Pumpkin Patch!

This has been the most incredible fall! We are in peak leaf season right now. Every view, even in a parking lot, is breathtaking. It makes me so giddy! I love fall and feel so lucky to live in a place with fall color.

This weekend we visited “our” farm, Gathering Together, for a CSA member pumpkin harvest celebration. It was sunny, about 60 and I was so excited. They welcomed us with freshly made potato donuts, hot apple cider (from a friend’s farm – La Mancha – the best!), chips and house made salsa, coffee, and house-made wine! We saw a bunch of friends, including one of my students. 🙂 Then we gave ourselves a little farm tour (we didn’t wait for the farmer to give us the hayride), walked out to the huge pumpkin patch and hunted around for just the right ones.

It was the perfect day.

Jack-o-lantern shirts

I made these jack-o-lantern shirts for the girls and they are super easy.  You still have time to make them!

The out-takes of this mini photo-shoot are pretty funny.

G sitting up by herself

G fell over

R holding on...serious business

pumpkin patch!

Ruby’s class took a field trip to a pumpkin patch this week and John got to go with her. The pumpkin season is the worst in 20 years around here, we’ve heard, due to our ridiculously short summer. Ruby was lucky there were any pumpkins at all! She loved it all: the hayride, climbing on hay bales, a hay bale maze, choosing a pumpkin from the field, having snack outside, petting the goats….

Ginger is 5 months old now (6 months next week!) and has joined us at the table in her high chair now. As John says, “All of a sudden, I feel like a grown up with two kids at the table.” So weird. As soon as I give in and admit Ginger is as old as she is, she’ll be eating her first foods.

Happy fall and CSA report

We usually celebrate the new season by having a big meal showcasing local food and such, but John was out of town the day of, we got a hot spell in the middle of the week, and I just didn’t have the energy for it all. We’ll postpone until October sometime. But Ruby and I went out for a walk around the neighborhood and looked for signs of fall. We spotted changing and fallen leaves, which I asked her if she wanted to collect, but she just moved them off the sidewalk into the grass. We looked for acorns, but didn’t find any that day. We have since, and have a little collection of them and chestnuts we’ve come across. Anyone know what these pink berries are?

Lots of goodies in our csa this past week:

russet potatoes

carrots

lettuce

cucumber

candy sweet storage onion

red onion

pears!

sweet peppers

ancho pepper

cilantro

ambercup squash

summer squash

spinach

tomatoes

pumpkin patch

Our family is back together again!  We’re having gorgeous fall days right now.  Its cool, but sunny.  We’re soaking it all up before the rains set in.  We visited a pumpkin patch yesterday at Heavenly Harvest.  Ruby was a little more into it than she was last year.  Here she is playing in a box of corn kernals.  She could have stayed all day, but we had hayrides to ride.

And pumpkin patches to trudge through.  Ruby picked out a pumpkin and kissed it.

Good choice, huh?

Now it feels like fall and halloween can arrive.  I love attending these seasonal festivals to get us in the spirit of things.  We’ve got a few pumpkins on the porch – white, beige, and orange and squash inside.  How do you celebrate fall?

On a totally unrelated, random note, I found a link to this flickr collection of Richard Scarry comparisons on Simple Mom.  I have my old Richard Scarry nursery rhyme book and Ruby recently chose a Richard Scarry number book from the library.  We love the simple illustrations of the books.  Anyway, this flickr site compares one of his books published in the 60s and the same book updated in the 90s.  The pictures and words are updated to allow for a bit more diversity.  I love it!  I need to go to the library and check out the new version of my old book now to compare.

a moment to breathe

I am finally settling in to the idea of caring for Ruby alone this week.  (John comes home tomorrow night.  ha!) Of course, maybe today is better because we finally slept through the night.  Ruby is napping, I fixed myself a cup of tea, grabbed some chocolate and a book and headed out into the yard to read and relax a bit.  It is gorgeous!  60, breezy, sunny…the perfect fall day.

The show on Friday was wonderful.  I liked the venue and they liked us.  We’ll be there the First Fridays of November & December.  And friends will be visiting for the December show.  Yay!

Here’s our csa report:

lettuce

carrots

sweet onions

cabbage

garlic

pink grape tomatoes

nicola potatoes

strawberries (in October!!)

johnagold apples

Ruby was happy to have strawberries back in her oatmeal this morning.  She picked them all out of her bowl, ate all mine that were left, then threw her bowl because she was mad there were no more strawberries in there.