Summer's almost over

 The heat broke this week finally, although it was NOTHING like last year's 100 days of 100+ heat. Looking at the garden yesterday, I realized that I probably wasn't going to be able to plant a huge garden again, it is just too much for my battered aging body to deal with. So what's a chef who loves local produce to do?
 This weather triggers something primal in my nature, that makes me want to put up food. Probably a biological racial memory of long cold winters. I did glean a few last red and green tomatoes off the vines, enough to make a jar of salsa. Hopefully the store will have something on sale in the produce section. I try to buy as close to home as possible, and HEB buys as much local as they can, so I do have a small amount of Texas items I can get. The farmer's markets here have been underwhelming the last 10 years or so. They claim to have local produce, but you can see the refrigerated trucks that hauled the produce from the Valley, and everything was picked at LEAST a week before. What a joke. There are some new markets that do carry local, however these are 'foodie' places, where a single heirloom tomato will cost you upwards of $5 a piece. Bah.
 I've been looking really hard at a CSA since I have been unable to do much in the way of gardening the last few years, however, they are a bit cost prohibitive at this time. We'll see what things look like at the first of the year. Anyone want to split a CSA box next year?