The harvest roundup this week features two of my favorites in the summer garden, butternut squash and red bell peppers. And here it is, the first week of October, late for “first harvests.”

Perhaps it’s the waiting and watching–for the skins to harden and the color to develop. The day was perfect to bring the butternut squash in–cooler with rain expected. I could begin to think about Thanksgiving.

Remembering the sweet, crisp, crimson peppers of seasons past kept me from harvesting them when green. These and other red beauties remaining on the pepper plants are survivors. Survivors of persistent September heat and inconsistent water during the “wedding season.”

A handful of unseasonable blueberries were worth waiting for. They topped our waffles on the weekend. 

And the asters began to open this week. I patiently observed the swelling buds for a month. It is fall. 

Gardens, indeed are about watching and waiting. 

You’ll find Harvest Monday at it’s new digital home, Our Happy Acres. Many thanks to Daphne for hosting these many years.