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Hi Everyone,

            It is officially fall—and not just because the calendar says so. For the last month there has been a “nostalgic feeling” of fall in the air—it’s a look, an idea, a taste. The sky doesn’t look summery anymore, you start thinking about bonfires, and you start craving apples and pumpkins. Yesterday (Saturday) morning that feeling was replaced with a feel—the real deal for it was 50 degrees outside! I hope you got the chance to experience that first real feel of fall—and if you didn’t shame on you for sleeping in so late. For dinner I embraced the fall vibes and we had roasted pumpkin for dinner alongside some Salmon cakes and green beans. Finding an easy way to cook pumpkin can be a little difficult, but a couple of weeks ago I accidentally stumbled across a very easy method.

Roasted Caramelized Pumpkin

·       Cut pumpkin in half, remove seeds and slice into one inch wedges.

·       Place on parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 400’F for 30 to 40 minutes—until it starts to become tender.

·       Remove from oven and remove the skin

·       Combine all the pumpkin meat together and flatten out

·       Pour maple syrup over every inch

·       Sprinkle with salt and cinnamon

·       Sprinkle with chopped nuts, dried fruit (cranberries!)

·       Top with a few tablespoons of butter

·       Bake for another 10 minutes

·       Enjoy!

It might taste like dessert—but I use it as a side dish.

            My sister Samantha arrived last weekend for a visit—and the poor girl stepped off the concrete sidewalk Monday morning and injured her foot. Her week didn’t go as planned, but Mama pulled out a new America 250 puzzle that my Aunt and Uncle sent us and we spent the week putting the puzzle together.

            I managed to get a little done in the garden and greenhouse this week—and I had to fight off a major desire to just give up. A few weeks ago I noticed that the okra leaves were covered in hundreds of tiny brownish/black worms. I do not know how to fight pests—and I have been too sick to deal with them. Then the worms moved onto my fall zinnias which had just started to bloom and be happy. Last week I noticed that they were devouring my plantain (the herb I use in my salves) and I saw the telltale signs of holes in the leaves that the worms had moved into my row of green beans. They ate all my carrots, are munching on my little rutabaga sprouts and are starting on my freshly transplanted broccoli, kale and cabbage. I had mustard greens that desperately needed to be transplanted to the garden—but wouldn’t that be planned murder of the mustard greens? Then again mustard greens are supposed to be planted as a sacrifice plant in order to attract the worms off of your other crops and to the mustard plants. With the help of my nephew’s smart phone we did a Google photo search and learned that the pesky worms were Army worms. While searching for ways to get rid of them I came across a comment on one of the videos I watched that said to bring in some Navy worms, and someone else said to use some Marine Corp worms. The first method to get rid of the worms is to collect each one and drop them in a jar of soapy water—I will gladly use any Army, Navy, or Marine Corp volunteer who would like to spend a few hours picking worms off plants and dropping them in soapy water. Another idea was to spray the plants with a good dose of neem oil. The next idea was to plant marigolds throughout the garden—so we went to Lowes and bought 20 marigold plants. Since the okra was so heavily covered I had Shayne pull them up and feed them to the chickens. From there I am having to look at the problem as a glass that is half full instead of half empty—yes, there is an army of worms in my garden, BUT 80 to 90% of my plants are still green and growing!

            I hope you have a lovely week!

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare