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Picked up my last bag of the season from Rolling Prairie Farmer’s Alliance this week. As usual, the produce is (are?) things of beauty.

Seems as though the peppers were late in coming this year (which would be understandable considering our late spring freeze and rain) , but they’ve been plentiful at the end.

The final bag’s contents:

• mesclun
• sweet potatoes
• green peppers
• anaheim peppers
• greens (I forget what kind these are, something new to me, resembling, I think, collards)
• honey, which I forgot to add to the photo

I had a choice on several items. I could have, for instance, taken butternut squash instead of the sweet potatoes, or green tomatoes in lieu of some one item (I forget which), and there were several greens to choose from.

Actually, I should say this was the last bag for me. The farmers did offer an end-of-the-season extension, but it started too soon for me, and I don’t consume this kind of fare at quite the pace I can eat tomatoes, beans and other height-of-the-summer stuff.

Maybe that’s part of nature’s plan, the food that needs to last longer comes as the garden quits producing. I’ll work on the sweet potatoes for a while, and find something to do with the greens (not my favorite item). I suppose I’ll chop and freeze most of the peppers. (If someone has a favorite thing to do with peppers, let me know.)

It’s been an interesting season, and another of those that makes me particularly appreciative of people willing to grow my local food. We’re used to erratic weather around here, but this one was especially painful with record or near-record warmth then cold in the spring, heavy rains, an especially dry late summer, an early near-freeze followed by unusual warmth. It’s amazing anything wanted to grow and a testament to the mettle of our Kansas farmers that we had something to eat.

As coaches and farmers say, there’s always next year. We’ll hope nature will be a little kinder then.