Getting to the roots, the last of the apple butter and winter isn't here yet.

It is December but it doesn't feel like it. Our November has had more days above  normal temperatures than expected for this time. People are describing our weather as a "prolonged fall season".  (Nice way to put global warming and irreversable climate change.) I confess, that it has been graceful to those of us who have procrastinated on our fall chores. It has been great, I admit, that I can still work the unfrozen soil and walk about with only a heavy sweater. One gardener once wrote that the gardening season starts in the fall, however. Oh boy, I say. I'm already behind then. I'm still marveling over what we have produced this season, and the "prolonged" gentle fall tempertures that have allowed kale, spinach and fall carrots and parsnips to remain in the ground. But, the guy is right. There is a lot of preparing this time of year. Maybe "it", the preparing for next year's garden, that is, starts when we have finally gotten "to the roots".
Getting to the roots has to happen before the ground is frozen. I mean by this that one should collect the root crops out of the soil before it freezes. It helps, anyway, if you want them before spring. (I don't know what would happen if you left them over winter. Would they turn to mush when the ground thaws?)
I have watched and waited through the weeks for the temperature to gradually drop and drop to finally bring us in this gradual way, day by day, toward the entry way of winter. Then, I thought, I would know, that it is finally time to pull everything that I want from the garden.
But, it hasn't happened. So, I decided to pull all the root crops anyway because it is December, and by now it only seems weird to leave them in the ground, rather than impractical to leave them.

Washed carrots and unwashed parsnips.

A lovely washed parsnip and carrot.

Another shot of one lovely well washed parsnip with carrots

The apple butter was a great success. I made labels and tied them up on the jars. With a loss for ideas, I came up with "Side of the Hill" Apple Butter, since the apple trees and our home, as well as the garden, sit on the 'side of the hill' .  Honestly, I wish we didn't. Anyway, that's what the labels say, if you can't make it out. The ingredients are listed with the blog post address and my phone number which is required for "residential kitchen" jams and jellies that are sold directly to consumers by the Department of Agriculture.
Inside the label reads: "Ingredients: apples grown without pesticides, organic sugar, apple cider, cinnamon, cloves and allspice." I posted on the WPI website:  "It is delicious spread on buttered homemade bread or used, instead of jam, on a peanut butter sandwich. It is also delicious as a unique glaze on grilled salmon."

I had 8pints and about 20, 1/2 pints. Kent put up a notice on his WPI classified site that apple butter was for sale with the above ingredients and comments. I was more than amazed that ALL of the butters that I had made up were gone before lunch.

I have sauce to make up more butter. So, I'm going to get busy over these next few days.
It is delicious, as I have been spreading it on homemade toasted honey wheat bread ever since I made my first jar this year. Yum, yum. It is soooo good! I'm done with Cheerios!