Yesterday I shopped and found whole chicken on sale for about fifty cents off a pound. Four of them are now seal-a-mealed in the freezer, three of them cut in halves and one of them quartered. Gone are the days when cooking a whole chicken would feed the household for a couple of days at the most.

Garden pests somewhat decluttered - it is a weekly process to spray or pour water with soap to knock out ants and aphids, and follow up with dry puffs of diatomaceous earth. A fall garden can make a huge difference in the amount of preserved food in the house. It's almost time to make another batch of pickles. Okra is beginning to bloom and I'm planning to eat it as it comes in, in small batches, probably coated in Zataran's fish fry and fried, a gardener's guilty pleasure. ;-)

SRS