Harvest Home

Good Early Morning, All Pupsters.

It’s the middle of August, and my veggie garden is going crazy. After a slow starting summer, it’s gotten sufficiently hot here for several weeks so that the plants have really kicked in the juice, if you know what I mean.

Kinda like human beans, it’s gotta get heated before there are the resulting benefits. (Not going political here, pinkie swear. Ain’t I a stinkah?)

Like a jungle, that garden is.

When my 24 year old son moved in with us last winter, he planted a garden of tomatoes and peppers in the backyard, but then in the early spring he moved out (to his dad’s and he’s still been working at Universal – so that’s all good). So then, my younger son has been doing the lion’s share of the maintenance on that stuff, and he helped me plant some zucchini and cucumber plants as well, after digging up and turning and adding Good Stuff to the soil. (It’s so much easier for the 18 year olds, than the 60 year olds. Sigh.)

I’ve got several different kinds of hot peppers growing. The zucchinis have taken over my life. The tons o’ tomatoes are all ripening at pretty much the same time. I’ve got Romas, Big Boys, Heirlooms and some other ones. And, the person who’s done most of the work is out of town – visiting Sissy in DC, and in NY this weekend – isn’t even hear to watch, pick and prepare for storage the fruits of his labor.

Pretty much every day that I go out there, I’m pulling a dozen and a half of tomatoes, and several John Holmes zucchinis. And, so, I’ve been making pasta sauce for freezing. I add peppers, onions, maybe sometimes some ground turkey, and whatever else is in the fridge that needs to be used. Oh, and garlic. Fresh garlic. (And, h/t to nonquixote for the germ of an idea for this post.)

I’m being a selfish brat and keeping all of the tomatoes, well except for giving some to mom, who’s sweet face is in my photo atop. But I’m taking 5 or 6 ginormous zucchini a week to MEND, where I used to volunteer. The Food Director and the Assistant Director who lead a children’s group about gardening called Seeds to Supper program were delighted to see me and my zucchinis. Here’s a link to MEND, and if you care to check out the site, you’ll learn how some wonderful people are helping others.

If you go there and see the slide show, in the shot of the food kitchen, the gentleman on the right is the Food Director, Richard Weinroth (Pumpkin!), the gentleman in the middle is Virgil, who I adored working with – who wouldn’t? Check that grin, the sincere pleasure of meeting his wife and three of the cutest girls you can imagine. (The collateral benefits to doing volunteer work are hard to predict, but, when I saw those three faces, I was able to allow myself to get rid of two large boxes of mostly new stuffed animals, and a huge box of children’s dvd’s that for some stupid reason I had been holding on to.)

And, so, the garden grows. We plant the fields and scatter the good seed on the ground. And Inch by Inch, Row by Row, we maintain our gardens and our lives.

Blessings and Happy Thoughts to all of you and, as always, Keep The Faith all you Sweetie Pies.