The snows have come and except for the lingering kale, the gardens are at rest. We had a good season. We packed a freezer with produce to use through the winter. We canned 70+ quarts of tomatoes and numerous fermented items. Most exciting to me, I finally feel like I know what I’m doing. Much of my desire for the novel and risky has been satiated so that I look forward to producing an abundance of the food that will fit well with my family. The end of one growing season begins the planning for the next. I am full of plans.
The Arrival
–Berry
Like a tide it comes in,
wave after wave of foliage and fruit,
the nurtured and the wild,
out of the light to this shore.
In its extravagance we shape
the strenuous outline of enough.
1 thought on “The Gardens of 2014”
Hey Dave,
I emailed you today since I live not-too-far away and would love to see your set-up. Just now I’ve been scrolling through your blog archive looking at your various ideas. For my whey tanks (I’m feeding pigs too) I built wooden boxes over the valves and stuffed them full of hay. On really cold nights I put a 1 gallon bucket of hot water into the box next to the valve and replaced the lid. By the morning the water was cool, but still far from frozen. On really cold days I’d put a new bucket in during morning chores. during marginally cold times I could go 24 hrs between bucket refreshers. Much better than frozen valves!