The passing of the seasons

Last week we noticed orange brown patches in the soy bean fields, it never takes long for those patches of colour to grow and devour the entire field, in fact, there have even been a few attempts by eager farmers to harvest their beans, a sure sign of changing seasons. Our own dried beans have been speaking to us and only the lima/butterbeans have been holding on to their harvest, slower to ripen and dry than their more exotic neighbours in our garden.This week the burning bush and the sumac started to change colour, another indication that summer has already drawn to a close however reluctant we might be to admit it. Soon, the leaves on the trees will follow, accompanied by the echo of 'oohs and aahs' at Mother Nature's dramatic display of colour before she draws her winter cloak around her and rests in monochromatic coldness.

Perhaps as we get older we are more in rhythm with Mother Nature, less reluctant to be caught unprepared. That may even explain our rush to collect firewood.  I would love to say it is our inner selves connecting with nature but, in truth, the simple answer is that we bought a log splitter last winter! Other years I have split by hand and so had to wait till temperatures were well below freezing to attempt large or knotty pieces of wood. We would go out in the snow dragging sledfulls of firewood to the pickup, splitting a load at a time, never having much more than a cord of wood stacked and waiting. So far this has worked for us but, we had to admit, we were getting older and trudging through ditches of snow was not necessarily the wisest of activities. We have our eye on several dead trees yet, but at this point, mid-September, our permanent 8 pallets are full of firewood and we have laid down the temporary ones to fill next week.

to give some perspective to the pile, Anita is 5ft tall:

This spring  we knew we had more than enough preserved vegetables,ketchups, relishes and pickles to last several years, we made a list of the things we would need and decided, with the surplus space, we would grow a variety of dried beans. It has proven to be a good decision. We planted Yin Yang beans, Vermont Cranberry beans, Jacobs Cattle beans, Fordhook Bush Lima beans (butterbeans in the UK), Great Northern bean and another attempt at Dutch Capucijner beans, all ordered from R.H Shumway's who, we are happy to say, we would recommend for the quality of their product and service. We expected the Great Northern to be prolific in our climate as well as the Vermont cranberry but the Yin Yang and Jacobs cattle have exceeded our expectations. The jury is still out on the lima beans as they have the longest growing season of all the beans we planted, the bushes are full of pods and we hope that the weather will allow them to mature and ripen before the first snow, it does look positive. While not failing completely, the Dutch Capucijner was the only disappointment and we will not attempt to grow it again in this climate, no matter how much I love to eat it. Halfway in our harvest now, we already have almost 2 gallons of dried beans. Mixed together they have a cheerful, colourful look and will feed us well for some time to come.

Each year we have raised leeks from seed, starting them at the end of January. Handmaking pots from newspaper, we became quite good at keeping the costs low and producing some hardy little seedlings to transplant to the garden. Leeks are relatively expensive here at $1 a piece, so we have improved our yield each year as we learn something new. Trimming the tops to encourage the growth to go to the girth rather than length, raking and banking the earth regularly to increase the ratio of white to green growth, it seems each year our stock lasts a little further into the winter. We were a little sceptical when a friend suggested a supplier of leek plants rather than seeds, the friend lives in Arkansa, how would her supplier, in Massachusetts, translate to a garden in South Dakota? The price made us even more suspicious, we could not raise 300 seedlings for the price he charges. So, we considered the source, allowed our trust in this friend to rule the day and placed our order with http://www.morgancountyseeds.com/index.html. We were not sorry, and we will be placing another order next year, especially as he allows you to determine the date you wish to receive the plants, an important factor in South Dakota.

One of the many weeds that likes to grow around here is catnip. I have recently read that the oils contained in this herb/weed are 10 times more effective against mosquitoes than DEET. We may well have to ponder this thought and allow it to grow here alongside the milkweed we grow for our monarch butterflies. It will soon be the season to ponder! The bustle of autumn will fade into the contemplativeness of winter. Do not mistake this season for hibernating laziness, it is the time to read and acquire more knowledge, the season for sewing and quilting, the season to enjoy the preparations we have laid down the entire year. The time to plan for the next year.