I'm not a farmer, but I'm beginning to understand the incredible busy-ness that farmers face during harvest time. I've understood it theoretically before, of course, but now I've experienced a taste of it; and this small dipping-of-my-toe-in-the-waters-of-harvesting is enough to make my appreciation and respect for farmers grow even more!
Here's why. Our garden is producing like c-r-a-z-y. Every single day, I find myself with a high-priority item on my to-do list, having to do with food preservation. The past two days it was chopping and freezing onions (for some reason, the onions we grow in our garden tend to rot, so to eliminate as much waste as we could, we decided to go ahead and chop them all and get them in the freezer, ready to be pulled out for use in soups and casseroles and even in Jeff's Unending Salsa Bowl), and today it's green beans again. We canned 14 quarts of dill beans, and there are still lots of beans in the bucket to be worked up tomorrow. A wonderful harvest!
Make no mistake about it - I feel incredibly grateful for the abundance pouring forth from our garden this year, due to Jeff working hard in it and God making it grow. But I also feel pressure to use up the food and not let it go to waste. Fact is, I simply cannot do it all! At any given time, there are a number of food related projects that I could be doing, and I have to pick and choose which seem the most important. For example, this week I chose to focus on onions and beans, which meant that I ignored the cucumbers which could have been made into pickles, the zucchini which I would have liked to experiment with freezing, the green peppers which are another item to go into the freezer, and the basil which I'd like to use to make some pesto sauce to freeze for winter. Not to mention the hot peppers, which are entirely Jeff's domain, but I would be glad to help him with them sometime...just as soon as I get a spare minute. ;-)
So, yeah, harvest time is busy. And I'm just dealing with a garden, not an entire farm with harvest pressures to face!
I know that lots of homeschooling families continue their homeschooling through the summer and have a flexible year-round schedule, but I do NOT know how families that garden and preserve food do that. I cannot imagine trying to fit any kind of regular school work into the pace of life right now! But fortunately, I don't have to. :) The garden will slow down, and school will pick up - all in the proper season. I'm so grateful for the joys of each phase of the year!
Meanwhile, here in the good ol' summertime, life with its regular joys and tasks rolls right along; and smack dab in the middle of all the onion-choppin', bean-snappin', cellar-shelves-fillin' fun comes a momentous event: David lost a tooth - his first! Since he was a late teether (he didn't get his first tooth until he was 13 and a half months old), I sort of expected him to be late in losing his teeth, so I didn't worry when his 7th birthday came and went and he still hadn't lost one. Lo and behold, Monday was the big day he'd been waiting for. He had had several loose teeth, and every once in a while he'd show them to me so I could see how wiggly they were. I didn't think they were particularly close to coming out; but at lunch on Monday, David bit into a nectarine and started crying. It had jarred his tooth so much that he was in pain, and the sight of blood coming from his mouth did nothing to stop his tears! ;-) His tooth wasn't out yet, but it was looser; and then at suppertime, David was working his tooth back and forth and - suddenly - it came out! Despite his earlier tears, there was no fuss at all when the tooth came out. David did it all by himself, and he was very calm about it. Calm, but happy, too. Finally, he reached that milestone.
What fun! JDaniel has been asking about his teeth falling out!
ReplyDeleteI hear ya on the harvesting/preserving thing!! (Though I'm not doing a garden this year so I can't speak from "this year's" experience. :) ) It is a satisfying - yet exhausting - work, that is for sure. And it's a HUGE blessing!! I mean, you can go to the grocery store and buy just about anything, but to watch GOD grow your garden and allow it to produce abundantly? That always gives me a huge feeling of being blessed. (Not to diminish the blessing of His provision of food via the grocery store.)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to David on his first lost tooth! I hope the rest of his loose teethe don't fall out all at once, he might have to eat mashed potatoes. ;)
ohh my word!! He looks so adorable with that missing spot in his teeth! I took Sammy to the dentist this week and they told me he had two loose teeth! How did this happen! He teethed late.. I was hoping to make it to first grade before loose teeth! Congrats to David!!
ReplyDeleteYay on the harvest! I hope you guys can keep up!
Our garden consists of potatoes. That's it. It's a sad little garden this year. :)
ReplyDeleteYay for a lost tooth! I'm a sucker for that little toothless smile. Last year (I think?) Nehemiah lost 4 front teeth (2 top, 2 bottom) It was the cutest sight ever. :)
Oh DAvene, I know exactly what you mean with the food. SUCH blessings, and so much to be thankful for, but sometimes, I want a REST!! (And then I feel terrible for my ungratefulness...)
ReplyDeleteLove the toothless grin ... never tire of seeing them :)