Summer is nearly over, at least as far as gardening is concerned. Gardening keeps me almost too busy. I’m driven by what’s ready to harvest and/or what needs doing, now or darn soon. It’s not possible to procrastinate for very long or your veggies become old and tough (beans, peas), over large (zucchini, cucumbers, beets, squash), overripe (apples), drop to the ground or get infested with wasps (raspberries), wormy (turnip family), too small (un-thinned carrots), sun burnt (un-hilled potatoes), dried out (lack of rain), stop producing (flowers not headed), too leafy (not pruned), frozen (not covered)... arghhh! Because of all this I tend to welcome the arrival of autumn! I’m tired. I’m nearly at the point of saying enough is enough and pulling some things out of the ground so they’ll stop producing and I won’t feel guilty if I ignore their final efforts of the season. But there’s always the sheep! They are quite fond of most garden produce, leaves and all, and they do enjoy crab apples.
I inventoried my root cellar. I think I’m ready for end-times! Four more preserving projects left: an experiment in air drying apples, apple juice for jelly, ripening and processing the tomatoes, and finishing up the 10 gallons of raspberry wine I’ve got started. That will leave only the potatoes and carrots to harvest and store.
Here in the north we can’t grow a large variety of fruit. The growing season is too short, not warm enough, and the winters are too cold, killing off many attempts to ignore this reality. Apples and berries work best and are often smaller than you might find in warmer climates. Yummy summer fruits like peaches, pears, plums and apricots must be purchased. So, liking to support small business and preferring to buy Canadian, I order fruit by the case from the fruit truck that comes to town from British Columbia. These folks send a weekly e-mail listing of what’s available and what farms they come from. Their prices are fair and their fruit is of good quality. They also have organic fruit. (If you’re interested you can get on their mailing list for next year. Their e-mail address is info.bcfruittruck@gmail.com. They bring their truck to Jasper, Sangudo, Mayerthorpe, Barrhead, Fort Assiniboine, Westlock, SpruceGrove, and Valemount.) I like to support their enterprise and appreciate what they’re doing. So many other amenities are not available out here in the boonies due to lack of support and dwindling rural population. So this year I got peaches and pears for canning and, of course, they’re so good we just have to consume some fresh. This is my favourite peach cobbler recipe; works good with apples too.
