Look what we found in the garden this weekend! At first we couldn't figure out what the heck it was... Neither myself, my neighbor nor any of our kids had ever seen anything like it before! It was freakishly large... approximately 4-5 inches and FAT. To give an idea of just how enormous this thing was, please note that in the photo, that is an adult hand holding the branch (my neighbor Donna's hand, actually... Thanks, Donna!) Anyway... after some research we found out that it was a tomato hornworm, which feasts on the leaves (and sometimes fruit) of tomato plants before overwintering in the soil in a pupal state, to emerge in the spring or early summer as an enormous moth. We released it off in the back of the yard, far away from the tomato plants!
So... it's officially the first day of autumn, and we officially have our first batch of handpicked apples from the Apple Farm! Yesterday, we went to Brooksby Farm in Peabody to celebrate my little cousin's fifth birthday. There was a hayride, apple picking, feeding farm animals, pumpkins, cider donuts.... all that good fall stuff! Today we'll be cooking up a batch of fresh applesauce before we head out for Theo's Hip Hop class this afternoon. I'm very much looking forward to that delicious warm apple cinnamon smell wafting through the house!
