Gardeners' Holidays 2017: Late Harvest

As the 2017 gardening season heads into its final weeks, I've been taking stock of how all our crops did this year compared to previous years. The results appear very mixed. Our basil, which in past years was so prolific that we couldn't even figure out how to store it all, has given us only the equivalent of a couple of bunches. Last year we got massive amounts of cucumbers; this year, most of the cucumber seeds we planted never germinated, and we ended up harvesting only a handful of cukes from the few vines that survived. Even the zucchini plants gave us only a few good-sized fruits before yielding to borer damage. (We thought we'd managed to thwart the borers by burying the stems in dirt, but apparently all we did was delay the inevitable.)

On the other hand, our pepper plants have done pretty well; the new Gilboa variety, a sweet bell, was disappointing, but the Carmen and Jimmy Nardello frying peppers have both produced about nine good-sized peppers and are still going. Ditto for the tomatoes; the Black Prince and Mr. Fumarole were disappointing, but the new Pineapple variety has been hugely productive, and the Sun Golds were as abundant as ever—and there are still a few of those out on the vines as well. (We'll have to bring them all in for box ripening before the first frost hits, but according to the weather report, it's likely to be late this year—possibly not until after Thanksgiving.)

And for the piece de resistance, yesterday Brian brought in the rest of our butternut squash crop off the now-withered vines: a total of 11 squash, not counting the two we've already eaten. This is probably the best squash crop we've had since the year a rogue vine sprang out of our compost bin and took over the entire side yard. If we consume them at the rate of two squash per month, we can make them last until spring. (We probably can't spare one to use in place of pumpkin for a Thanksgiving pie, but we still have plenty of home-grown rhubarb to use for the other one.)

Of course, at the rate of two squash per month, that doesn't leave us any for tonight's dinner, but that's okay; we happen to have several ripe tomatoes that need using up, as well as an eggplant we picked up on Friday at the farmers' market. So we'll be celebrating the Late Harvest with a dinner of Baingan Bharta—made from this recipe—and top it off with some tea and cookies as we enjoy a round of role-playing games with friends. How cozy is that as a way to spend a chilly fall evening?