I've been feeling rather gluttonous lately; there's so much amazing fresh food available at this time of year that I spend my days pondering the next meal and then devouring it. The garden is overflowing with tomatoes, squash, beans, eggplant, peppers and chard. The fig tree is loaded and the berries have been generous too. As if that wasn't enough, I go to the farmers market and come home laden with melons, corn, cheese, chicken and eggs. My refrigerator is groaning from the overload, my freezer is almost full and there's still more tomato sauce and ratatouille to make, peppers to roast and beans to blanch and freeze.

We're lucky to live where so much can be grown and to have a farmers market around every corner selling local produce. Throw in cherries, peaches, plums and apricots from across the country with the local summer fruits and the combinations make me swoon. I've eaten way more pies lately than is good for my health, but tucking into a juicy slice of a blueberry/blackberry double cruster with a big scoop of ice cream sure is good for my soul.

Each day I face the challenge of what to cook. We eat tomatoes at almost every meal, brightening a plate of fried eggs at breakfast, with cottage cheese and crisp cucumbers at lunch, more combined with eggplant, squash and fresh basil piled over pasta at dinner. Eventually we'll get tired of them but it hasn't happened yet.

With so much coming in it's hard to think about another season, and the hot weather makes it a challenge to plant, but late summer is the time to begin the fall garden. I get up early and head out -- sometimes before breakfast -- to beat the heat and dig up an area to plant a few seeds or harvest whatever needs picking. I've planted beets and carrots and will start greens soon, but I stay inside in the hot afternoon, cooking up the motherlode of tomatoes or sitting in the cool, shelling peas or beans.

I can feel autumn coming. It's in the color of the tree leaves faded from bright green to a dull, darker shade, mottled brown from sun and bugs and heat. Or the force of wind, violently tossing the trees before a thunderstorm, giving a taste of the change that's coming and providing a pleasant shift from the still and soggy doldrums that make being outdoors unpleasant. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the days grow shorter.

High summer is my least favorite time of year weatherwise, but I do enjoy the long sultry evenings. We work outside again once shade takes the yard, make and eat dinner late. The colorful plates of veggies sustain my spirit through the worst. I know the weather will break by mid-September and we'll be able to turn off the AC and enjoy a couple of months of moderate, dry days, a different set of garden goodies to excite our palates, more tastes to savor and more recipes to try.