A week of plenty

This week has been plentiful.

On Saturday my colleague visited us (late) in the evening, her daughters were at consert at town and she needed a place to stay for tree hours... I made plenty of quiche (feta and broccoli; our family's all time favourite) and 1,5xmudcake. All eaten...
On Sunday I got msg from my (another) colleague, she was about to go get some carrots, did I wanted some? Yes please, even if I had to go and get them from office - at my week off!
She lives in a rural village (a bit bigger than my home village) and her neighbour is a root veggie farmer. He had harvested his carrot fields with heavy machinery and all the rest is free for villagers to gather.
On Tuesday morning I managed to sneak in to the town (on Monday 'Suma had her operation). I was expecting maybe a one plastic bag full to the brim with carrots. Nope. Three big plastig bags full of carrots! I gave some to my other (third) colleague (who wasn't at the office on Monday) and took the rest home. I tried to weigh them, but my kitchen scales showed just error. My human scales is a bit generous with its readings, but I estimate I got 25kg of nice carrots.
Oh boy. My kids will be all orange by mid November!

I harvested one of my red cabbages. I have still quite a many beets and golden beets on cold frame, they do ok even on heavy frosts we have had (below -7). I have 10 plants of kale going strong.

I have been keeping my last three pumpkins on our veranda - it's relatively cool place but no threat of frost. One of them already got frostbite some time ago and it looked like it was totally rotten (not only soft and dark but also moldy). I wanted to chop it before tossing it to compost heap. It wasn't rotten inside, it was firm and fine after I peeled rotten skin off. I got 2kg of pumpkin flesh, seeds, and some stringy bites( to dehydrate for 'Suma). Pretty well considering it was a slimy 3kg lump I was going throw away!

So I have been cooking this week plenty of vegetarian (or even vegan) dishes. My first ever curry! Havin firm roots in Russia curry has never been a stable in our kitchen. Potato-carrot-pumpkin curry, and even hb ate it! It was a bit bland for my taste but then I'm known to have poor sense of smell and that is of course linked also to sense of taste... So I usually add more chilli and ground pepper to my plate.
Second time ever falafels, this time I managed fry them as balls - they were yummy and I have few in freezer to take as my lunches at work. I used broad beans and added some cooked kale I had in fridge. I have never eaten ready made falafels, because they have onions. So this is also new to me.
At the same time i made meatballs in tomato sauce (or veggie sauce - there was a carton of chopped tomatoes, a beetroot, couple of carrots and piece of courgette).

Few minutes ago I took pumpkin muffins out of oven, ys has been asking them whole week. They smell lovely!

Our neighbour has got his first elk of the hunting season, we saw the hunt going on in the morning. I'm always sad about hunting, but I still eat meat we get with gratitude. If the animal has been killed, it has to be eaten whole and not wasted.
That's why I can't keep chickens - I can't bear to think kill any of them (if they are sick/hurt and suffering).