rubys

I have spent a large part of the last 3 days finishing the beets. I bottled most, dried a few. Beets take me a long time. Digging, cleaning, trimming, boiling, skinning, cutting then bottling. I really like beets but wheew! I only a have a few more apples then I will be done with the harvest. I have a lot more trimming, and all the bulbs to plant still in the yard, and the weather has been perfect but I have been inside putting up the harvest! I hope I can get the yard all put together for the winter. I bought 20 dozen bulbs at the Thanksgiving Point bulb sale in the summer. Hope the spring is worth the work I need to do!

Amazing!

Would you believe it took me the better part of two days to wash all the bottles I emptied? Of course, when my back got to hurting too much I sat to knit a row, but what I am knitting is a baby sweater and I am on the sleeve, so short sit. Now we will fill them all with grains, beans and a few bottled fruits and veggies.

Wealth

I am rich with raspberries! I have, at times in the past, had 20 cases of berries on my bushes. While last years crop was pathetic, little more than one case, and this years crop is only somewhat better, still I have had enough to share a couple of cups with one friend and a couple with another. My second son came down with his girlfriend today and picked at least half a case, and a few black raspberries to boot. And being able to share - is this not true wealth?
I have, in past years, picked the raspberries that smashed in a windstorm and juiced them and drunk the juice or made jelly. We became so used to being able to do this that even in leaner years we still make jelly. In fact, I have so much old jam and jelly and fruit and vegetables in my pantry that I need to empty bottles into the garden and refill them with new, fresh fruit and vegetables. (My children never liked bottled fruit as much as my siblings and I did when we were children.)
Now that sweet C and I are alone here we don't need as much freezer jam or as many frozen berries, so we can still share. And we really don't do cooked jam anymore. So tonight, I made raspberry juice concentrate that we can add to lemonade or just drink alone.
It's funny though. I always have more harvest than I can use. Yet even though I plant, and water, and weed and care for my garden - I cannot get anyone to share the harvesting. People often tell me that they would like some of my berries, or apricots, or tomatoes, or whatever, but they never come. My only rule is that they pick it themselves, and somehow, no one ever wants to do that. (Picking is the hardest thing for me for some odd reason.) I won't give away food that I had to pick. Well, at least most of the time I won't.