Usually, as fall wanes, I can cover the garden for a few days between the mild frosts and bring in the garden before a hard frost. Not so this year. We had our first frost Tues night and a hard frost last night. So I had 2 days to bring everything in. Yesterday was a marathon day--7 hours of solid work for me and 2 ds's. Dh worked with us the last 3 hrs picking apples and bringing everything inside.

So...here's what we got: On Tues I brought in a gallon of basil, 95 lbs ripe or ripening tomatoes, 60 lbs green tomatoes and 45 lbs Swiss chard. Wed we got the Swiss chard all processed and some tomatoes dried.

Yesterday's harvest:
42 lbs carrots (weighed after all the tops were cut off)--some are purple, some are yellow as well as the regular orange-type.
55 lbs turnips
21 squash--hubbard, butternut, spaghetti
1 pumpkin--35 lbs
4 lbs beets
2 purple cabbages (1st cutting)
6 small green cabbage (2nd cuttings)
1 gal broccoli
1 gal purple Brussel sprouts
2 gal green and ripe cherry tomatoes
various zucchini, parsnips, eggplants, cucumbers and parsley
And LOTS of apples--3-5 gal buckets pictured here.



MORE apples! 4 laundry baskets and 7 bins (each bin about 20 gal) full. Plus 3-5 gal buckets and two big cardboard boxes similar in size to the plastic bins are on the front porch. This will make LOTS of apple cider. And pie filling. And dried apples.




This is more apples than any family can use. The frustrating thing is I had 3 other families lined up to come pick apples and none came. This happens every year. I can't believe how many people turn their noses up at free food.

Well, all will not be lost because this year dh bought me an apple cider press, which we've already used. I estimate the apple pictured will produce about 20-24 gal of cider. Again, way more than I was prepared to put up, but if I have to do it, I will. I don't want it to all go to waste.

The other great thing dh bought me this summer was a set of washtubs. He got them for $30 at an estate sale.



These made yesterday's work sooooooo much easier. I did all the washing outside (had to wear rubber gloves though, because it never got above 45?) Got all the veggies washed, trimmed and put into bins. I still need to sort the carrots and turnips for those that need to be eaten or canned immediately and pack the rest into peat. But that will come after processing tomatoes and apples.

Don't know how much of our food supply this will be, but I'm guessing we reached our goal of producing/putting up 90% of our fruits/veggies for a year.