Instructions: It was very late one night, about two weeks after we had moved into a new home in a new neighborhood in a new town. In other words, we knew no one. So who would be knocking at the door at 11 p.m.? I tiptoed cautiously and peeked through the screen.

A rather small, middle-aged woman was standing there with four huge cucumbers in her arms. As I asked her if I could help her, my mind was racing, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation that would bring her to my door laden with cucumbers.

"Here," she said, thrusting the cucumbers at me, "from my garden. I live down the street," she added as an afterthought. "You new?"

I agreed I was new and tried to politely decline the proffered gift as I had just purchased four of my own at the farmers market.

"No," she insisted, "got too many, going around to the neighbors and giving them away. Bye!" and with that she was gone into the night pulling a little red wagon overflowing with cucumbers behind her. I wondered what the rest of the neighborhood would think about the arrival of the cucumber fairy!

Gardens have a way of beginning slowly and then overwhelming you with produce.

From the smallest container garden to the largest backyard garden, gardeners know that by the end of the summer they will eat it, save it, give or throw it away. and now, with the end of harvest in sight, it is not too early to begin planning. Tomatoes will line every spare windowsill; zucchini will be piled high on the porch next to the corn; the beans and legumes will be in huge bowls. And since many of the neighbors have their own gardens, what will we do with it all?

Beans and green vegetables can be blanched and frozen very easily. This makes a great family project. The children can prepare the vegetables, an adult can do the blanching, and the children can keep adding ice to the water for instant cool-down, put them in freezer bags and label.

Nothing tastes quite like summer vegetables in February! And most vegetables that you would normally add to a dish can be blanched or sauteed and packaged in small amounts, ready to go from freezer to pot.

Tomatoes are great for soup base and sauce. For soup base, stick tomatoes in boiling water on the end of a fork until the skin cracks. Cool, peel off the skins, (children can help with peeling the cooled tomatoes), then chop and stew the tomatoes with a different herb for each batch - tomato and basil, tomato and dill, etc.. Add some sauteed onion and freeze in 2 to 3 cup quantities.

When ready, thaw the base, add chicken broth and cream and you will have the most heavenly soup - and fond memories of the family day of putting food by!

Zucchini can be made into breads and relishes quite easily. Both make a great Christmas gift for a neighbor or friend or, better yet, for a childs teacher.

Its a gift children can proudly say they helped to make! Be careful though, some things are not cost-effective if you have a large and hungry family.

Jam is a good example, especially if you have to buy the fruit. Jam cooks down so much that it takes a lot to make a little.

Last year we were fortunate enough to have an expansive harvest of grapes so we made Concord grape jelly. Delicious. But it was a whole day of picking and cooking and the cost of pectin and jars can add up to rival the cost of store-bought jam.

However, since grape jelly is our least favorite, it lasted all winter. Not so with the strawberry jam for which we had to pick and buy ingredients and it lasted a scant two months.

Oh, those cucumbers? We ate them. And ate them. And ate them.

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