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Agrarian Harvest

Wholesome, Organic, Experience. Our small farm, food, and simple life.

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October Anticipations

October is one our favorite months of the year! The leaf colors are changing, there is brisk morning air, warm afternoons, and everything starts to slow down. October brings with it the anticipation and worry of the first frost. We are ready for life to slow down, but not ready to be done with all the fresh produce. But we have lots of produce canned and ready for winter. So if you are going to can produce to eat this winter, you had better hurry. It is too late to can green beans, but is a great time to can tomatoes, peppers, plums, make sauerkraut and blanch and freeze broccoli.

The beans have been thrashed. Most of the produce is still producing, although, the plants are looking tired and have slowed. But not the plum trees! The plums are ready to be picked and are abundant. The house smells like sweet, juicy sugar plums dancing in the air from all the canning, drying, jamming and juicing of the plums.

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This coming week brings the rush to get the “Experiment Sweet Potatoes Project” out of the ground before that first frost. Sweet potatoes don’t handle frost at all. If the vine is frosted, it goes straight down to the tuber or potato and ruins them. So one last push before we can really slow down for the season. We dug a few plants this week and if what we dug is any indicator of what is out there. Then it may be a good harvest. More on sweet potatoes next week!

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Produce Has Slowed, But Life Has Not

The days have cooled and are shorter. It’s been raining off and on most of the week which seems to slow us down. It’s now too cool to sleep with windows open at night, at least it is for us. The house is chilly in the mornings causing us to start our days a little slower. The kids like to start their day curled up in a blanket on the couch doing their reading lesson before breakfast. After breakfast, I busy myself with a baking project or canning to warm the house and take the chill off. It’s the start of another busy September day of harvesting, canning and homeschooling.

While the produce is slowing down getting ready to die off and be done for the year, our lives are still very busy in this season. There is the harvest of the red beans to be done. They have been cut and are waiting to be thrashed when the rain stops and they dry out. There is still the major harvest of the pumpkins, winter squash, daikon radishes, turnips and beets to be done. Most of the late season produce is slowing down except the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. They are still growing and producing strong. We are about done with picking beans for the season, the sweet corn, kohlrabi and cabbage are about gone, and the cucumbers, zuchinni, summer squash have slow their production significantly. The broccoli is about done for the season due to an aphid infestation.

September starts our fall juggling act as I like to call it. We are still harvesting and selling, there is more canning to be done, all the regular inside work and laundry needs to be kept up with along with all the yardwork. Then we add another year of homeschooling into the mix. The Other Half takes on most of the harvesting duties as of September. And I focus on getting the canning done and the family back into our fall and winter routine.

Although, September is busy it feels like life and tasks are slowing down. We are getting settled down for the year and getting ready for the cooler weather. It feels good to be settled! Although, I wish it would stay warm all year, but instead, we are forced to prepare for cooler temperatures and fall.

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Kids, Gardening and Growing

The attraction between kids and the soil just fascinates me. It’s like there is some higher power that pulls kids to that space of earth where there is no lawn growing and there is bare soil showing, like the natural attraction there is between cats and a sandbox. They just can’t resist the urge to get their hands dirty, digging, flinging dirt all over themselves and anyone near by, probably eating a little too. Our kids have always been interest in all the work going on in the garden or maybe it was just that urge to cover themselves in dirt at a young age, but they now show a real interest in growing food. I’m actually surprised that we haven’t plugged any pipes with a buildup of dirt from all the baths to wash off all the gardening and dirt digging fun off the kids. It is a regular occasion to bathe the kids during the summer and have the tub lined with dirt when the water is drained. We have said more than once that our kids are like chickens, they have to take their dirt bath or dust themselves daily!

They were all drawn to dirt at a young age and still love it. And now that our gardens have become fields there is a lot for them to be involved in. They get to do more than just dig and smear it all over themselves. And they want to be more than just involved in all we are planting, weeding, tending, and harvesting. They want their own garden space and they have it now. It has been amazing to watch them plant seeds in their own arrangements or designs, carefully and diligently weeding, watch it all sprout and grow into seedling. Then get excited to harvest the fruits or vegetables of their labor. Life is so thrilling!

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Farm boy loves all aspects of it. And others like farm girl gets excited talking about gardening, but not so enthusiastic to actually do the work tending a garden. Our little farm princess loves to be involved and once again loves the dirt, but doesn’t have the attention span to tend a garden of her own yet. She is always there helping everyone else though, even if that means hoeing out the vegetables or watering the driveway and then yelling when someone step on her imaginary plants.. She’s helping, she’s dirty and she’s happy!

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So give your kids a garden to create, grow and eat or at least a piece of dirt to dust themselves in. You’ll be amazed at what they can grow. And how they grow and learn with it. It doesn’t matter if they are proud of just that one plant or even if it is just weeds that they grow, lots of them are edible too! Happy gardening and growing!

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