Why Does It All Get Ripe At the Same Time?

Best laid plans sure do go astray, don't they? I hurried out to the garden yesterday, seed packets in hand, to spend a short time planting fall veggies to fill in the empty spaces in the garden before scurrying back inside to tackle a whole stack of other overdue tasks. What I found in there stopped me in my tracks!

The vegetable squash was overrun with squash beetles, so I quickly pulled the whole vine, harvested the two best of the squashes and tossed the whole vine into the compost heap, so it wouldn't infest the other squash vines. Jim picked the green beans, I pulled the onions and harvested the giant overgrown collards, we both gathered all the tiny ripe tomatoes, and I brought out scissors and trimmed back the lush bushy herb plants that were shading the tomatoes.

I found more potatoes to dig and some cucumbers hiding in the weeds while tying the cucumber vines up to the fence so they couldn't hide anymore. The peapod vines had died back and needed pulling, and the cabbages and broccoli plants were being attacked by cabbage loopers, so I harvested them and pulled the plants out.
Three wheelbarrow loads of green stuff later, the island in the kitchen was covered with good things that needed to be processed and put by for winter meals. The tiny tomatoes were simply washed sorted and put into plastic bags in the freezer. Our favorite meal these days is onion and garlic and sometimes mushrooms sauteed in olive oil, and at the last minute, add grape tomatoes cut in half and fresh basil, cook just until hot, but not soft and serve over pasta with fresh grated parmesan. We froze the little tomatoes whole, and they should be delicious this winter.

The green beans were canned in 1 cup jars, and we got 14 of those which all sealed, thank you. The herbs were bunched and tied, with a label this year, because thoroughly dried herbs are hard to tell apart, and hung on the rack on the back porch to dry.Cabbages just went into the refrigerator drawer where they'll happily cope for a few weeks, vegetable squash is sitting on a shelf outside to ripen, and the onions are tied into bunches to hang in the sunshine and dry so they'll keep well.
The collards and new potatoes were our delicious dinner and I didn't post a picture of them because it grosses out Paula-but they sure were good. The burpless cucumber went into an experimental jar of dill pickles. Not sure if it will work for that process, so we'll try it with just one small jar first.On a lighter note, while trimming the herbs, I noticed the hummingbird feeding on the zinnias and ran to grab the camera. Of course, it didn't stick around for long, but I did get one kind of nice picture of the little flying jewel.
I didn't get much else done yesterday, but the freezer's almost full now, and the canning shelves look pretty good. Today it's back to that list of other even more overdue things, and yes, I did get some seeds planted outside this morning before it got too hot outside. Beets, lettuce, peapods and radishes so far.