Nine Vegetables

Today is Thanksgiving here in Canada. Traditionally people enjoy a turkey dinner, and a pie. Attila and I cooked our Thanksgiving turkey a week ago, as they were on sale at the grocery store, but we do not have enough room in the freezer during harvest season to accommodate a frozen turkey. We saved a few cups of diced turkey meat for today. I will bake an Impossible Turkey Pie, using my homemade biscuit mix. The highlight of the meal will be garden vegetables, nine of them: beets, broccoli, green beans, carrots, leeks, parsnips, green pepper, lettuce, and tomato. We are truly grateful for our good fortune.

I decided to bake a dessert, although Attila will eat almost all of it, I will enjoy a serving on this day of gratitude. Using our homemade mincemeat, I made squares. Today’s version is truly decadent, as I added a layer of sweetened whipped cream cheese, it really takes the flavour to the next level.

We were not invited to my youngest sister’s Thanksgiving Dinner with her children, grandchildren, my Mom, and my middle sister. I will miss seeing my Mom. Mom and my sisters tell me they are having a wonderful day.

Attila’s Mom celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with his brother and family. They are US citizens (Attila is a Canadian citizen), living in the US, but celebrate both Canadian and US Thanksgivings. I had a chat with his Mom, and Attila talked with his brother for the first time in a long time. We do not travel to the US.

Yesterday Attila harvested half of the kohlrabi from the garden. He blanched 16 cups of diced kohlrabi for the freezer. Kohlrabi tolerates frost very well. Tonight he will harvest a few more and process them. We like to cook kohlrabi with potatoes, an idea inspired by Irish Colcannon.

Now that harvest season is winding down, I am able to take notice of other things. Some things need cleaning, some things need mending, some things need to find a place of their own, other than randomly left on horizontal surfaces. I have one pile of pants that need new elastic in the waistbands. I have one pile of pants that no longer fit me, but a few now do fit me, and more might fit me in the future, they all need to be put away. I have the pattern and material for an apron that I mean to sew, but haven’t yet. Our lifestyle demands a lot of storage space.

The house needs a deep clean, but I am loath to begin such a project while items are still coming in from the garden. There is always dirt and debris with fresh garden vegetables, and the inevitable fruit fly explosion during harvest season. The fruit fly traps I set out help tremendously, but there are a few fruit flies that are too big to access the traps, they fly around and are very annoying. We also have Asian beetles, stink bugs, and house flies coming in right now.

Ginger seems very content these days. He particularly likes our warm up exercises. My Cardiac Rehabilitation provided me with a custom set of warm up exercises to do before going for a long walk. Attila decided to do them with me. We do this in the living room. Ginger lies on the couch watching us, his eyes follow my fingers, and my toes, through the whole session. He thinks we are performing just for him! Humans, gotta love ’em!

Worldly

Weather

14°C
Date: 11:00 AM EDT Monday 13 October 2025
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.4 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 14.3°C
Dew point: 7.2°C
Humidity: 62%
Wind: NE 11 km/h
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life – in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.”
Seneca
5 BC – 65 AD