Kumquats have been ripening in spurts this season. We've been making
kumquat marmalade, jelly, and syrup in those spurts. Latest batch was
eight pints of marmalade. Tried some of the syrup on some waffles this
morning and it is a keeper. It was going to be jelly but someone didn't
cook it long enough, wasn't me either. <G> I like the syrup better than
I do jelly, may just keep making that one.

We're still picking, washing, chopping sweet peppers all year long. What
we don't eat at a meal goes into the freezer on a bun pan, then gets
vacuum bagged for later use. We have many bags of frozen peppers, frozen
eggplant fritters, fried eggplant sticks, etc.

Most of this is because this the third year we haven't had a winter with
frost or cold. Current temps here and now are roughly 80F or higher with
mornings in the low sixties.

Even with all that we have planted a fall garden with some cabbage,
broccoli, and various other greens and they seem to be growing okay.

The fig and pear trees have set fruit again this fall, seems to be
happening a lot in this part of Texas, saw an article on line from the
AG agents that it is not unusual when we don't really get any fall cold
to stop the leaf and fruit growth.

We have one sweet pepper, a Gypsy, that we planted three years ago and
it is still producing. The fruit has been small the last two years but
we pruned the heck out of the five feet tall plant in hopes it will
produce bigger fruit. We use lots of sweet chilies, as we like them in
many dishes and raw.

The 25 cubic foot freezer and the ten cubic foot one are both completely
full. I reckon we're going to have to eat more. <G>

George