A killing frost brings changes to mealtime

I knew last night's freeze was coming and so I pulled in the red and green tomatoes, most of the banana peppers and the full-size green peppers. I gave up my second planting of green beans and sugar snap peas to the cold because, frankly, we'd had our fill of those by Labor Day. And the herbs, well, I had already put forth respectable effort drying them; what's more, I had clipped a bouquet of basil a few weeks ago and the green stems have been holding their own in a vase of water (covered by vented plastic) on my windowsill. And the raspberries, well their first season ended as sweet filling for gluten-free tarts that were gobbled quickly.

At dinner, Hubby and I enjoyed our last red tomatoes with fresh basil. It felt like just another light summertime meal if not for the roar of a hot fire warming our toes inside while outside the October sun cast long shadows over our now decimated garden. Ahh, autumn.

For those of us who appreciate farm-fresh local produce, we must now satiate ourselves with root vegetables such as squash, potatoes, carrots, onions, etc. Oh, and there's that sweet corn in the freezer! And the thirty-some quarts of fresh tomatoes that just went into canning jars. Of course, the local grocery has fresh asparagus, flown in from Peru. But how fresh can that really be because if I had just flown in from Peru, I don't think I'd be feeling very fresh. Autumn; it's a tough time of year for a locavore.

Last Sunday's New York Times magazine offers some interesting reading for foodies; it's their food issue. Included is this article by Michael Pollan titled "Rules to Eat By" with an interactive feature that includes twenty, reader-submitted dietary dos and donts. The list is varied and offers some gems worth pondering, such as "You don't get fat eating food you pray over."

Tomorrow, the forecast calls for snow. That alone is enough to send me in search of chocolate. But heck, we're only a few weeks into autumn. Ahh, autumn. I think I'll go sniff my vase full of basil while I still can.