Good-bye Summer!

Summer has ended, which also means that the abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables at our house is ending.  I had so many plans for all the beautiful figs we had, but unfortunately only time enough to make a small batch of jam -- which was incredibly delicious I would like to add.

We had our first successful year growing watermelons!  This beauty weighed in at 42 pounds.  We thought it would be mostly rind, but as you can see it's mostly pulp.  And a delightfully sweet and tasty pulp it was; we enjoyed eating it sliced on many occasions, gave away a large piece, and also made two different cocktail recipes.  We could have fed a village with this watermelon.  Actually, that's pretty much what we did!

This ginormous tomato is another monster vegetable from Babbo's garden, not ours.  But we did have a lot of NOT giant tomatoes this year of all varieties!  We ate lots of sliced fresh tomatoes drizzled with olive oil, bruschetta with tomatoes and basil, pasta with tomatoes and yes, even a small batch of tomato jam!

And onions!  Amore loves to grow onions every year.  Next year we'll be planting garlic as well!

Also leaving us with the season are the caterpillars.  Amore told me this one glows in the dark.  Unfortunately it didn't hang around long enough for me to verify his story.  But speaking of glowing in the dark, we did have quite a few sightings of fireflies this summer! 

And this guy.  Who lives here.  And is not afraid of anyone.  We both leave each other alone.
 I wonder if we'll see him again next year.  Anyway, I hope everyone had a wonderful summer.  I know we sure did!