By LISA M. HOFFMANN

Staff Writer

The fall harvest is over.

It has been one busy season for me, but I am finally done freezing all the leftover vegetables from our garden.

With my husband out of town for many weeks this summer and early fall, I had to keep up on picking, cooking and freezing all the vegetables from our garden. Let me tell you how much work it was trying to keep up with the growing garden on top of a full-time job and trying to have a life.

At first, peas, broccoli and green beans were ready for picking. Then came the weeding of our carrots and dill. Not to mention weeding of the garden, which I didn't do. Pat did that when he was home on the weekends.

That was on top of picking cauliflower and more broccoli. Did you know that after you pick a head of broccoli more springs grow?

Maybe it's me, but it seems the more green beans you pick, the more there are to pick the next time around.

If that wasn't enough to keep me busy as I waited and waited for the tomatoes to ripen (which were up to two weeks late this year), the first batch of corn was due for picking. Then the second and third.

One day Pat says to me, "We have 18 dozen corn to do something with."

My reaction is, "What, when?"

So that week and the next he cooked and cut several dozen ears of corn. I bagged and froze it.

I even made cream corn and bagged whole husks of corn. I know we ended up giving away up to eight dozen of fresh-picked corn, and the following week we froze more corn.

By this time, the broccoli and green beans were ready for picking - once again. Along with more kohlrabi and cucumbers. Tomatoes and green peppers also started to ripen.

Not to mention zucchini. I made everything I could with that vegetable - zucchini cake, cupcakes, bundt cake, mini bundt cakes, brownies, and pancakes. I even stuffed several zucchini.

And I froze a few bags of shredded zucchini and the baked goods. I also gave a lot of zucchinis away.

By the end of September, I had had enough zucchini.

A few of the overgrown ones were given to the deer.

Then came spaghetti squash. I gave several of these away and made many meals with this also.

Since we got frost early this year, we lost several tomatoes that did not ripen soon enough.

This was after I froze pureed tomatoes and whole tomatoes - peeled and unpeeled. (I hope to make spaghetti sauce this winter, since I didn't have time this summer.)

I froze so many vegetables this year I think our chest freezer is completely full and there is just enough room for a deer or two. That is after the bear is taken out of there.

By the middle of October, Pat was able to get the rest of the carrots, beets and potatoes out of the garden. The onions have dried and are in the root cellar, along with potatoes.

I recently froze the last of the cauliflower and carrots, so I am officially done freezing vegetables for this winter.

Since our garden gets bigger every year, I know I froze the most vegetables ever in my life. And I am still picking apples and making apple pies, apple crisp, etc.

I have yet to carve our two big pumpkins. After that, I usually roast the pumpkin seeds.

Oh and of course, most of the time I would forget to water Pat's flowers. What a busy gardening season.

I am definitely glad it is over, but I am not looking forward to snow.

And I hope Pat will be around more next growing season.

Lisa M. Hoffmann's e-mail address is lhoffmann@ironmountaindailynews.com.