Last week I brought home some swiss chard from the church giving garden. (We have lots, and I took the some of teh overgrown, less pretty leaves.). Enjoyed make soups, with the thick stems chopped like lettuce and sautéed with mushrooms. Used up my french green lentils too. My new-ish immersion blender was perfect for blending the soup. LOL - there are 3 thread where I could have reported this (here, lentils, immersion blender)
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My cilantro and mint are both about to bolt/flower/go to seed, so yesterday I made this: Cilantro Mint Chutney | Mint Coriander Chutney » Dassana's Veg Recipes and then ended up cooking an entire dinner around a condiment 
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My mint largely went to seed…but now it has some really pretty flowers! 
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I have a huge mint patch in my front yard that is a great way to attract pollinators if I let it flower. I usually cut it down hard right before it flowers in mid-July (when my yard is full of other flowers for them) and it blesses me with a second crop of delicious tender mint leaves. I will then let most of this second growth go to flower to give the pollinators something to enjoy through the fall.
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Deck tomatoes are still going strong, and Japanese cukes are real troopers! Despite being forgotten a few times when I watered the rest of the garden, the cukes still keep coming.
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Aaack!!! The deck produced a lot this long weekend!
I’m going to bake the cherry tomatoes with EVOO and salt and thyme (450 degrees, 20-30 min depending on oven - to slightly caramelized charred state). Then they can be used as garnish to white fish or pork chops.
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As my favorite TikTok gardener guy says, “ABUNDANCE!!!”
Beautiful bounty and great idea. My daughter made us a delicious quick creamy pasta sauce this weekend using a bunch of my bite sized tomatoes.
Found the recipe!
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Picked 13 hefty butternut squash this weekend 
Time to start finding some new ways to use it (aside from roasting).
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I recently read that you can use butternut squash in place of pumpkin in many recipes. Maybe try some butternut squash quick bread??? You can freeze extra loaves!
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Garden is slowing down. Had a weed that took over and pretty much killed my cukes. But did find one huge cucumber when I cleared out the weeds! Still getting a lot of tomatoes.
We have basil and mint growing. What do folks do with these as the season comes to a close? How do you “preserve” them for use later in the winter?
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I dry most of our herbs and use them all year.
I have also pureed basil with a bit of water and frozen in ice cube trays…pop out a cube of two when I need that fresh basil flavor. I think you could do that with almost any herb.
I recently picked a ton of cilantro and mint and made that ubiquitous Indian chutney, which seems to go great on grilled meats and fish. Since it only stays about a week in the fridge, I’m planning to make a really big batch of it and can some jars to keep for longer term.
I take my basil and throw it in a freezer bag with olive oil and throw it in the freezer. You can rip the frozen basil as needed and it thaws instantly. So good and incredibly easy.
I made lemon mint simple syrup with our mint. My H and D use it for cocktails and to drizzle over dessert.
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My H bought a food dehydrator a few years ago. At the time, I thought it was a dumb idea, but we did start experiementing with drying the herbs in our garden (we have a lot!!). I’ve had good luck dehydrating parsley and oregano. Basil didn’t work out as well–sage was great as was lemon balm. I bring my rosemary plants inside (they’re going like gangbusters right now) and as much as I try, my rosemary usually doesn’t make it through the winter. I really try too. My H keeps whispering in my ear “a dry rosemary is a dead rosemary!”
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Same on the rosemary - I can NEVER get it to survive - even if I buy like one of the Trader Joe’s rosemary plants - lucky to get a month out of it!
A lucky PNW dweller here… we have a giant rosemary plant in the backyard that was likely planted ages ago. It keeps going and growing despite not being taken care of at all!
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My garden never sped up. In my house and at the church giving garden and all around town we are complaining about this growing season. Finally have a lot of green tomatoes, but we’ve had few red ones. I plant various kinds (cherry, plum, early), and they are all slow. But hey - they do look green and healthy because we’ve had a lot of moisture. I’ve had a few zucchini and yellow squash, but no bumper crop this year.
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Now a piece of toasted thick bread slathered with butter or olive oil and topped with those beauties!!! (and a little salt if needed)
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Here is where I got the idea for the recipe!
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