ONCE YOU OPEN A JAR OF YOUR OWN PRESERVED BOUNTY how fast do you consume the contents? In my household there are just two of us. A half-pint jar of jam can last a week or more. I often put a spoonful or two over plain yogurt. Then there is the jar of pickled cauliflower–I like it but don’t want to eat it everyday. And how about those two jars of salsa that I opened to have with fish tacos the other night? Or the apple chutney to go with the cheese biscuits I baked to go with the crab bisque? I know that you know what I am talking about. It doesn’t take long before the refrigerator shelves are  packed with jars. There is still cranberry jelly and sauce; lingonberries from Christmas; you get the idea. As one of my daughters would say: Where’s the food? So, my new challenge is to find a way to use all or part of an opened jar of preserved goods everyday.

Here is what is currently open:

Green tomato chutney, fig jam, ground cherry jam (from sister Deb), apple chutney, cranberry jelly, tomatillo salsa, tomato-chile salsa, lingonberries, and marinated pablano peppers canned last year.

Last night I combined a couple tablespoons of green tomato chutney with some mayo and a dash of Dijon mustard to dress a bun for a lamb burger; pretty good with the lamb. Tonight we are having company so another challenge in the works…

Thoughts and suggestions welcomed.

A WALK AROUND THE GARDEN TODAY REVEALED SOME BRIGHT SURPISES. In spite of last week’s cold, freezing temperatures, many plants are just getting ready for the prospect of winter and others seem not to have noticed.

This combination of wild ginger, asarum caudatum and winter blooming cyclamen is vibrant green against fallen leaves and needles.

Heuchera ‘Marmalade’ is a warm and welcome color (even sporting some new growth) at this time of year and pairs well with lonicera nitida ‘Lemon Beauty’, below.

Nearby is a happy patch of saxifraga urbium ‘London Pride’ and fraise du bois, the little wild alpine strawberry, the seeds of which most likely hitch hiked with some of the saxifrage when it came from Grandma T’s garden.

Just now beginning it’s winter bloom is helleborus foetidus, the ‘Stinking’ hellebore. The lime green’flower’ bracts really light up a dark edge under a holly hedge.

Every season holds a little magic and fall seems to have two parts–the lovely color changes of leaves as the days begin to cool in September and the creeping cold by the end of November that signals a new round of plant activity. I actually look forward to this time of the year; I like the cold weather and the changes it brings, although the groundskeeper does not share my enthusiasms. My only complaint is the ever-shortening days.

Many plants, like iris foetidus get a chance to show off twice during the year; spring blooming flowers and bright, orange seedheads that spill open in late fall. The one drawback to this plant is it’s prolific ability to reproduce itself. It has a tendency to show up just about everywhere. Here it volunteered with rubus calycinoides, a creeping raspberry relative that produces small salmon colored fruit (edible). It makes a good groundcover under the red cedars and looks at home with asarum, ferns, and maianthemum. And, it’s completely drought tolerant.

This arabis procurrens, or rock cress was a bright, dainty surprise today. I think that this too came from Grandma T’s garden. It is an easy spreader and drought tolerant and will take light shade. I have it under hardy fuschias. The flower stalk is about three inches tall.

After blooming in early spring, pulmonaria kind of looses it’s oomph and flops for the summer but is revived with cooling fall days and rain and begins sending out new growth. The spritely green leaves splashed with white brighten a gloomy day.

And that concludes today’s tour.

OVER THE LAST WEEK I HAD TO TAKE A BREAK FROM LIFE IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN and the related canning chores, so I took a look around for the bright spots in the fading fall garden. I have several patches of fall blooming cyclamen, pink and white, around the yard. They make themselves right at home and spread ever so slowly, their dainty petticoats upturned.

Little Stell d’Oro is reliably long blooming late into fall along with dahlias and chrysanthemums.

There are beautiful deep blues this time of year with ceratostigma, also known as plumbago.

Assorted chrysanthemums are at nearing prime bloom time now with the shorter days. I can’t find the name tag for this one, but I love the simple form and color.

Ditto for this reddish one. The reds and oranges of fall mums echo the turning of leaves and brighten the shortening days.

This white chrysanthemum was given to a friend as a potted plant when her father passed away about fifteen years ago and she asked if I wanted it. I planted it out at the edge of the vegetable garden and I think of her when it begins to bloom. I is vigorous and blooms for a long time.

Trycirtis is like a miniature orchid and brightens a shady corner under conifers and tall, old rhodies. It is a slow spreader.

This is Karma Choc, a dahlia that I bought this year at Chocolate Flower Farm this past summer and it finally is blooming. I put them in a pot until I can decide where to put them in the garden.

‘Prince of Orange’.

Other reliable bloomers into the fall are hardy fushcias. They don’t need babying, aren’t to fussy and do well in filtered sun or shade. This year they were slow to take off and start blooming due to a couple of hard cold snaps.

‘Santa Claus’

Unknown. Grown from a slip that my cousin gave to me about twelve years ago. One of my favorites.

Hosta ‘Abiqua Drinking Gourd’.

I take some comfort in the slowing down that fall brings.  There is a certain beauty in the decay that comes with this time of the year, and knowing that most outdoor chores are over for about four months or so. But there is still some preserving left to do this weekend and that should be the end of it.