Harvest

There's just something about harvest time that makes you feel good.  Whether it is all the different colors of the vegetables and fruits that you gather, or if it is simply psychological satisfaction with the idea of having a full larder, I don't know.  I do know that harvest time is my favorite time of year.  Then again, maybe it's the moon . . . .

Full Sturgeon Moon

I spent the afternoon scrounging out in the field garden.  It was a lovely day for a change:  not too humid and there was a nice cool breeze out of the north.  I took my time among the rows getting a good look at everything.  I harvested some nice yellow warted crookneck squash and some Early Fortune, Boston Pickling, and one Australian Lemon Cucumber.  There are green tomatoes on the tomato plants, and the leeks are looking good.  Instead of pulling them, I will leave them where they are to over winter and produce seed next year -- the start of a permanent bed of leeks.  The Jerusalem artichokes are looking fine; I've never grown them before so am not sure how or when to harvest.  I'll have to look that up in one of my gardening books.  The Ebeneezer onions left in the onion bed are setting seed but it isn't ripe enough to gather yet.  The cutting celery is gorgeous and so is the bulb fennel.  I am most pleased with the two herb rows.  I'll never start herbs indoors again; they just do so much better direct seeded outdoors.  I am so tempted to harvest leaves and flowers from many of the plants, but I'll wait till next year.  I did cut loads off of the chocolate mint, spearmint, and peppermint and have them drying in the dehydrator.  The house smells SO good.

Yesterday we dug up a row and a half of Tom's potatoes.  What a job!  It was so much harder this year because we couldn't keep up with the weeds because of all the rain. Still, Tom's potatoes were much nicer than mine and his harvest yield is better than mine.  He grew Norland and Kennebecs while I grew Red Cloud and Katahdin.  Still, I'm partial to my spuds because I grew from my own saved seed.  Tom's corn is about where mine is -- a week or so before it's perfect to pick.  That is, if the racoons don't ruin it first; they are having a tasting contest in both of our gardens. 

The onions are cured and I put them in baskets.  I gave Dad a half bushel of onions and a bushel of Red Cloud potatoes.  He can go pick all the corn he wants from Tom's garden.  Speaking of Tom's garden, despite the fact that there is a HUGE red pine in the garden that was downed by the tornado, he counted about 15 Sunshine winter squash still growing.  I figure the deer can't get to the squash because they are under the tree branches so we should be able to harvest them all.  I wish I had some winter squash.  There are loads of flowers on the squash vines that grew, but no fruit.  I only spotted one halfway decent New England Pie Pumpkin in the whole pumpkin patch. 

The good news is that when I went out to work in the garden boxes after supper I discovered that I have LOADS of green beans.  Hurray!  I can take potatoes, onions, shallots, potato onions, bulb fennel, garlic, and green beans to the farmers market.  I told Lara that I will get our supplies together and plan to go to the market on Saturday.  We will see how it goes and then contact Linda Daubner who emailed me about going to the Park Falls farmers market outside the hospital and maybe selling there, too.

I love the way the kitchen looks at harvest time.  It's a comfortable messiness that feels so creative.

What shall we do with the green beans?

 Potato soup or latkes?

Oh, onions with everything!

And there's nothing like fresh eggs.

Of course, fresh food addicts like myself always wind up dealing with sugar fiends --

From Sarah's Torturing Dieters Manual

Ahh, I love it when there's no room on the buffet . . . .