Harvest has begun

  Saturday, Market day. I work most Saturdays, so I don't often get a chance to head over to the market on it's busiest day. It's too bad, but there are the occasional days, like today when I can sneak away for a few minutes and run over there. I was picking up lunch so a co-worker could try out the new cafe that opened up in the market; Root Down. Great stuff, We've eaten there a few times now, and already I've got a favorite. They call it the Luisa Maria, It's a vegan BLT, Eggplant bacon, Lettuce and Tomato, with a nice sauce on a multi-grain sour. Worth checking out for lunch sometime. I also while waiting for the food wandered a bit. Had a wonderful conversation about soap making with a lady in the main indoor vendor area. Best of all though I picked up a pound of wild blue berries, straight from the boreal forest, one of my favorite places. They were delicious, the boreal forest is home to the best tasting blue berries I've ever had. I took some back to the cafe mixed some with a nice mint tea we have and had some blueberry mint ice tea, It was great.

Sam and I went over to the garden a few days ago to check on the potatoes. Ended up digging them all up. I'm quite happy to say they all turned out great, we had a few that had soft spots that you could punch right through the potato. Though I'd say at least ninety-five percent were good. We got a real variety in size too, some just the size of a quarter and others the size of a soft ball, average was about the size of a baseball though, which is fantastic.
Sam I think had a blast digging them up, we found quite a few worms in the process which he gladly added to the compost.

Kate's parents were in town and brought us quite a bit of stuff. They brought us a large pail full of goodies from Sue and Morris, beets, zucchini, carrots, beans, lettuce, potatoes. It's wonderful. Her parents stayed for dinner so I roasted some of my potatoes with Sues' beets and carrots, drizzled with a little bit of honey, Delicious. We were also sent some Jams and Jellies from her friend Shelly, I haven't cracked any open yet though I saw today that Kate has. They look great though, I'm especially excited for a certain pepper jelly that I saw in the basket. I'm really excited and thankful about all we receive, and for the people that we're surrounded by. We have some really wonderful and caring people all around us.

 We made another stop to the garden just today, mostly just to grab some onions, but also just to take a look around. The squash seems to be coming along really well, again being my fist time growing them I'm not sure how far along the process they should be, but I think for when they were planted it's great. This guy here is about eight inches long and a good thickness.

Lastly, I've begun to harvest my tobacco. I've still got a considerable amount of plant yet that needs to continue growing before I remove them. I'm amazed at how much I've removed and how much I still have left. Here you see two rows of tobacco hanging to cure, in our conveniently ventilated and cedar storage shed. I think this will provide the near perfect environment to create a nice light "oriental" tobacco which I'll use to roll into slender paper-less cigarettes. Though from what I understand without the use of a kiln I need to allow for a significant aging period to bring out any form of desirable flavour.

 

"The body is your temple, keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside in."