long time, no blog -sorry. Been busy!!! You know how it goes, right?

Last night I was gifted with these apples. (cat shown for scale.) Just after some friends told me how they wanted to learn to can stuff. So guess what - we're going to have a canning party! with apples! There are many lovely things to make with apples - applesauce, apple butter, apple pie jam, chutney, apple pie filling, and Miss Effie just posted this yummy recipe for cinnamon apple ice cream topping. I'm going to let the canning "class" decide what they want to make, but my vote would be for caramel apple butter, and apple sauce with berries. mmmmm!

In other news. IT SNOWED. Yep, October 10th, snow. Not a tiny bit of snow, but actual snow that fell and stuck and covered everything. Crazy, huh?? And tonight - 24 degrees predicted low temps. Which means, hard freeze, which means, gardens go bye-bye. :( I will be sad to see them go. I *am* a little tired of the 3-hour post-work canning sessions, which delay dinner until 9 or 10 and make for a slightly cranky Maggie the next day. But I AM grateful for shelves full of grape juice, apple pie filling, jams and jellies galore, salsa, tomatoes, soups and more. It's worth it.