Putting the garden to bed

We've had a few frosts in the past few weeks and everything left (tomatoes, peppers, basil...) was looking really pathetic. The tomato cages were all crumpled over--I'll never get those shitty thin-metal cages again, what a waste. The basil was brown after the first frost.

Anyway, it's a beautiful, sunny Sunday, and with few things to do, I spent some time ripping those plants out of the garden and throwing them in a new compost pile...

I've still got some lettuce that is hanging on under a make-shift cold frame consisting of some 2-by-4's and an old glass picture frame.

Maybe next year I'll build some super tight, wooden tomato cages... More to come...

Recipe: pesto!

Today I made some kickin pesto. It was only kickin, not bangin, I admit. Something about it was bitter. Not sure what was up with that. This is what was in it:

1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. pine nuts
3 cloves garlic
2 c. basil, packed
1/4 c. parmesan cheese, grated
1 tsp. lemon juice
(makes 1 cup)

All blended together in that order, basically.