Not just in the air, fall is in the trees as well! I love fall usually, but this year I am just not ready. We actually had a pretty nice spring and summer, some cooler days, some rain, lots of sunshine. Overall, I’d say its been really nice. But I’m still not ready. About 2 weeks ago I let my daughter’s dog out first thing in the morning and noticed that even though it was sunny and warm, there was a crispness to the air that hadn’t been there before. The next day my oldest daughter commented on that as well.

One of my favorite fall activities is the Alaska State Fair. Last year I was really ahead of the game and painted 2 pictures and had everyone at my local farmer’s market vote for their favorite. That was my plan this year, but no such luck. This has been such a busy summer that I just didn’t quite get the second (and my favorite picture) done before submittal day, so the bee it was.

But, we went on Thursday, and low and behold, there was an honorable mention tag on my painting. This was a surprise, and I am happy that I at least got something submitted, even if it was last minute.

With fall also comes fall harvesting. If you’ve read some of my previous blogs, you’ll know that my broccoli bolted this year, I got some little shoots with heads, but no big heads. I let it go to seed finally, and after gathering a bunch of seed pods, I pulled all the broccoli out of my garden.

Other stuff has grown really well though. We have been harvesting an ice cream bucket full of peas about every 4-5 days. I often try to save these and blanch them, but this year, they disappear too fast for that. That’s alright though, I think fresh peas taste better anyway. I also harvest some cabbages. I didn’t think they were all that big, but they were heavy and tightly formed, so the small heads chopped up into a big bowl of cabbage.

I have picked a bunch of tomatoes this year. The other day I had enough tomatoes to use those along with 1 of the 2 green bell peppers that grew, a couple of jalapenos from the green house, and an onion from the garden, and I made a really yummy salsa. Fresh salsa is one of my favorites, and it took all my will power not to eat the whole bowl of it before my family came home!

The last thing that I picked, and I do this every year, was a couple of potato plants. I get so excited to see if there’s potatoes under the ground that come the first week or two in August, I have to pull at least one plant up to look! There are potatoes this year, and they so yummy! Now I can be more patient and wait until the tops die before I pick the rest.

I love summer, and Alaska summers seem to go by way too fast. But I really do love fall, and even though I don’t feel ready, I will embrace the season and be excited. My son asked me to make some pumpkin pancakes the other day, and I realized that maybe, at least for the cooking part of things, I really am ready.