cleaning up

In an attempt to make the most of my (somewhat pathetic) garden this year, I've been saving as much of everything I can manage to find out there among the weeds. Into our little Ronco dehydrator go hot peppers, tomatoes, herbs - my entire world smells like sage. In fact, I just picked so much of it, I can now taste it in my mouth - the essential oils that make the stems and leaves so sticky have managed to work their way into my bloodstream. The parsley is next, and then perhaps the lemon verbena. I pureed the leftover basil leaves with some extra virgin olive oil, put it in mini muffin tins to freeze and transferred them to a freezer bag. Chives are fairly resilient and will winter over - in the past I've been able to dig through the snow to find some still fresh and green, ready for a steaming, buttery, baked potato.

There's always this hopefulness at the end of the year - a wish for just one more sunny day that will grant us that last ripe tomato before the first snowfall.