The Autumn Garden

"There is rhythm to being a farm girl.

It is the rhythm of working hard when there is work to be done.

It is the rhythm of finding joy in the "doing" of the work.

It is also the rhythm of slowing down to enjoy each moment."

Rene Groom

Be sure to visit Lori's blog to see what Friday Farm Girls is all about!

A post from my October activities...

An autumn garden means it's time to prepare garden beds for winter.  Leaves from the church property next door floated down over the two beds closest to the back fence.  That's okay; they'll work their way into the soil for next year.  But plants that survived into October needed to be harvested, then pulled up and disposed of.  Beds needed to be weeded just a little, and some things also needed to be planted.  First, I dug up my little rosemary plant.  It was sort-of medium-sized, but I was happy since I don't use it too often.  There is nothing like fresh rosemary!  Every time I worked in my garden, I would run my hand through the needle-like leaves and breathe in the heavenly scent.  Mmmm.

I removed the "leaves" from the rosemary, then hand-chopped them up finely, and put them in a glass jar in my freezer for the winter.  The plant yielded enough to last me through next summer.

Then it was time to harvest the oregano.  I decided to dry it, since I already had a bunch in the freezer and I was running out of freezer room.  Some of the oregano was flowering; I discarded those portions.

A spider in the garden is also a good opportunity to use my camera!

I checked my autumn lettuce; I planted it rather late, so I hope I'll soon get to eat at least a little.  I've never done well with lettuce and I'm not sure why.  The little plants are really pretty, though!

A friend gave us a box full of strawberry plants!  While Thomas was digging to build up the bed where I wanted them planted, I took a few moments to snap a shot of the flowering grass.

Once they were planted, Jacob helped me water.  Actually, Jacob watered and I took pictures--naturally!

I checked on the garlic, which had already begun sprouting.  It'll stay in the ground through next spring, when it will sprout again.  At some point over the summer, I'll dig that up.  I hope a ton comes in next year, since I've already used up all the garlic from this summer!

Then it was indoor time and time to put up the parsley and oregano.  Look at all that parsley!

Fernando and Joe were real sweethearts to spend over an hour picking all the parsley leaves off for me.

That metal bowl in the photo below was filled to the brim with parsley leaves!  I usually chop my herbs with a chef's knife--they last so much better when chopped by hand--but there was simply too much.  I decided to use my immersion blender base with the cup and blade attachment.

I ended up with two storage containers full of parsley; very nice.  :)  Then it was time to sort the oregano, tie it up, and hang it on my hanging rods (thanks, dear husband!).

The basement is nice and cool, and I now have both sage and oregano hanging.  Pretty soon I'll take the dried plants down and process the herbs for storage.

I love "putting up" for the winter!

Fernando read this to me this morning in our devotions together:

She looks well to the ways of her household,

And does not eat the bread of idleness.

Proverbs 31:27 NASB

Back to life,
Christine

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