Friday, August 17, 2012

From The Beginning




These were the seeds we planted in January. The first of the plants to emerge into a cold winter world. Small little thread like beginnings, bearing forth the promise of a new garden year. 



These were the bulbs we planted in March. Little round beginnings from a brown paper bag, brought home from the feed store in town. Planted in the cool rich early spring soil. Right there between the English peas and the potatoes. Our seedlings and the bulbs both planted side by side. 



These were the plants mulched and fertilized. Nurtured and watched as spring flew by.  



And these were the onion bulbs of early summer. Back when there was still rain and temperatures were still somewhat mild. We harvested with thankfulness in our hearts and hung our harvest to dry. 




As Autumn approaches these same onion bulbs lie in the back of our shed on an old screen door. They are now cured and the outer husk of the onions have hardened and browned.  





We have started processing our onions. Some will be left as storage onions. Only the ones with good heavy brown husks on the outside.  The ones that may have been nicked or are in question and the smaller ones are cut up and placed in zip lock bags. If not overfilled and the bags remain thin,  they can be opened while frozen and chunks broken off for cooking while the bag remains frozen.   

Some onions will also be chopped to go in the dehydrator then stored in jars. They last forever this way and are so handy, especially for soups, gumbos and stews. 

And next January this process will start all over again if we are lucky. We sow, we nurture, we harvest, we preserve. We feed the soil and the soil feeds us. Indeed we do know where our food comes from or most of it anyway. And we watch each year as the seasons unfold. Some dry and cool, some wet and windy and every so often a drought.

This year will be remembered for the drought and for the bugs.  What will you remember about this years garden? What was your bumper crop? What was your biggest failure? 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter 

5 comments:

  1. Bumper crop - early radish and spinach, regular season: yellow, spaghetti and acorn squash
    failure onions! I didn't plant many and I don't think they got enough water
    I'll remember the squash bugs and how duct tape removes eggs.

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  2. I will remember just how much I learned from reading your blog! Your family is very blessed to have you.
    I will also remember this as the first year I actually grew gorgeous tomatoes instead of puny ones! Oh yeah, and a little thing I like to refer to as "the fires of hell" otherwise known as the weather :)

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  3. I'll remember how inspiring your words and pictures were. I've dried, canned or frozen a lot of our produce this year. Bumper Crop - Green Beans. Failure - Spinach! Too hot too fast. I'm trying for some fall spinach now.

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  4. This is a great post and shows the progression of things. I love that!

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  5. The tomatoes were great for us this year--and I've really taken to your method of making tomato sauce! I've always grown red and white onions but I grew green onions for the first time and now I have no idea why I've never grown them before!? We use them soo much! I just trim off what I need while they continue to grow. Another "first" was freezing spinach for soups. Usu we just eat it fresh. I had an amazing carrot crop (again, soups!) But with all of that, I think what I'll remember the most is that this year I finally controlled myself and cut back!! Usually I'm killing myself to get every little morsel out of our garden but I just felt God was telling me "Too much!" There is very little work left in my garden now and fall isn't even here yet. I think with the heat (tho lately, the temps are great!!), I picked a good year for cutting back!

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