fall farming
brought in before the freeze
We had a hard frost—a freeze even—here a week ago, which brought the traditional phase of the farming season to a close. Never mind, the tomatoes were mostly gone anyways with the blight; what you see above are the reasonable-looking ones we brought in the afternoon before the freeze, but despite their fine appearance there they all started rotting as soon as they got ripe. The squashes and carrots are good though!
What's left now in the garden are the herbs—the perennials like sage and rosemary and the self-seeded parsley, which is going like crazy—and the greens that Harvey and I planted to grow under low tunnels as late into the winter as we can manage. I let him plant some radishes, since the lettuce and arugula seeds are hard for his stubby fingers to manage, and I'm glad I did: the crop is better than what we had in the spring. Now if only he actually liked to eat radishes! Next season he's getting a bed to plant on his own, and over the weekend I helped him clear it out.
someone else's
As well as our home-made harvest celebrations, we also enjoyed a visit to "Family Farm Days" at the Concord Museum. They're doing an exhibit on agriculture in Concord and jazzed up the opening with a little fair featuring a couple local farmers and some craft tables. A very little fair, but it was just our speed for the day and I enjoyed turning the crank on the cider press as much as Zion did putting stickers on a mini pumpkin.
intent
Harvey didn't get to bring a mini pumpkin home since he spent most of the time lying on the ground (I have pictures of that as well, but they're not particularly interesting). Never mind; he has a full-sized pumpkin of his own. I told him I'd buy him any one he wanted at Chip-In provided he could carry it himself. I thought that three dollars would be his limit, but he muscled up and brought home a four-dollar model. It looks fine next to the home-grown corn stalks messily adorning our front porch pillars.
All this happened some time ago, and I've been meaning to note it down for a while; better late than never, I suppose