☼ Forest & Field Happenings ☼ Could this be the End?

There is a definite shift this week.  Cooler air, shortening days, things are slower to ripen.  I may just be able to catch my breath.  Well, atleast I can stop canning tomatoes.  I have opened my garden to a couple of friends to come glean the Great Wall of Tomatoes. It is hard for me to leave a vegetable unharvested.  I have an intense compulsion to put up everything even when I already have enough.  I have more than enough!  Sharing and letting them do the picking allows me to let go of some of that obsession.  I have gardened too big again this year.  I continue to search for a good balance.  I am happy to share but, by growing too much, other things in my life are neglected...including my very own body!  So as the harvest continues and I check things off the final Grand Garden List I am also taking careful notes on how I can do less next year.  I only managed one beach day this summer!  What's the point of living near the coast and not swimming in the ocean?

 Soooo Many Tomatoes!

 Some Potatoes Harvested ~ More among the weeds

Another fall activity, DH mowing the back field so it remains a field.  

It has been more than 2 years since that last mowing.  

He does enjoy his tractor time!

Here is a haul that actually took very little of my time.  Just 2 hills of each produced all of these Butternut Squash and Long Pie Pumpkins.  My first time growing these pumpkins.  I am excited to have found so many while I harvested....lots of weeds among the vines!  They are supposed to be good keepers and great for pie!  Here is a link to FEDCO Seeds with a description-->  http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/search.php?search=long+pie&item=1723&inde

Went out a few nights ago looking for the Aurora.  No luck but still very beautiful.  

A moment of stillness that was much needed during the frenzied fall.  

One of my most favorite bits of writing ~~~  

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry

~~Gratitude~~~ I'm Back!

Happy Groundhog Day, Candlemas, Imbolc, St Bridget's Day, Snowdrop Festival, and I guess I'll wish you a happy super bowl....though I am not really much of a sports fan.....BUT PLENTY to Celebrate today...something for everyone!  Well, except maybe Vern, he is disappointed, he looked out the window and winter is still here.  I am happy it is still winter!!  Luckily Punxsutawney Phil saw  his shadow....6 more weeks of winter...yeah!  My 2 week sabbatical was not as fruitful as I had hoped.  I just NEVER get as much done as I plan.  I accept this about my Self.  And I have sneaking suspicion that the long lists I create for more Self allow me to get A LOT done anyways.  So here is a slice of my supposed ART 2 weeks (couldn't really get the ART thing going so, I just relaxed into what I was moved to do)

Started a project of moving my photos out of albums and into photo boxes.  Quite a trip down memory lane!  I try to get atleast one major reorganization task done each winter.  I know not ART but....well...it feels good to be doing this!

Placed my seed order.  FEDCO is my local seed cooperative (they sell worldwide) Great company!  This years catalog features the ART of my friend Ms Dunn's fifth grade class!  This catalog is fun to read, it is full of surprises including, no glossy pages.  

I did a lot of weaving.  Weaving is a mind clearing activity.  Just enough attention to the task that I cannot think about anything else except the next throw of the shuttle.  Ahhhh.

I managed to finish the warp on the little Krya loom.  Next will be blue scarves....

Finally a wee bit of ART.  I am working on a series of what I call Peace Flags for www.injoyemporium.etsy.com shop.  Also, a simple Robert Lax poetry cloth piece....to be continued~~ 

So, finally, what I am grateful for?  I am grateful that I will never be bored, that I will always have plenty to do, and I am gentle with my Self about what I do and do NOT get done!  

It is my intention, each Sunday, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your gratitude moments. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~~

FAVA FUN

I like to try a couple new things in the garden each year.  After a chat with a friend last week he mentioned he needed to plant his Fava beans soon.  I realized I had never grown or even eaten Fava beans.  His description of their deliciousness and beauty had me intrigued.  I am not a big fan of shelling beans...but after his description of the soft pillowy shells that contain the amazing beans my curiosity was completely piqued!

But time is of the essences.  Guess, Fava's need to be planted now because they need to mature before the heat of the summer.  I have friend, that I was seeing soon, that works at Fedco.  So messages her on Facebook.  The seeds came on a gloriously warm Friday.  I planned to plant the next day.  Best laid plans....

The ground was frozen solid Saturday!

Still cold on Sunday

Wind Chill in the 20's

This in my shed ~ not ~ my fridge!

Finally, today I could rake and plant these "magic" beans.

First MUDDINESS :)

I couldn't find a poem about beans for National Poetry Month...but...found a nice blog Poetry of Food with a wonderful looking Fava Bean recipe!

http://poetryoffood.com/fava-bean-puree

Garden Sabbatical Ends

My Fedco Seed order has arrived so another year of gardening begins.  You can expect regular garden postings from here on out.  Growing food has been a big part of my life for the last 19 years.  When I became pregnant with our son we decided I would stay home...my husbands work takes him here and there...so I became the anchor in the home port.  I am a worker bee so leaving the world of outside employment left a void in my life.  I created a new career for myself as the grower of food.

Each year my gardens grew as well as my knowledge.  I am a self taught organic gardener.  For the first few years that was the majority of my reading.  I was on a first name bases with my local folks at the cooperative extension office (this is before the internet!).  Anytime I had a question about gardening or canning I would give them a ring...some belated gratitude for all their help!

The gardening enterprise has been mostly a solo venture.  My DH is the rototiller man with occasional help at my request.  He has enough on his plate already with a long work week, caretaker of machinery, and chief carpenter.  (we both may be workaholics)  Anyways, the gardens got bigger and bigger...that is the problem with the long Maine winters...all that time to plan, dream, and scheme.

Summers were beginning to be my least favorite season.  2010 was a record year~~~I single handedly canned 349 jars, froze 58 quarts, and dehydrated 86+ quarts of food!  In 2011 I was hit hard with the late blight but still had a pretty big harvest.  At the end of the summer of 2011 I realized I was maybe just a bit burnt out.  So I decided 2012 I would take a sabbatical.  I still tended my 40 foot double row of garlic and planted a 40 foot row of beans, some summer carrots, and a few zucchinis.   The asparagus and berries would be there for the picking too.  I needed a breather.  I wanted to explore other aspects of summer...like summer reading!  I succeeded, I read some big fat books, I swam more, and had time to just plain feel playful.  I feel refreshed and look forward to a more reasonable plan this year.

Some major changes for this year include not planning for a quantity carrot consuming kid being home this winter...he should be off to college...can carrots be mailed?  Also, I had a recent "disaster"...my greenhouse got smushed. Remember that happy blog, a couple weeks ago, when the rain was pouring and I was dancing about with the ducks...well when I went inside a micro-burst or something must have hit and this is what happened....(It sustained even more damage during the following 2 blizzards)

Here is a before picture...

We are not going to get another or build a new  one just yet...need to do some mulling over.  We built this green house from a kit and have been using it since 2008.  It has been though many windy situations.   It is surprising it was lifted with 2 heavy cement filled lolly columns attached to the sills and we rope down it every winter.  Maybe with the green house gone I will be forced to be a bit more reasonable about my gardens....I think the universe was making sure....I only have so many window shelves!