Harvest of the day

 It has not been a great year for the vegetable garden. Too wet and cool, I think. (And because it's been so wet, Matt hasn't been out there with his special fertilizer, either...that could also have something to do with it!)

But yesterday, for the first time, I was able to put together supper almost entirely from the garden.

Add a little salt and olive oil and roast it all up...yum!

We ALSO picked one of Eben's sunflowers today at his request. This spring when we were buying seeds, he was the one who voted that we don't just get giant sunflowers that grown 12 feet tall, but get "Pikes Peak" sunflowers which can get up to 14 or 15 feet tall! They have NOT disappointed, even with this less than great year. (This is just the very top of the plant - I cut it off as high above my head as I could reach, and then cut another 18" off so it would fit in the vase we have for it!)

Fall produce

 Pulling in the last bits before the first freeze!

(All photos, except the first one, courtesy of Leah.)

Blueberry wall progress

 

Also known as "killing two birds with one stone." Ebby and I are toilet training and building a limestone retaining wall at the same time. He's actually a decent help - bringing his little wheelbarrow along to load rocks, and the little blue wagon when we need dirt. In the meantime, if there's an accident, no problem! The ground could use a little moisture!!!

A ton of food

 Today marks the day that we surpassed 2000 pounds of food that we've pulled out of the yard! The girls and I processed just over 80 pounds of pears today, and that (plus a bit of kale and about a pound of green beans) was enough to push us over that magic line.

Now we can say quite literally that we've grown a ton of food this year. ;) That's pretty cool. 

Reuben made himself comfortable near the compost pile where we're throwing all of the not-so-good pears.

Rinnah's climbing the ladder to pick the beans off the 12 foot tall sunflowers! Thankfully they're bending down as the season progresses.

Three kiddos tossing pears into the pile.

One of the perks of having a big brother is his big muscles! He's got three little sisters in there!

Picking, picking, picking pears.

Plant sale at the neighbors'

The little girls helped me dig, split, and pot up a variety of plants from around the yard to add to our neighbors' plant sale, and over the course of two days, they made more than $400!!! And that's just our plants! Sylv and Sam did just as well, if not better.

They worked really hard with the digging and keeping everything watered and bringing it all over...and they were out there on the driveway for every hour the sale was on...and then they helped me load it all back into Owen's truck to bring back home this afternoon! We also got to keep the things that Sylv and Sam don't want to take up space keeping for next year, so here's looking at even bigger profits in 2021! My budding small business owners!

Even Ebenezer is tall enough to help load the littler pots into the back of the truck. We have ALL appreciated Owen's truck!

A walk around the yard

Here's what's currently blooming in the yard. The girls were excited to help me find the best examples, particularly with the lilacs!

The double lilacs in the front yard

A solid column of cherry blossoms. Yummy!

Lilacs in the side yard - not quite fully blooming yet. They're late this year.

The early peonies, still a little beat up from the rain over the weekend.

Apply blossoms - love the "snow" on the ground. Also love the two red spots - a chair and Ebenezer!

Strawberries - every year we get blossoms but no berries.

Matt rigged something for the wisteria to climb on. Still only a few years of growth on it, and nothing even close to blossoms.

Evania's crab apple tree - such a deep rich color.

Creeping phlox in the cottonwood garden.

Plain old violets.

Myrtle along the limestone path. The sun is also too bright - washes them out!

Big, bold color. Until I pulled it. ;) But still. It's what's blooming now!

Bleeding hearts

And Ebenezer!

Alium and boys

Last spring these giant allium from my grandpa came up early with the warm weather and then froze. I thought they were done for. It was so exciting to see them coming up again this spring! I'm really looking forward to seeing these bloom again, especially after thinking they were lost.

The fountain continues to be a favorite for Reuben, and Ebenezer regularly joins him. They both come in soaking wet!!

the fountain

Eben has discovered the joys of Reuben's water feature! It's so neat to us that Reuben is still, three years later, so very into his fountain.

Can't think of a better way to spend the first day of summer!!

The Cunningham's apples

This has just NOT been a year for the garden. As I looked out from the second story window at the completely fallow garden, seeing the one lone red tomato that I had seen, but hadn't even had the time to get out and pick, even though it would have meant a 30% increase in our yearly tomato crop, it made me think of the Sabbath years that God commanded the Israelites to give to their own fields - a year of no planting, but only harvesting what came up on its own.

We got a hint of that with our ten baby pumpkins. Ten pumpkins for our ten children growing up in this motley garden. Coincidence? I think not.

But, getting just one jar of pear sauce out of all of the fruit trees in the backyard made getting a gift of a bag of apples from our friends' trees that much more special. (The Cunninghams got 3000 pounds of apples this year, and sent a bag via the Engessers last week.) Even more fun was having Mr. Cunningham bring three more boxes of apples - roughly 100 pounds! - and tucking them behind the dumpster at his office in St. Paul.

Evania and I went out after lunch (with Eben in tow), to pick them up. She was my helper in case the boxes were too heavy or awkward for me, and they really were, so she helped me lighten the load by piling some into bags.

 And here's the haul all loaded up in Big Blue. Yum!!!

The tomato harvest

The year's tomato harvest. I DID spent $2.99 on the plants at Menards. I don't think we quite got our money's worth! But those three did taste good, and those tiny little baby toes you see under my pinky are part of the reason why this is the extent of the harvest, and I wouldn't trade those for bushels of tomatoes!