The garden is...oh my goodness, giving us so much right now! Onions were just pulled to cure, the garlic that we pulled weeks ago is done curing and now trimmed and put in baskets for storage (thank you, Harper!). Loads of dilly beans are tucking into shelves here and there (thank you, Calvin!), and did I tell you about the peaches? The peaches! Fast and furious that season was, and I barely picked up my camera in all that stretch for my hands were covered in juice. Never have I seen a peach year like this one in Maine, and how grateful we were for our mighty two trees, planted just three years ago. Last year I think we had four peaches. This year? I stopped counting after 300 pounds. From two trees! There is Maple Vanilla Peach Jam, Peach Salsa (our favorite recipe is from Naturally Sweet Food in Jars), and oh so many frozen peaches simply because we ran out of time in the days. What a gift.
Our cabbage did a funny thing a week or so ago, which is that just about when they were ready to harvest, the roots filled up with a quick and heavy rainfall, thereby pushing pressure into the heads of the cabbages and causing them to burst (at least, that's what I have sussed out happened based on some reading I did about it). About half of our cabbages did that, making them not great for storage, but perfectly fine for using now. Which means...there's been a whole lot of kraut making happening with all of those heads ready to be used. Thankfully, I have a few kiddos who love eating it, and a few who love making it too.
The tomatoes are just starting to come in now, and I'm tucking bits of roasted tomato sauce into the freezer here and there, knowing that probably a week from now I'll once again be elbow deep in that in the kitchen.
This last week of August heading into September always feels like such a flurry to get preserved all that we hope to. And it's just so hard to imagine that only a few short weeks from now we'll have our first frost. I'm keeping that in mind these days, and enjoying the work and play of the garden.
And you? How does your garden grow?
