it wasn't a large POOF. small really, almost unnoticeable. I turned around and summer was gone. A blur of plantings and paintings, of plaster and mud. so now it is time for catching up and slowing down.
The harvests are finally in. A grand total of 47 acorn squash, 42 lbs of fresh dug potatoes, 37 ears of corn, a bushel each of peaches, onions and peppers and 11 bags of zucchini stuffing the freezer to capacity.
pies, muffins, sauces all tucked away.
having a garden is the gift that keeps on giving.
peach pie and fried zuchinni are the closest thing to bliss come february when the snow is 2 feet deep and the winds are harsh. The hardest job you'll ever love.
it was a horrible (horrible!) year for tomatoes. Loads of rain and very little heat make very unhappy tomatoes. It is the first week of October and there are still about 2 bushels of tomatoes still on the plant and still very green. Since they are all sauce tomatoes you can't even fry them up properly- so it looks like there will be a very large batch of late season salsa in the kitchen this fall. I forced about 24 lbs into red to get them into the pot for pizza and pasta sauces for freezing but not nearly enough to last through the winter.
for those of you not in the know- if you have tomatoes that are just on the brink of changing- that icky pale not quite pink but not quite green color- find yourself a brown paper sack (i say find because at least in these parts paper sacks are somewhat of a commodity- another downfall of the plastic generation!) anyway- toss your tomatoes in a paper sack and close it up tight. set them on the back of your counter and forget about them for a day or two and when you open the sack- voila! red ripe tomatoes.
So the big surprise of the summer was the melon. Cantalope and watermelon- by the dozen. Surprise because all of the cantalope vines (seemingly) died. first by sunstroke, then by drowing. frustrated, i ignored them. next thing i knew they were crawling all over the place, threatening the lettuce patch and trying to make a break for the gate. As for the watermelons- they are a tricky bunch- too much water and they don't get sweet. not enough water and they don't get red. With the driving rains we had i was sure i was going to wind up with big green balls of pale pink, well, water. In the end- I wound up delivering several to the library, and pawning them off on unsuspecting summer folks along the lake shore. They were in such high demand, they have made the final cut for the farm stand next year! i can grow melons. who knew? so there you have it. the mud. i went from an old barren field to a full freezer/pantry/fridge in four fleeting months. and some how, some where, in the middle of it all, i managed to attend a few art shows, make a few friends, have a few laughs and learn a few lessons. So i suppose, it is no wonder that the summer seems to have passed in the turn of a head.
next up, the plaster...
till then,
live well,
stay happy.
don't blink!
so, blogger is acting up again and i had to post this through html coding- you'll forgive the glitches and run togethers- i'm a bit rusty!
1 comment:
I had no idea you grow your own veggies on top of everything else you accomplish. No wonder you haven't been online as much this year as in the past. Good to know you've been doing things that make you happy, you sweet soul! Namaste
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