It’s late summer, almost threatening autumn, and this is the best part of living on a farm.
It’s harvest time!!! It’s too few hands and too many vegies. Still, it’s such a delight to see so many things grow and ripen, to reap the rewards of months of hard work. We’ve been blanching and freezing and picking and eating. (I wonder how many vegetables you can eat at one meal?) We keep tripping over hidden squash we didn’t even know were there.

The Japanese pumpkins have strayed into the pasture and we have to track them down. There are purple green beans, plums, apples (many different kinds), tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, Walla Walla Sweet onions, green peppers with some strange stripes, oregano, mint, rainbow swiss chard, broccoli, golden, blue, and russet potatoes, cabbage, English cucumbers, blackberries, summer squash (according to my sister, she’s never met a squash she didn’t love) 6 different types of pumpkins, beets of different…er…stripes, corn, the haul is endless.

There have actually been several trips to area food banks throughout the summer, but the bulk of fruits and vegetables ripen right about now. We end up harvesting most of it all at once. I’m sure we can scare up a some friends who wouldn’t mind taking a few bushels home with them. (There will be plenty enough for everyone.) If not, there will be food for
the wildlife this winter and fantastic compost for next spring.

And the cycle continues…