chores 2LIKE THE SQUIRRELS who are criss-crossing the yard with acorns and corncobs and more to stash, I’m busy, too. A list of inspirations on things you might tackle this weekend–and happy Labor Day!

As vegetable beds or portions of beds come empty, sow cover crops, growing “green manure” to build soil health organically.

Get after mice and voles (but never with mothballs!), before they set up winter housekeeping with you.

Make easy herbed salts (great as gifts!) or flavored vinegars (ditto). Freeze some herbs while you’re at it.

Get ahead of the green-bean glut: Freeze some in red sauce. (No kidding; they’re great that way.)

Fight crabgrass by managing it smartly now, and reduce areas of lawn compaction where other weeds thrive.

Make your own yogurt. (Save money, and stop wasting all those plastic tubs that store-bought comes in.)

Bake a peach (or plum, or nectarine, or raspberry…) clafoutis. Easy, yet elegant. (Freeze some more peaches along the way.)

Get ready for fall (or next spring) planting: Make a bed with cardboard or newsprint, smothering weeds or turf easily.

Pickles! Will yours be refrigerator dills, or old-fashioned bread and butters?

Make tomatillo “jam” (I put it on grilled cheese or other sandwiches)…

…or perhaps Deborah Madison’s romesco sauce (nuts, peppers, tomatoes, herbs and more), a Spanish recipe that goes way beyond mere condiment status.

Fill the freezer with garden-to-table soups, like these three that incorporate all your garden goodness.

Root-prune around tomato plants if they’re not looking inclined to ripen before even cooler weather comes on (it was 48F here this week!).

Instead of whistling while you work, listen to some of my archive of radio podcasts (what? you don’t already subscribe free on Stitcher or iTunes?).

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P.S. — Yes, of course, I almost skipped all the ways to translate tomatoes into winter fare—because we talked about them just last week. You know, roasted then frozen; in easy, skins-on sauce; frozen whole in freezer bags…

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