds

I don't think I'll be planting any winter crops, though 

I did consider sowing seeds but it would probably be futile

 I have been doing this, in addition to cleaning my garden shed and the porch greenhouse. I put up new plastic sheeting for the porch so the plants stay covered. I'm debating about bringing them indoors...

I had a gala last night for a fundraiser for work, and the higjlight of my evening was eating the morel mushrooms! The chef said my plate was worth over 100 dollars! Fancy gourmet!

First Fig of the year, sweet potatoes, Pear, carrots & Apple Fall Fest

First fig of the season 

Sweet potato & carrot harvest 

Odd shaped pear fruit 

Fruit trees in fall

This passed weekend, I worked outside diligently cleaning the shed, the porch, and trying to decorate for fall and halloween. In fact, I put up some of my usual decorations today. Sunday I went to an apple festival in my area and bought cider and a bag of McIntosh apples. 

Pepper & potato harvest, fall scene & scarecrow in the food forest

In my spare time, I'm picking veggies from the garden and decoratung for fall.

The last of the peppers, going to be used for garden pizza  

Potato harvest today from the grow bags, and I'm going to make some hashbrown & soup  

Some of the gourds I purchased and some I grew, like the cushaw and patty pan squash,
Most of my pumpkins and gourds have already rotted so I added some from the greenhouse
I went to today, and I also decorated my grandparents fall scene  

Here I decorated my grandparents porch

Figs growing, Popcorn plant, & fall flower & Basil garden

Canna flower 

The figs haven't been as prolific this year compared to last  

But these two fig trees are loaded with fruits so I hope they ripen before the first frost

This Cassia plant really smells like popcorn and it's another
tropical plant I'm growing Kentucky  

I have a basil garden I need to harvest soon as well 

As I was taking photos, I stumbled upon these morning glories 

The color of the morning glories have a beautiful shine

There are many beautiful flowers in the fall garden, the ironweeds, goldenrods, aster, and herbs. Peppers and lettuce are still growing so I'm still eating a little out of the garden. There's a horned worm helping me eat the food too. I noticed many pepper and tomato plants with the tops chewed clean off.

That's what to expect in a garden, of course, and I have a rabbit too because I have noticed paths of rabbit dung and beds amongst the herbs, flowers and other weeds. The garden going into fall is still very much alive and well even though I'm eatjng significantly less food in the garden than a month ago. I have many herbs though I need to harvest, including the figs and pears if they ripen before the frost. 

Fall food Harvest from the gardens

More salsa canned with the garden peppers, tomatoes and herbs 

This is some of the last garden harvests of the summer, and today is the first of Fall. I didn't sow seed for the Fall but there are some cabbage and lettuce plants that might survive for the next month or two.

I have been picking lettuce sparingly in making my tofurky sandwiches to take to work. I'll miss the many dinners of fried fresh beans and peppers. I'm still harvesting potatoes as well, and tomorrow I need to dig more up from the ground and the potatoes from the grow bags. 

I have my fall scene up with pumpkins, foddershocks, gourds from the garden, and of course my cool scarecrows I've made in the past. I have to organize it again though because it looks like somebody or something attacked the scarecrow and smashing or eating the fall harvest.
Everybody is already putting out their fall scenes, because stores are putting out the displays and boxes of pumpkins out early. It's all very enticing too, but I'm going to try to resist buying any autumn and halloween decor. Save your money by growing your own fall harvest to display and DIY scarcrow for halloween!