Where has all the broccoli gone?

It's the middle of October and the rains have come right on time. And as usual here in the Pacific Northwest the weather has changed from summer to winter like walking from a room labeled warm, sunny summer into a room marked rainy, cold and windy.

I've pulled the leather jacket from the back of the closet and found my rain gear and wool cap so I'm all ready for the 'other' season we have here. We only have two seasons here, sunny warm and dry and cool, wet and cloudy. But enough about the weather, what about the gardens I've been working on so hard this season?
































Here's a couple of photos of the gardens at their height of the summer season. Just before the plants really started to produce. The list of what came out of the garden is just too long to put down here, I also neglected to weigh how much produce actually was produced so all I can say now is I took box after box of many different kinds of produce up to the residents produce market.



















This a resident run market here at Rose Villa that goes on every Tuesday morning. All the produce (and flowers and baked goods) are donated by the people who live here, and of course from my gardens. There are no prices, just what ever you feel it's worth. And the proceeds go directly into the "Foundation". Which is a resident run financial group set up to help people who live here who have run out of money. So it's really a people helping people kind of thing.

For me it was a real eye opener when I took a box of maybe twenty heads of broccoli up to the market and it was sold within 7 minutes. That's when I realized that the "Tuesday Market" is more then a money making kind of thing but it is a way to get fresh food to people who would not ordinarily have access to fresh nutritious produce.

















The lady that runs the produce market is in her mid 90's. And there are at least 2 other ladies that are helping her right now and are getting ready to take over when 'the boss' retires, if she ever does. Which means the produce market will go on next year and I'd better get planning for what to plant next year.

















These last two photos are how the gardens look now. I've added fresh compost from the composting bins and dug it in to 'season' over the winter. I might also dig in leaves when they start falling. The pathways are covered with chippings from a fir tree that was taken down this summer. I've got some late season broccoli still growing, also some beans, peas, kale, spinach, arugula and swiss chard. These are experimental crops to see how late in the season I can still harvest fresh vegg.

One final update, I just picked 4 boxes of concord grapes and took them up to the main kitchen to be made into grape jelly. To be sold at the fall bazaar and concert next month, the proceeds of which will go the the 'Foundation".