Showing posts with label Fall colors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fall colors. Show all posts

Sunday, November 9, 2025

Harvesting a GourZuchumpkin! What's next?

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Well, I haven't bragged about our crazy overgrown, not-producing-much garden this year.

How about a cross pollinated Gourzucumpkin! Yep....trust me it was real.

This is the last submarine Zucchini I picked from the garden in early October. It was very large and heavy and dark green with a bit of dusky orange mottling. I thought it might be turning rotten, but I brought it in and put it on my island  in a basket.

Under the pile of golden pumpkins, Delicata Squash, Butternut Squash I realized this week it had turned completely orange and wasn't squishy anywhere it was actually HARD? 

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 I had pumpkins planted in our first big raised bed, five feet away I had 2 Zucchini plants planted in the next raised bed. To the west 8-10 feet I had two gourd plants by the corn. We did get one small lumpy green/orange gourd. 

Now, you tell me, does this looks like a Zucchini when it was dark green and now does it look like a Pumpkin?

That's my longest knife, so it's pretty good size. The skin was so hard I called Hubby to help as my poor wrists couldn't even dent it.

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Here's three of my pie pumpkins to compare. I like the small ones because they have nice thick meat and keep well.


Well after almost breaking our wrists hubby came up with this way to cut the (Creature)  Zucchumpkin, see the quick video above! 

oldnewgreenredo

We really had to whack it. I was beginning to wonder if I should waste gas baking this thing? 

Here you can see the hard outer shell----on the edge...no wonder we could hardly get through it. 
Curious, and since I was baking some other pumpkins, we cut it up for baking.

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The seeds looked like pumpkin seeds only very 
thick...nice thick meat on the sides, not watery like Zucchini at all, and very firm.

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Well, I baked it and it was sweet and delicious, the seeds were baked also as they were easier to pull out that way. If I had saved some they probably wouldn't produce as they would be a hybrid.

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Can't wait to make a Gouzuchumpkin PIE...LOL.

What else is going on...we killed ourselves this week cleaning up the yard with the last of the nice weather and snow forecasted for today and tomorrow. Yep, finally our gorgeous golden Autumn is dying. Today the yard is filled with snow covered leaves. 

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This was taken Thursday...the last of the red colors in the Forest Preserve.

We finished clearing all the outdoor Halloween in time and it is successfully stored. 

Hubby is having two eye surgeries starting this week, 
so I will be the driver as he is blind as a bat without his glasses. His prescription will likely change, so we figure a minimum of three weeks or more 
of not much going on.
Unfortunately that may curtail our Christmas lights and decorations outside, sigh...I won't be able to handle it all myself. Aging just means everything takes longer.
Harvesting...
Inside is a small disaster dragging all the plants in,...

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We brought in one raised planter with all the Herbs...I have room for a new Basil, as ours were just DONE!  Here are Chives (2), Parsley, Oregano, Thyme, some Rosemary and I'll add a Basil. We should be good for cooking all winter I hope. I have a HUGE Rosemary plant also, I brought in.

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Right now the Rosemary is on the table along with everything else. I had 5 huge sunflower heads that had seeds, so I sorted and bagged, labeled and dated them. Also bagged the seeds from the Sunflower small heads (not that many seeds) since the Gold Finches demolished. I still have my Zinnias and other flower seeds to harvest, but they are in a huge bouquet drying on the island. We had loads of flowers still blooming when we had to clean up the yard.  

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'Tis the Harvest Season

Fall, Leaves, Fall

Emily Brontë


Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.

But, I'm collecting seeds and planning for new crops. 
A gardener can't help but believe in the future, 
or why would we plant a seed? 

Happy Harvest from our Home 
~~~~~~~To YOURS!~~~~~~~

Thanks as always for stopping by, 

I'm loving your comments, 

questions, and suggestions.

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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own or I am in possesion of the originals, 
I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or products used. 
Please do not use my photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. 
Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle


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Friday, November 8, 2019

Thoughtful Moments #4 Turn, turn, turn....

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During the the season of Autumn, 

I'm reminded of the song/poem/verses...to every thing there is a season.

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

music Pete Seeger for this post my context comes from recording of Turn, Turn, Turn, -The Byrds 1965. 

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I don't do Twitter, I really don't do Instagram, I peruse Facebook to keep up with family and some scattered friends--which has been lovely, but basically while I am gregarious in public, I'm actually can be quite the introvert. I thought I could blog and not let too much of my real self leak on the page.


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My last blog post was on October 19th(2019), two days before my knee replacement surgery. That week had been hideous with multiple doctor visits, paper shuffling, scrambling to make the home safe and easy to function in, and just an all out chaos scramble. Life as well as blogging took a back seat as we muddled through the 'have to's', sterilizing the bedrooms and bathrooms, making sure we had everything I would need before the surgery. Yard work was interrupted all week with high winds and insistent rains, making just keeping the leaves off the walks and front porch total chore, and leaving poor hubby with all the pick up and put away---in our yard.


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The last of our squash finally came in. We got two bushels of gorgeous butternut squash. I hardened them off on the table on the back porch. Hopefully they will hold in my vegetable trays in the cabinet. 
Luckily my kids took some off our hands...they are so sweet this year.



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Anyway finally thinking we had LIFE under control.
So, Sunday the 20th---we went for a short ride---color had been elusive here in Chicagoland, trees were either bare or still deep green and just not cooperating with the normal season of FALL. I finally downloaded the few photos I took that day. The scenery is slim and the light was gray to October nasty with a bit of sun now and then.


I knew a selection of hardwoods and many maples were in our favorite park, Lakewood Forest Preserve in Wauconda, Illinois. Huge old oaks are stubborn to colorize in any year, and they were their usual browns and some deep mahogany color. Even there the usual yellow colors were elusive. The pond was still filled with geese and of course their chattering discourse. Late on a Sunday the park was quite empty.


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A series down the center of an empty parking lot...put on quite the show. You can see in the background though really nothing as far as colors from the bushes or grasses.





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Even the gutter collected this beautiful array of leaves...more than just the maples--you can see many of what I call Nature's Potpourri.





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Looking close the leaves aren't just red, but every shade of crimson, orange to even some yellow green.


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We never really had a golden autumn...and with below freezing temps dipping across most of the country...who knows.
This photos is my 'HOLIDAY FRENZY' of green and red, that we are being assaulted by everywhere NOW. Veterans Day and Thanksgiving occupy my November calendar.

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)


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Squirrels know this, and are very busy in the yard cleaning up under the bird feeders. This little guy---stands guard on the porch.

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Even the Marsh grasses were beige to green still trying to dry. 


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Little touches of red in a sea of green---such was Fall in Chicagoland. Since then we have had 6" of snow and more snow twice. The temp was 17 degrees tis morning. This has just has been one heck of a crazy year. 

My surgery went well, I start heavy duty PT this coming week. Each day is an improvement. My son and daughter-in-law are coming for a short visit and dinner tomorrow. I'm starting to feel like I want to reattach to the world. I confess I had TV binged on Halloween bake-offs and Oak Island and had to laugh at the disasters and the amazing accomplishments of such creative people. 
It all comes around in a circle, we keep turning---and the world moves at the same pace, no matter how fast we wish to hurry it up.

Turn, turn, turn, 
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep


Thank you for any and all comments.
Finally I am able to reply to comments by using Chrome. So all you Mac users who have upgraded to Catalina---this might help the glitches on Blogger!


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