Abundance/Ripening 2025

It's blueberry season

Last night's full moon ended the month of Abundance/Ripening here at Thistledown Gardens. 

Today's update happens to fall on the 14th anniversary of our buying this house. It has taken us all the 14 years to do the majority of the renovation work: broken doors and window shades, sketchy wiring, dirty wallpaper, absolutely gross carpets. The list goes on and on. There are still smaller jobs waiting to be done.

Bob has just finished one of those.

Cellar doors

Our outside cellar doors were in need of repair and a new paint job.

Bob had to repair the concrete which covers the original stonework. Then he had to make repairs to the metal doors, scrape off rust and paint them.

The finished job

The job is finished and looks much better. The paint will stabilize the doors, which should be usable for many more years.

I've begun resealing our porch glider. All of the old finish was gone. Now, this too will be protected from further deterioration.

Resealing the glider

I'll finish this job tomorrow morning.

The garden is coming along, although a bit behind schedule, due to the cool spring.

Laying out Calendula to dry

As I mentioned last time, I needed to get one more batch of Calendula blossoms laid out to dry. That has been done.

Harvesting garlic

The garlic has been harvested...

Shallots

...as well as the shallots.

Shallots ready to dry

All of these are drying in the cellar. I'll put them away sometime this week.

18# of cabbage to freeze

All of the early green cabbage has been harvested. Most of it (some 36#) is in the freezer. The late red cabbage will be used to make sauerkraut.

 Blueberries

The blueberries have been very plentiful. I've frozen some, we've eaten a lot and have shared some with others.

Green beans, patty pan squash, peppers and cukes have been coming in as well.

6-foot-tall tomatoes

The tomato plants are looking good and setting fruit. None of it is ripe yet, but as you'll soon find out, that's quite all right.

Sowing beets and carrots

My late beets and carrots have been sowed. I hope that they do well.

You may remember that we use two small chest freezers for much of our vegetable storage. On July 11, one of our freezers conked out (after 21 years of service). That left us with one nearly full freezer heading into prime freezing season. We purchased a new, larger upright freezer that day, which would replace both of the smaller freezers. We figured that since the two were purchased together, the second one may likewise quit at any time.

The new freezer was supposed to be delivered on July 23. Okay, I could deal with that. We had to remove pantry shelves, repair and repaint walls and rearrange the entire room to accommodate the new freezer. We hustled and finished that job.

Dead freezer and shuffled shelves

 

New freezer space

Now for the fun. On July 20th, we got a text saying that our freezer could not be delivered until August 20th!!! YIKES! 

Now our only freezer is FULL! I keep telling the green beans and tomatoes to "keep their pants on" and hold off until the new freezer arrives. It better come on the 20th, or I may go berserk.

We've gotten out a few times this month.

Buttermilk Falls State Park

We walked at Buttermilk Falls Park twice.

On Lammas Day (August 1), we drove to Green Lakes State Park, had a picnic and walked around Green and Round Lakes. It was a beautiful day.

Green Lake

Lammas Day is the celebration of early harvest. For supper we had a selection of vegetables fresh from the garden. Dessert was blueberry pie.

For Lammas Day supper

It was a nice day of relaxation during a busy season.

That's about all of the news for now. As you know, our garden doesn't vanish on Labor Day, so we'll be busy - hopefully filling the new freezer. Stay tuned to find out, "Will they get their freezer, Or will Kathy lose her marbles?".

Enjoy the season.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Lammas Day

Tiger Swallowtail along the path