Instant Fall on The Outerbanks

I had to wear long pants and a sweatshirt to work this morning for the first time this season. Last night I ate my first batch of collard greens, and harvested what will be the last of my peppers and tomatoes. Fall happened in exactly one day. Well, truth be told, it was a little slower than that, but you've gotta be able to improvise when you don't have a real shoulder season.

Collard greens are traditionally a fall crop, particularly in the south, but they were available as seedling in early Sept. So, I planted them. Worms ate the hell out of about half of them, a problem that will go away with round two. Thankfully! So, just as I'm eating my first batch of them. I'm still harvesting some late season peppers, cayennes to be precise. They, like my tomatoes refuse to ripen, because of the shortness of days and lack of intense heat, but the plants were still healthy, and calories were still being produced. Far be it from me to kill a viable food factory. You don't have to be too creative to know what to do with mature, but green peppers. They are still hot, tempered a bit by cooler nights and more abundant rain. They made great pepper vinegar. Perfect for a winter's worth of collard greens.

The green tomatoes are another story. Fried green tomatoes of course. They are great, but, involved . . . or I'm lazy, and I'm tryin' to watch my figure. So, I chopped them up with some small but mature butternut squash that I also kept in late. Threw in an onion and stewed up some fresh speckled trout that have been pretty plentiful this year.

I used a chicken stock from a baked chicken that I got at the farmer's market, for the stew. The chicken was a creation of it's own. I used local honey, scavenged persimmons, and shallots from the garden as a glaze and baked it in the oven with a little curry and coriander to finish.

I kind of blew it with mixed greens and lettuce this fall, I think I missed my window. But cauliflower, broccoli, collards, cabbage and turnips have turned up. Beets, Radishes, more turnips and collards should go in this weekend.

Things move a little slower in the Fall and winter, so hopefully that will lead to more blog updates. Also, fall is a great time to forage. Locally we get persimmons, cactus fruit, yucca flowers and acorns, if you re really motivated. But the sky is the limit. Perhaps an entry on the soon...