Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
~Robert Louis Stevenson~
It's harvest time on my homestead. A few weeks ago, we harvested the potato crop I almost didn't plant for lack of room. Late in May, I was running out of garden space but when I saw the Yukon Gold seed potatoes at my garden centre, I couldn't resist.
I dug deep holes at the edge of my garden and planted several prepared seed potatoes in each hole. I didn't have much hope for them since my cucumber, squash and zucchini plants were also planted close by but you know, if you don't plant it, nothing will grow.
After a few weeks, the first green shoots appeared and I quickly covered them with dirt and grass mulch from our newly mowed lawn. We had a hot, dry summer and I wanted to keep them nice and moist. By the end of August I had huge potato plants growing in mounded soil, all along the edge of my garden. The squash, cucumbers and zucchinis didn't seem to mind sharing their space and everyone was doing their own thing.
Potatoes are the easiest thing to grow and amaze me every time I harvest them. You know they are ready to harvest, when the plant has withered and literally died back down to the earth. That's when you can get a shovel or fork and carefully dig down to see what has been growing underground.
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| From the looks of the garden, you wouldn't think anything worthwhile is under the ground |
I was not disappointed. Hole after hole was abundant with potatoes. The little girls helped me dig them up and were so excited each time they had a potato in hand, you would think they had found gold. Well, in a way they had found a treasure. Although we have a diverse agriculture industry in the Okanagan Valley, in the winter we rely a lot on crops from California. The continued drought there has meant higher prices at the market, making produce very expensive. Being sustainable at least part of the year, is such a gift.....but it takes time and energy.
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| I didn't have to dig far before I found our first potatoes.....nice sizes too |
As I watched the little girls dig in the garden, where moments before there had been old, decaying potato plants, I was thinking often in life the best treasures come to those who either have gone through darkness and come out the other side with their hearts full, or it occurs naturally as we age. Our wrinkles start appearing, our hair thins and goes grey, but inside, with a life time of living, our soul blossoms into a beautiful, compassionate and loving spirit. We learn so much about life from nature.
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| Kate loves to dig in the ground...it feels so good and when you find food....WOW! |
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| I love it too! |
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| Treasures! |
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| Victoria and Kathryn, didn't want to stop for pictures...they were having so much fun digging up potatoes. |
Since I'm an older mom to young children, I'd like to think that this is one of the spin offs for parenting later in life. Although I don't believe that I personally have less energy than I did parenting our first children, I know that I'm aging, from my reaction to the precious moments in life, like witnessing little people digging for treasure and being thrilled by the smallest things in life....like potatoes. I don't take these moments lightly anymore.
My sister C, said something really profound to me in one of her emails last week and it really spoke to me about harvesting wisdom. She wrote, "Mourning really turns a life around doesn't it? The beauty is when, even though our hearts are broken open, they start to mend and everything feels renewed. You can reset and re-balance life in the new direction you've grown into."
Yes, yes, YES! Kind of like how potato plants grow in the dark. When the plant finally dies and looks its bleakest, there is something beautiful left that can nourish and sustain us. And that is why, in my darkest moments, I know in the end everything is worthwhile. We just need to keep laying seeds and experiencing the deliciousness of life.....full of treasures.
Last night, was one of those moments. We had a harvest moon party at our homestead. The kids were beyond thrilled, as while eating a yummy stir fry with lots of produce from our garden, we told them all about the harvest moon (also called a blood moon) that would be occurring later in the evening. After dinner, they were bubbling with excitement as they played in our hot tub. (a great way to save water....I can't tell you how many times we have forgone a bath for a hot tub soak instead) Once they were little prunes, they dressed quickly into warm pajamas and gathered in the family room where I had popcorn ready and a Netflixs movie all ready to go. They watched a cute animated movie called, "The Croods," about a prehistoric family, while we waited for darkness to drop her curtain. (I thought it was an appropriate movie since the family in the movie knew little about the world they lived in, yet they knew what was important)
The timing was perfect because once the movie was over, it was nearing 8 pm and was already dark in our part of the world. As we ushered our family outside, you could see the moon rising over the mountain, full and red. The children were in awe as they whispered, "this is better than Halloween!"
We watched the sky for quite awhile and it took me right back to another eclipse when our oldest daughter was about 7 years old, her brothers were 4 and 1. I remember piling all the kids into the van and driving up the mountain, which hadn't been developed yet. We got out of the car and stood in a field where we could see the expansive sky. Our baby at the time, Mitchell, was happily bundled in a backpack and his older brother Clark, just a preschooler, was bursting with questions about eclipses, the moon, our sun, and our solar system. It was one of those moments in time that you just know you are planting something deep into your child and fueling a passion.
As I was going down memory lane, our oldest son Clark drove down the drive way after being out with friends for the evening. He's all grown up but still loves looking into the sky and learning about astronomy. As I watched his tall figure stand with his younger siblings, looking at the moon, I was overcome with joy that we were all together experiencing the wonders of living on earth.
What are you harvesting this fall? With wisdom we use our energy to plant the seeds we want to witness growing. It's rather EXCITING isn't it? What do you want to grow?
Well, of course with our size of family, our potatoes haven't cured long in the garage, and we are already enjoying them in meals. As I move our family closer to being fully vegetarian, with a strong movement towards eating raw foods, I help our older children transition smoothly into this way of eating by including their favourite.....which is yes, potatoes, for many of our evening meals.
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| Our oldest son Clark hasn't ever met a potato he hasn't liked...helping me with our potato harvest....it seems like a blink of an eye ago when he was a little blonde boy looking with excitement at a lunar eclipse |
Recently, I made some lentil burgers, a salad, and of course my famous potato wedges.
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| My wedges and lentil burgers...all ready for a harvest dinner |
Hope's Potato Wedges
Ingredients
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
3 minced garlic cloves
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
1 tbsp of cumin
1 tbsp of rosemary (I cut up some fresh from the garden)
Sea salt and fresh pepper to taste.
Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Mix all ingredients really well, into a baking pan and put in oven for 30 minutes. Turn every 10 minutes to ensure they get well browned...we like them crispy.
Serve with homemade ketchup....or delicious plain too.
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| My lentil burger, with homemade buns, salad and treasured pototoe wedges |
Next year I plan to make a dedicated area for growing potatoes and want to grow enough to keep us going for a good portion of winter. How about you, do you have a place to grow one of the many varieties for your family?
As I close this post, I just wanted to share a song I love by Neil Young.... (if you can't see the video below click on the hyper link) Neil Young, called, "Harvest Moon." I hope you have the time to listen to it as it's dreamy and fills me with so much love for this time of year...and for my family and friends. Thanks for coming and being a part of my life. Together we are "Helping Our Planet Earth....aka being hope"
Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.
Blessings from Hope
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