nearly the Last of the Garden

Just before Thanksgiving I took this picture of the harvest that was sitting then on my table.

The avocados came from a friend, grown in a backyard in Santa Clara.  Yummy and buttery, possibly the best I've ever eaten.  I shared one with a friend on Thanksgiving and the other with another friend on the Saturday after. The seed from the second one is in a small pot of dirt outside.  It will be interesting to see if it survives and sprouts leaves.

The tomatoes became

part of a plate of dinner for me and the salad on Thanksgiving.  There was so much going on on Thanksgiving, that I didn't have time for pictures. The meal was one of the best I have made for Thanksgiving.  A turkey meatloaf, subbed for the bird, since there were only two of us eating. Fresh herbs combined to make poultry seasoning.  Amazing what that did to the meatloaf.

I made pumpkin custard, which is pie filling without the crust and then totally wrecked the calorie saving virtues of it by making hard sauce. Decades ago at a very memorable Thanksgiving with friends in Chicago I ate hard sauce for the first and only time in my life up to this year.  After looking for a recipe on line I have to say it is basically butter cream with booze.  And it is good.  Rum in the pumpkin and rum in the sauce.

The ways in which the garden has provided stability and blessing and great culinary delight in my life is part of what I am so grateful for this year.  Rain and weather that is not so cold as it was in November are two more blessings that I give great thanks for.