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| 'Gold Nugget' tomatoes ripe on June 12 |
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| Beets to add some color |
Welcome first day of summer 2014! Summer solstice, known in
ancient time as Midsummer and in the Christian era as John the Baptist’s
birthday (six months before Christmas), has been celebrated for all of recorded
human history; sources say we feel significantly happier at this time of year,
most likely due to lengthening daylight hours.
1 Farmers and
homesteaders, always tied to cycles, know that summer means extra work and long
days. As we’ve sown diligently, we reap the firstfruits of an abundant harvest.
Blessings abound; there is much for which to give thanks.
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| White garlic (not elephant) |
It’s time to pull canning jars out of storage and gather
food in the harvest (the homesteader’s version of Solomon’s proverb). We
welcomed tomatoes almost a month early this year thanks to different heirloom
varieties. Summer isn’t summer without a
batch of our
overnight refrigerator dill pickles;
I host a much-anticipated pickle party in the work office each June.
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Dill heads are an ingredient for great
pickles; picked an average
of 28 cukes per day! |
We feel reward, seeing a plate of roast chicken and a
variety of fruits and vegetables, realizing we grew everything here. Taking Solomon’s
advice in time of abundance, we ladle produce into canning jars for a leaner
time; maybe it will remind us of summer sunshine and rain when we open these jars. Who needs an excuse to celebrate when there’s
sweet corn, blueberry pie, kids running through the sprinkler, and fireflies at
dusk.
Ecclesiastes 5:18 Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one
to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh
under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his
portion.
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| Red and black raspberries, and blackberries; these went into triple-berry jam |
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| White onions, many the size of softballs, drying in the barn |
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| Sweet corn silked out June 15; it will be ready by the 4th of July |
1Message me for citation
