Squashed!

I have sad news, folks. Our lovely acorn squash vines are no more, having succumbed to the wrath of what I think was downy mildew. I'm not sure that's what it was, since the internet tells me downy mildew does not kill all the leaves and ours certainly died, but it was some sort of mildew, certainly.

However, all is not lost. Before my fantastic husband pulled up all the vines, he harvested nine (count them, nine) good-sized Thelma Sanders acorn squash (thank you, Southern Seed Exchange)! They are not full-sized but it was now or never, so... Aren't they gorgeous? They will need to sit and age/ripen for a while but should store for at least 3 months. Maybe we can have some for Thanksgiving - wouldn't that be a treat?

On an unrelated garden production note, what does one do with 2 lbs of freshly-picked Yellow Beam cherry tomatoes to use them up before they spoil?

Apparently, you can make Tomato Jam! Tomatoes, ginger, sugar, lime juice, chili flakes, cinnamon, cloves, salt...cooked down for a couple of hours until two pounds becomes two half-pints of ooey, gooey jam. I used Marisa's recipe (I'm obsessed with her blog) but next time I would scale back both the salt and the chili flakes.

Today my husband has informed me that it's salsa-making day. Stay tuned for our first attempt at using our hand-me-down pressure canner...

Oh, and I also made nine half-pints and four pints of bread and butter pickles while the tomatoes were cooking. Because when the garden production kicks into full-swing, you've got to use it or lose it!