Blog: Musings on the Earth, Mindful Living, and our Connections
Winter Sprouts
This past Sunday, as with many Sundays, my volunteer, Abe, came to help me with winter gardening detail: removing dried mint and dill from the stems to jar for tea and spice, respectively. We removed and bagged seeds from collards and arugula, and separated beans and peas from their shells, some for cooking and some for planting next season. But this Sunday was different. The sun was shining and it was 65 degrees—time to work outside.
I love…
Shanah Tovah U’metukah — A Good and Sweet Year from In the Gardens
Shanah tovah! That means “A good New Year to you.”
We are approaching the High Holy Days in the Jewish calendar. These days begin with Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Days of Awe or the Ten Days of Return. The season quickly gives way to Sukkot, an eight-day holiday celebrating the harvest and the earth’s bounty. We acknowledge that the Creator and the earth have provided for us for another year. We pray for rain so that next year, too, will be…
The Worm and the Beanstalk
I think I have a worm. Or maybe it is a canny, selective squirrel. The bush beans (beans can grow two ways – on a bushy plant that is low to the ground, or as runner beans or pole beans, on lengthy vines that need to be trellised) are ripe and ready to be picked. And eaten. Yum. This is one of my favorite times of the season. All that hard work of cultivating the soil with compost, organic fertilizer and other amendments, of planting the beans and laying and testing the water system, of keeping away critters and pests, of…