Wood Converted to Food

So what has all this wood produced, anyway? Well, let's take a look...

This is the earliest full size ripe tomato to come from the Wood for Food garden -- and my first time growing Japanese Truffle tomatoes. I can't say I've ever eaten a tastier tomato. Gardening at 3,000 ft elevation means that some years, the only large ripe tomatoes are those that ripen in the house after the frost. This one was a record for us, on August 30th! The plant is growing in the second aspen hugelkultur bed we built, shown at the end of the post, "Hugelkultur Goes Underground." 

(Marjoram hanging from my finger, ready to dry for later)

I have fond memories of eating "green potatoes" growing up. My mother, having married a Dutchman, learned to cook some excellent traditional foods of the Netherlands. I remember sitting at the dinner table with my family in the wintertime, the sun long set, eating steaming mashed potatoes with dried kale mixed in. This year, the aphids left our kale alone, so I decided to try dehydrating some. I can't wait to try some with our garden spuds, to make wintertime mashed potatoes more tasty, and healthier too.

Speaking of spuds, here Fawn is pretending that the potato plant is a hobo's backpack. We harvested three plants together and left the rest to grow a little longer.

Cucumbers! Another first -- full sized Armenian cucumbers, before fall set in. These are our #1 favorite garden snack. A new routine Fawn and I have swung into is taking the compost to the garden, picking a cucumber to split, and munching on it while we walk the dog. This is an amazing time of year. 

You've heard about "the one that got away." Here's the one that got away on us! We've had a few cucumbers hiding in the cucumber tipi, growing bigger by the day, unbeknownst to us. The latest monster only fits in the fridge diagonally. In years past, we couldn't grow cucumbers larger than your average pickle. Yes, we have had great weather this summer for growing veggies, but it seems the hugelkultur didn't hurt anything either...

 

This carrot had to be photographed (yes, it is a carrot selfie). This is the largest diameter carrot we've grown, and it came from the Horizontal Spruce Bed.

This year I was able to get rainbow swiss chard seed in the ground on time for the fall garden. I can't wait to see how long I can keep these ones going! The feel of fall has been in the air each morning. It's not long now. I hope to keep the garden producing through Halloween.

What are your hopes for your fall garden?