Eat what you grow/Grow what you eat - October

It is time once again for the update of my challenge.  For those of you who are new here, I have challenged myself (or someone in my immediate family) to eat something from my garden every day for a year.

So, how have we done in the last month?  Not too bad, until Sunday.  Can you believe that on Sunday, I just plain forgot about it?  No reason, no excuse, I just simply wasn't paying attention.  Usually jam or mint tea saves the day, but we didn't even have that.

So, here is the rundown:
In the last half of September, we had peanuts:

lots of tomatoes and jalapenos(which we were giving away by the basket full to spread the love), the first carrots, cabbage, green peppers and lots and lots of herbal teas (the weather was starting to change, so this was a lovely way to "eat" from the garden).

I pulled some of the frozen tomatoes out of the freezer to make some spaghetti sauce.   Another batch was made with store bought canned tomatoes, but with our own tomato juice, peppers, jalapenos, and herbs added in.

We have enjoyed another round of chocolate zucchini bread and muffins with some zucchini I froze in the summer.  I was sneaky and also added an eggplant in there and nobody even noticed.  I have a lot of eggplant to use up!  Note to self:  plant more zucchini next year.  I only planted 2 this year...I think I need 4 at least next year.

The first half of October has been interesting as we start to put the garden to bed.

The carrots are being used in soups, stews, school lunches.  Herbs are being used in soups/stews/stuffing/ stuffing bread and spaghetti sauce, plus of course - tea.  I have pulled and used leeks for the first time ever.

He are still enjoying some of last year's salsa.  We have already broken into the jam (Homemade english muffins with homemade "rhuberry" (strawberry/rhubarb) jam was N's birthday breakfast of choice on Friday - with a repeat on Saturday morning.

We have also enjoyed the first of the pickles.  It has been difficult to wait for them, but it was worth it.  My husband does not like garlic (*what??*) so we replaced the garlic in our pickles with lemon thyme, with the dill of course.  Oh my land's sakes!  It was so so so good.  I plan on trying a whole variety of herbs in the pickles next year. 

We were excited to try this heirloom watermelon. We weren't sure we were going to get one at all because they were still quite small, but I thought I would just go ahead and harvest it anyways before the frost got it and it happened to be ready after all.  It was truly delicious.  I will be planting these again next year.  I couldn't collect the seeds as I only got one melon from the 4 plants (we may still get one more if we are lucky, but I am not holding my breath).  I will be starting them earlier in the house next year.  I actually did start them early this year, but the squirrels ran away with the first 2 batches and I ended up planting the seeds directly in the ground when it was almost too late.

And arugula.  I didn't used to like arugula...now it is my very close friend.  I love it on burgers.  I love it on sandwiches.    I really enjoyed an arugula pesto (that the boys did not enjoy at all).  I just whizzed it up in the food processor with some olive oil, lemon juice, salt, parmesan, and walnuts.  I tossed it in with the tiniest pasta I could find.  I enjoyed it for 3 days since the boys wouldn't eat it.  Oh well, I will still do it again. 
Most of all, I enjoy that it replants itself and keeps on going.  We have had a few frosts, and the temperature has hit 2 degrees C a few times and it is still going strong.

What are you eating from your garden this month?