End of Summer

It was the fall equinox yesterday, and I spent most of it cooking pumpkin bread and pulling things out of the garden. For the first time, I had to wear a wool cap and sweater out there, and I was only tempted to take them off for about 15 minutes before I got chilly again.

Looking at last year’s posts, I see we got an extra week on this end of summer before the first frost. That means the frost/freeze is still two weeks early, and last night Duluth had it’s earliest snow on record. Of course, spring started about three weeks early, too, so we’re still just off somehow. I keep waiting for one season to be long to even things out, but maybe it’s just a giant cosmic shift. The best thing is that all the squash ripened and I was able to harvest enough for winter before the freeze.

This year I was wise and grew pie pumpkins. They are so much fun! I’ve quartered and roasted two of them so far, and the flesh is lovely. The pumpkin bread is dense and sweet and I’ll be making more for the freezer. I’ll also be making that soup you cook right in the pumpkin and trying my curried soup with pumpkin in addition to butternut squash.

I’m never sad to pull out the tomatoes, and the blighted vines went on the heap with the mildewed squash vines, far from the compost pile. The radio garden gurus at the end of summer were all apocalyptic about killing the various mildewed and blighted plants, wrapping and double-wrapping them so they don’t contaminate anything, burning the soil left in the beds or replacing it (?!!) so as not to have problems next year.

I am counting on a couple of below-freezing weeks to get rid of the bad stuff, and dug in some mushroom compost and added yak compost to each emptied bed. The garlic bed, where the beans were this year, is good to go, and I have purchased a bale of straw to cover them thick and deep.

I also put in my first row-cover hoops today, covering the spinach, lettuce, beets and parsnips that are still growing. I put in the windows on the cold frame to protect the greens and winter carrots. I picked the turnips and lots of lettuce, spinach and basil– the fridge is bursting, still.

One thing I need to share with you, about that yak compost. I have a nice small pile, still, after filling the cold frame and using it to shore up around the leeks and beets. But a few weeks ago I found something in a bed that looked suspicously like a scapula. I mean, I haven’t seen many scapulas, but this had that iconic shape.

Today, I dug up what is obviously another animal bone. I asked Steve, “Is there, by chance, a whole yak in that compost?” He answered that, yes, Mr. Hooper has been known to compost dead yak in his large, hot, compost pile. The only thing I’m worried about now is the compost Steve has been making back by his tree nursery, and what happened to that raccoon and that skunk he shot last week…

Here’s one last summer recipe that I’ve been making with summer produce, specifically our Jimmy Nardello Peppers. It’s easy to make and has been deemed “restaurant-worthy” by my dinner companion.

Chicken in a Red Sweet Pepper Sauce

from Madhur Jaffrey’s “Indian Cooking”

2 lbs chicken pieces (thighs or boneless/skinless thighs)
1 large onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 in cube ginger, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 1/2 Tbs blanched, slivered almonds
3/4 lb red sweet peppers, trimmed, seeded, chopped (I’m using Jimmy Nardellos)
1 Tbs ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tst ground turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne
2 tsp salt
7 Tbs vegetable oil
1 cup water
2 Tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Combine the onion, ginger, garlic, almonds, peppers, cumin, coriander, turmeric, cayenne and salt in food processor or blender and blend to a paste.

Put the oil in a large, wide pot over medium heat. When hot, pour in all the paste and stir fry for 10-12 min or until yous ee the oil forming tiny bubbles around it.

Put in the chicken, water, lemon juice, pepper. Stir to mix and bring to a boil. Cover, turn heat to low and simmer gently for 25 minutes or until chicken is tender. Serve over rice!