Summer Comes To An End

Though peaches hit local markets as early as June, ours ripen at summer's end.

Huckleberries measured for a pie

My Farmer's Almanac arrived in the mail, boasting over last winter's dead-on forecast in retrospect. It's calling for another "polar vortex" winter to come. If an early chicken molt is any indication, growers might want to get their fall crops in early. We did. For now winter's a long way off, as we harvest through hot, hazy late August.

Winter gourds curing in the sun

Our harvest baskets look a lot different now than they did in July. For one, there's a lot more fruit - peaches, figs, berries, and melons. We're even getting some early apples. We're harvesting the heavy weights now - watermelons in the 40-50 pound range! Even some pumpkins and gourds have joined the ensemble. Sunny, dry afternoons help to cure winter squash for longer shelf life.

Dry beans

In order to create space for fall broccoli, cabbage, and greens, we half-heartedly began garden clean-up in the corn patch. We're turning our attention to seed gathering so we can continue to grow our heirloom varieties next year.      

Seed saving operation

                       

Abundance of watermelon

                                 

Heirloom "Rattlesnake" watermelon weighing 41 pounds

Assorted pumpkins curing in the garden

Popping corn plants to left promise a delicious harvest in October

Late Season Harvests

Heirloom organic Golden Bantam corn

These assorted peppers went into salsa

Cool, cloudy, August weather reminded me so much of an Indiana corn roast, we decided to do just that! It was tradition at my Acadian clan reunions. They welded an iron grate above a water reservoir inside a large metal trash barrel, which would be set over a fire, perfect for steaming-roasting 12 dozen ears of corn. We don't have the metal barrel, but a grill set over hardwood coals will work just as well. The most essential part we have: big, beautiful ears of dark yellow heirloom Golden Bantam corn. This tried-and-true sweet corn dating from 1902 holds plenty of true corny flavor though a little bit starchy to our taste. It roasts fragrant and richly golden.

Eggplant, a Mediterranean staple, ripen beautifully

To date, we've harvested and processed 10 bushels of tomatoes, crocked nearly 1,000 pickles, and even tried pickled watermelon rinds. We've made enough salsa and canned enough beans to last more than a year. We made jam out of our late-season red raspberries, and we'll need to do something with a plentiful crop of garden huckleberries. Indian-colored popcorn is silking out now for an October harvest, and green pumpkins have started to change to orange. Apples, peaches, and figs will be coming soon.

Rattlesnake heirloom watermelon swelling to 40 lbs

Drying bean fence (left) uses space behind the barn

Golden Nugget tomatoes

Heirloom Golden Bantam corn

Rainy day harvest

Happy Summer Solstice 2014

'Gold Nugget' tomatoes ripe on June 12

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.

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.

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.

Red and black raspberries, and blackberries; these went into triple-berry jam

White onions, many the size of softballs, drying in the barn

Sweet corn silked out June 15; it will be ready by the 4th of July

¹Message me for citation

Happy Memorial Day

Red raspberries begin to ripen immediately after cherries are harvested

Since most gardens start out as tilled patches of lawn, weeds become a serious problem this time of year. I like how Robert Frost described the process with "Putting In The Seed" (Mountain Interval, 1920):

Nanking bush cherries ready to fill a Memorial Day pie

How Love burns through the Putting in the Seed
On through the watching for that early birth
When, just as the soil tarnishes with weed,
The sturdy seedling with arched body comes
Shouldering its way and shedding the earth crumbs.

"Soil tarnishes with weed," appropriate mental image. Some people ask what's the organic way to control weeds.  The best approach IMO is to actually get down on hands and knees and pull every single weed by hand after a good rain once. Then, cover space between plants with cardboard or newspaper, and layer grass clippings, straw, or mulched leaves on top. This approach keeps weeds down for us all summer. Except in the corn, where my Mantis tiller and a hoe do a fine job once or twice until towering stalks shade the earth.

These short carrots were harvested from our cold frame

Though it's still early in the season, we're enjoying harvests of beets, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, onions, peas, carrots, strawberries, sour cherries, and raspberries. We always have fresh eggs on hand, thanks to our egg-laying Rhode Island Reds. Herbs are at their peak freshness now, too.


Summer crops of cukes, green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers are soon coming. Happy Memorial Day and happy gardening season as we celebrate the unofficial start of summer.

Love these helpers!

The vegetable garden in May

Lettuce, broccoli, and peas on the fence (volunteer sunflower to the right)

Huge pea pods with 12 peas swelling inside

Spring garden to the left, summer garden center, and corn patch right