Harvest/Ingathering 2025

 

Vegetables Incoming!

The month of Harvest/Ingathering ends today, but the work continues.

Pantry is all back together

First of all, our freezer was delivered on the morning of the 20th. By that afternoon the pantry was put back together and the freezer was halfway filled. Now it's nearly all filled.

Refinishing the worktable

During that long waiting period, I refinished the small worktable that sits beside the freezer, as well as the tops of our two sofa tables.

This is the season when the garden production really peaks.

1 1/2 gallons of calendula flowers

I've put away the Calendula flowers that I dried for autumn and winter teas.

Bob cleans shallots

Bob helped me by cleaning the shallots...

Cleaning garlic

... while I cleaned the garlic.

Garlic and shallots hung for storage

Now they're all hanging in the cellar, ready for winter use.

Tomatoes for the freezer

Green beans and tomatoes are coming on strong now. I've finished freezing beans and can only fit in three more jars of tomatoes. I've begun dehydrating beans and will soon be drying tomato leathers.

I've made pasta sauce and frozen my quota (seven pints).

Shiitake mushrooms ready to harvest

Shiitake mushrooms have been sauteed and frozen and I have begun freezing corn.

Aduki Beans are drying

The Aduki beans are beginning to dry. We've made three pickings so far. That's a bushel in the cellar.

Bob digging potatoes

Bob's been busy with potatoes. He dug all of the regular potatoes, which I packed and put into the root cellar.

A couple bushels of potatoes

Just the other day, we both worked to dig the sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes

We got about a bushel of those. They're curing now. In a couple of weeks, they will be individually wrapped and stored in a warm part of the cellar. (In the space beneath the hanging garlic and shallots.)

We got away just a couple of times during this busy season.

We went to visit my oldest brother one afternoon. A couple of days later we had some errands to do near my hometown, so we had a visit with a cousin of mine. Then we picnicked at Selkirk Shores State Park on Lake Ontario. 

Beautiful weather and two nice visits.

Rescued Sunflowers

Fall seems to be coming right along. Our weather is beginning to fluctuate between short spans of cool and warm temperatures. The winds are picking up, so typical of spring and autumn.

The strong winds tend to knock down our tall sunflowers. When that happens, I cut off what blossoms I can save and bring them inside for a little extra cheer. We need all we can get these days.

The harvest is really what's taking up my time this month. Bob's time has been divided between the garden and his civic activities.

We continue to live as responsible, thinking citizens in this time of escalating chaos. 

Be strong and determined.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Sunset reflected in Cumulus clouds

Morning sun reveals spider web

Seed Fall/Frost Time 2024

Milkweed seeds

The leaves are all down, with the exception of our large red oak. We've had a decent frost, but no hard freeze yet. It's been dry, quite breezy and generally, warmer than it should be.

The nice weather allowed us to finish up our outside chores on schedule - October 30th to be exact.

Laying out garlic bulbs

I have planted the garlic and shallots for next year.

A filled wood bin

Bob has filled the wood bin in the cellar.

Bob and his compost stash

He's covered all of the beds with a layer of fresh compost.

A pretty new compost pile

And our compost pile has been restacked for a proper balance of green and brown material. We tend to get out of balance with too much green until the leaves come down. Now it's as it should be.

The garden is now at rest.

Nature's perfect solar collector

This is one of our porch cats. We call him Marmalade because we have no idea what his real name is. He, at least at one time, belonged to someone in the neighborhood, because he wears a collar. It appears that he's been on his own for quite some time, but we don't know for sure. He spends a good deal of time at our house. If we are in the garden, he's generally there, too.

This is Bob being busy

He's really attached to Bob. As you can see, it can be difficult for Bob to get work done. (Work other than petting and warming up a cold cat.) 

On cold days Marmalade not only cries at our kitchen door but knocks on it trying to lure Bob outside to sit with him. Mind you, he has five different warming boxes available for his use.

Scarlet Runner beans

Now that we're inside, I've begun my bean threshing. I got two bushels done earlier this week.

Time to remove the toilet

Bob has resumed work on the bathroom. He finally had to remove the toilet so that he could finish taping and mudding. He didn't want to take out this fixture for two reasons; it's a yucky job, and he hasn't been looking forward to making trips to the downstairs bathroom a couple of times each night. Fortunately, so far neither of us has fallen down the stairs in a drowsy stupor.

The drywall work is now nearly finished, and I should begin priming and painting next week. This needs to be done before installing the shower surround, vanity ...

Our book sale haul

We went to the Autumn book sale in Ithaca and stocked up on reading material for our winter rest time.

Future sweater

I have also begun Bob's winter sweater.

We went on two outings with the fine weather we had this month.

Cornell's Sapsucker Woods

Early in the month we walked at Sapsucker Woods on a sunny and warm day. Tee shirts in the beginning of November?!

Salmon River Falls

Samhain marks the halfway point between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice. We celebrated the day by traveling north and visiting the Salmon River Falls in Orwell. 

The Salmon River bisects the village where I grew up. Because my family had no car, I never saw the falls, despite their close proximity. Now I have seen them, and they are quite nice. We stopped off to see Lake Ontario (Selkirk Shores State Park) on the way home. We had a very enjoyable day. By the way, our new electric car took us there and back comfortably and without a glitch.

Settling in

We continue to try and balance our projects with restorative pursuits. Some days we're more successful than others, but we keep at it. Each day is a new opportunity to pursue balance.

Sunrise on November 10

We hope that you may achieve a desirable level of balance this season, especially heading into the season of holidays. Here's something to ponder. Take time to consider what you do for the holidays and what you would like to do. Traditions can be comforting or confining. Don't be afraid to step out toward what you would like to do. Holidays are meant to feed the soul, not drain it. Pursue what feeds, not what drains.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Supervisor Marmalade

Full Beaver Moon

Song Time/Falling Leaves Time 2024

 

Autumn Greetings

Song Time/Falling Leaves Time was ushered in with the September Harvest Moon.

An interesting moon shot

Bob got a shot of it when the heavy cloud cover briefly parted.

This month has been very busy with the garden. Until this week we had warm and beautiful weather. It was ideal for finishing the harvest and cleaning up the garden.

Beet harvesting

Beets and carrots have been pulled and stored. The potatoes are all in the root cellar.

Three kinds of potatoes

The beans are all in the cellar waiting to be threshed (13 bushels worth). Threshing begins in about a month.

Applesauce making

I made applesauce and both freezers are now full.

Bob helps dry apples

Right now, we're dehydrating apple slices.

Bob's shiitake logs had one final flush for the season. These mushrooms were dried for tasty soups this winter.

A good mushroom harvest

All that remains to be put up are horseradish and a crock of spicy sunchokes. We typically do these on Thanksgiving weekend.

Shoveling compost over straw

While I was finishing the harvests, Bob began weeding and amending the empty beds with compost.

Pulling off bean vines

I helped by pulling out the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers and cleaning off all of those bean trellises.

The upcoming week is supposed to be dry and warmer again, so our goal is to have the cleanup and amending all done by the end of October.

Firewood assembly line

Bob cut his medium wood today. This is wood that is too large to break by hand, and too small for the chainsaw. He's come up with a handy way to cut it into stove length pieces. He sets up his compound miter saw and has the bin filled in no time at all. 

On a warm day next week, he'll fill the wood bin in the cellar with regular stove logs which are already cut. We had our little "seasoning" fire in the stove just a couple of nights ago, so we're all ready for the cold weather.

Cayuga Lake

We got away for one walk this month. We went to Cayuga Wildlife Management Area (formerly known as Bell Station Preserve). It was peaceful with nice views of Cayuga Lake.

We are now in the season when we readjust our balance. We shift from a focus on providing for our physical needs, to a focus of providing for our inner needs. From growing, harvesting and preserving, to rest, creative endeavors and activities to feed our inner selves.

So now we gather the books, and I pick up the needles and we sit by the fire. We take time to think and to listen. A pot of tea and good music will be our companions. Nature rests and so do we.

We hope all of you can practice at least some of this, for your wellbeing, as well as for those whose lives you touch.

We bid you peaceful rest.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Happy Shiitake log

At Cayuga Wildlife Area

Seed Fall 2023

Autumn at home

The month of Seed Fall has come and gone. Most of this month's activity was concerned with preparing for the season ahead.

The garden claimed the Lion's share of the time. When last I wrote, I mentioned the warm, dry weather we were expecting. Well, it came and was a real catalyst for our maturing bean crop. Almost the entire crop came to maturity on the vine and was gathered without any trouble from rainy weather. I have ten bushel boxes of bean pods in the cellar awaiting threshing next month.

Nice looking carrots

The carrots and beets have been harvested and are packed away in the root cellar.

Parsley Worm

I left one carrot in the ground because I found a Parsley Worm on it. This is the caterpillar of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly, one of my personal favorites. I'd rather lose a carrot than to deprive it of its needed safe haven.

Wrapping sweet potatoes 

 

The sweet potatoes we harvested last month have been cured, wrapped and are in the cellar with bags of garlic and shallots hanging above them.

Bob harvested the Spitzenburg apples. We're eating tons of apples.

Making applesauce

I've frozen 14 pints of applesauce - all I have room for.

Apple slices to be dried.

We're also drying apple slices. We've dried four loads so far, yielding 15 quarts of dried slices. Bob enjoys munching on these while reading by the fire during the winter.

The winecap mushrooms are still producing and we're enjoying our late, "free", self seeded lettuce again this year.

Late lettuce

As the harvests have been winding down, we've worked on garden clean up.

All of the trellises have been cleaned off.

Pulling off bean vines

Everything is out except the kale, flowers and our cover crops. We're just waiting for a frost now to finish it up.

I planted the garlic and shallots on the 27th. So, technically next year's garden is already begun.

Planting garlic among the cover crop

Another way in which we have prepared for the season ahead was to get ready for the woodstove season. 

Bob loading wood into his cart

Bob has filled our cellar wood bin with an assortment of wood types and sizes.

Preparing kindling

I gathered kindling and refilled our very large kindling box in the cellar.

In the last update I mentioned our red sauerkraut. This raised a few questions from folks. Red kraut is a Bavarian style. Typically it is fermented along with some combination of apples, onions, bay leaves, caraway seeds and juniper berries. We prefer ours plain, so we don't include these things. Ours tastes like "white" kraut, but it looks nicer and is loaded with anthocyanins.

Our red sauerkraut

The final way in which we prepared for winter was to go to the Friends of Tompkins County Library book sale. We went on $1.50 a book and $.10 a book days. We got some good reading material for winter.

Some of our good finds at the book sale

On Tuesday we will mark the halfway point between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice. Since the weather is supposed to be less than pleasant, we plan to rest and relax at home with games, reading, and Grandma Neill's apple pie.

Because of our preparations, our bellies will be full, our bodies warm and our minds and souls nourished. Bring it on!

There's still time to get yourselves ready for a restful and rich winter season. It's so much more settling to embrace what the season has to offer than to despise it. Just a thought to consider.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Time to enjoy the simple things