Greatly Yield

I had heard that the first frost of Autumn was soon coming. This meant that I had to finish harvesting the rest of the veggies from my garden. Everything had to be picked before the frost spoiled the, as yet, unripened tomatoes, beans, etc.

From previous experience, I had learned that it is perfectly fine to pick tomatoes while they are still green. These green tomatoes will slowly ripen in my home and I can continue to enjoy them for many weeks to come.

After each section of my garden was harvested, the plants were pulled and the soil was raked flat again. A few weeks later, I had my annual Autumn ‘burn’ where I burned all the tree branches and other dried vegetation (plant stalks, etc) that I had collected since my last fire in the Spring. The ashes from this fire were spread over the area to add nitrogen to the soil for next year’s garden.

I thought that it would be fun to show you the photos of these proceedings and share the lyrics of one of my favourite Grateful Dead songs, at the same time…

Let It Grow

Morning comes

She follows the path to the river shore.
Lightly sung

Her song is the latch on the morning’s door.

See the sun sparkle in the reeds

Silver beads pass into the sea.

She comes from a town where they call her the Woodcutter’s daughter.
She’s brown as the bank where she kneels down to gather her water, and
She bears it away with a love that the river has taught her.

Let it flow, greatly grow, wide and clear.

Round and round

The cut of the plow in the furrowed field.
Seasons round

The bushels of corn and the barley meal.

Broken ground, open and beckoning to the spring,
Black dirt live again!

The plowman is broad as the back of the land he is sowing,
As he dances the circular track of the plow ever knowing
That the work of his day measures more than the planting and growing

Let it grow, let it grow, greatly yield.

What shall we say, shall we call it by a name,
As well to count the angels dancing on a pin.
Water bright as the sky from which it came,
And the name is on the Earth that takes it in.
We will not speak but stand inside the rain,
And listen to the thunder shouting I am! I am! I am! I am.

Nothin more

The love of the women, work of men.
Seasons round

Creatures great and small

Up and down

As we rise and fall.

These words sound so much nicer when heard within the structures of the song’s melody, so I’m including this link -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYCJ5qkVqX8- to a really great live recording from 1989… ENJOY!!!!

This is what my kitchen looked liked, later that evening, after my garden was taken down for this year. The large potatoes and carrots were put into storage while I prepared this meal using all the ‘runts’ of my harvest :) The beans were steamed and the potatoes were mashed. I shredded the small carrots and added them to the mashed potatoes. The cherry tomatoes were sliced in half to show the interesting textures of their insides (with the seeds and all that) and placed decoratively around the rest of the meal. I always have fun when preparing my meals and it is especially more satisfying when I get to use the results of my labours… yummy vegetables!!!

Well, that is the end of my garden stories and pictures for this season and this year. I hope that you have enjoyed my successes and failures and I hope that I have inspired you to get a little Earth underneath your fingernails… next year!

Jim