Wind and Rain and Time Warp

Everyone I talk to is having the same sort of year. Not enough time and no matter how many chores you finish it seems as if you are always behind. Time somehow feels warped.

For sure I have been busy. I added mint jelly and blackberry jam to my list of jams to sell at the market. A gallon bag of Green Arrow shell peas is in the freezer. The onions and garlic have both been pulled and cured. The seed garlic is in the frig waiting to be planted, and the onions are in a bushel basket in the kitchen ready to use. (No onions for the market this year. We eat too many to spare!) I have fermentation vessels everywhere. Yogurt and kombucha are bubbling in the kitchen. Cucumbers are fermenting in brine in the living room, and about 12 gallons of cabbage are fermenting into sauerkraut in my crocks in the laundry room. (Even Tom is getting in the act by brewing beer in the basement. Can't wait to try some of that!) I said bye-bye to a couple of roosters and added them and some good broth to the pantry. Put up 15 pounds of beets I bought at the farmers market. And yesterday I worked all day cleaning up and amending three garden boxes. Since the moon was in Scorpio I figured that if I wanted to put in a Fall garden I had better do it now, so I set aside one box to put the garlic in and planted the other two -- one with Purple Vienna Kolrabi, Scarlet Nantes carrots, Summertime and Paris Cos lettuce, and Detroit Supreme beets; and the other with Egyptian Walking Onions, Newburg onion seeds, Lisbon Bunching Onions, Forellenschluss lettuce and leftover unnamed onion sets from those I planted this Spring that I bought at the feed store. With row cover and plastic I'll see how long I can keep the garden going. I need to pick more beans and check the tomatoes. Tom's Swiss Chard and collards need picking again, too.

The farmers market last Wednesday was our best day yet. My jams are selling well and I had someone tell me they would like to see my knitted dishcloths in more colors. And everybody loved my Copenhagen Market Cabbages! I should have taken a picture of them. They were truly beautiful little cabbages. I sold all my Tuscan Blue Kale and some of the Portugese Kale, all the Italian Parsley I brought, and most of the cabbages.  My special customer received her bushel of Provider green beans. I will have to start bringing cold weather outerwear for Lara and me to wear because the wind is beginning to switch around and come out of the North. Lara said she was ok, but I actually got cold.

I have been making extra effort with respect to my seed saving skill and the effort is paying off. I'll have lots of herb seeds, peas, spinach, mustard greens, bush and pole beans, summer and winter squash seeds, cucumber, and tomato seeds. Hopefully I'll do better at overwintering the biennials than in the past and will get seed from them next year. Among them I hope to get cabbage, collard, kale, beet, and parsnip seed.

 

Today is windy, cold, and rainy; a good day to stay inside and rest. It is a day that heralds the coming of Autumn. I expect I'll start seeing the leaves turn color any time now.  Soon I'll be able to get back to my fire zone upkeep, and we will go over to Dad's and finish splitting and stacking his wood pile.

Sandy's Favorite Place

Till next time, Be Safe and Be Well!