The Autumn Garden

I have always loved the springtime and the new shoots appearing after the long, dark winter. Autumn to me was always joyous because of the relief in temperature from the hot days of August and September. 

This year, I am enjoying the autumn garden for an entirely different reason. One that I'm amazed I never thought much about before and one that is completely thrilling to me.

We had our first frost this past week and it killed the last of my vegetable garden. I've been harvesting a late crop of green beans and my oxheart tomatoes. Alas, they are no more. To be honest, I was ready for them to go. My freezer is full of both tomatoes, spaghetti sauce and frozen green beans. 

Today I spent the morning pulling out all the dead plants from the garden. What I love is seeing all the ways nature prepares for the spring, 6 months ahead of time. I also love to see the little things that are hidden away under the plants that tend to take over. When I cut things back, I find the small green things still growing. Looking at the different ways seeds disperse is also completely amazing to me. I have been teaching these lessons at school with my 3-6 year olds and making them hands on by blowing tissue paper, throwing paper helicopters and shooting beans from plastic cups and balloon bits. We are all having tons of fun while learning about the amazing way God keeps life going on our precious planet.

The way plants keep their offspring going amazes me and makes me want to keep the weeds that I used to throw out. If you drive by my house next year you might think we aren't taking care of things but I'm really thinking by letting nature take over a bit we are really helping out: the birds, the animals, the plants, the soil.

So, my challenge to you: go outside, take a walk and see the autumn garden.....death in preparation for the life to come in spring.

Easy Roasted Tomato Sauce

 I love growing tomatoes in my garden. Nolan and I especially love a variety called Oxheart. As you can see from the photos, these tomatoes tend to be large! They also are slow growing and ripen late in the season. This is why I now have an abundance of tomatoes sitting in the sunroom. I've been making roasted tomato sauce with these because it is so EASY! I know there are lots of recipes floating around the web for this type of sauce but I thought I'd share my method. 

 Generally people roast a less juicy tomato like a Roma, but I think a juicy tomato works well for this sauce. You just have to roast it a little (or a lot) longer! Step one: wash your tomatoes. Since my tomatoes came from our backyard garden, I know the only thing that needs washed off is a little dirt.

 You'll need a cutting board, sharp knife, pan to roast the tomatoes (it must have sides or you'll have a grand mess) olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and any herb you prefer.

 Cut out the stem end and any bruised or "nasty" parts of the tomato. No need to peel it. Once you have all the bad sections in the compost, cut the tomato into cubes.

 Fill the tray making sure the tomatoes aren't overlapping too much. Drizzle with olive oil (I always say more is better than less), add salt and pepper to your liking (see note on olive oil) and toss to coat.

 Roast at 400F. for 45 minutes to an hour depending on your tomato type and how many you're roasting. You can see from my pan on the right, I roasted a little too long. No worries, it all came out wonderfully anyway! Check the tomatoes every 20 minutes or so and give them a stir. Let them cool a little once done.

 Today I used bottled garlic and oregano from our garden. Generally I like to roast whole garlic cloves with the tomatoes. Unfortunately I didn't have any so I went with the bottled. 

 Dump all the ingredients into a blender. I don't measure the garlic or herbs, I just add until I think it looks good (or I run out of something!) Blend for a few seconds to puree. 

 There you have it: Delicious roasted tomato sauce. We like this sauce for our spaghetti squash because it really sticks. I'm putting these in the freezer for a later date. I still have a table full of tomatoes that I'm letting ripen a little longer. I bet I have enough for another 4-6 pints of sauce. Yum!

Now....who wants to do the dishes?

The Fall Garden

Mike and I spent some time in the back yard/garden recently. Things had gotten....well...out of control. In the spring when everything is a blank slate and looks so empty I have a tendency to over-plant. 'Look at all this space behind the herbs,' I think to myself. I should plant some squash there. The squash seed is so small. At the time, I forget how sprawling everything becomes. 

So this year, I had to walk tenderly between the tomato, squash and watermelon vines. It was well worth the effort since we love each of these harvests. 

It is now time to think of fall. School is in session, and, to be honest, I waited a little longer than I should have to plant a few things for fall. I really don't know if these seeds will make it to harvest but it was worth a try.

We've had such a strange summer in terms of weather. Hotter and wetter than normal in July, cooler and dryer than normal in August. My onions rotted due to the rain in July. My butternut and spaghetti squash are slow to ripen due to the coolness of August. 

I've had such a strange summer in other ways as well. 

We're all re-acclimating to fall. To school. To lessons. To our schedule.

Just as I hope my fall crop will germinate, we are slowly putting down roots and sending up shoots in this new phase of life. Each fall seems to be a time of death and a time of new growth. 

Just like in the garden.

Dead but Life-giving

I'm probably one of the few people in my neighborhood, possibly my township, who doesn't deadhead my flowers when they die. I tend to leave my daisies, sunflowers, coneflowers, black-eyed Susan's and the like out all winter in their dead state. 

I don't do it because I'm lazy. I don't do it because I think it looks good in my yard. 

I do it because it feeds the birds.

Already my sunflowers are looking un-magazine worthy. Every day I see the birds over at the flowers picking at them and flying to the roof of our sunroom which is right outside my sewing room window. There I see them eating their pickings. I've seen the Cardinal 'daddies' (as we call the males) call to their female mates to share their meal. I've seen different species fight over the morning's pickings. 

The cat has taken up residence on my sewing table which is right in front of this window. The sheer volume of birds outside that window is too appealing for her instinctive cat-ness!

I've been thinking about other things in our lives that may seem ugly and dead but that actually are life-giving. 

It tends to be the ugly and the tired and the dead that teach us the most important things in life. How do we know the glory of love if we've never seen hate? How do we learn the value of peace if we've never been in the midst of war? How do we learn the character building that happens when we persevere through difficulty if we don't directly experience it?

So as I see the birds gather around my dying garden, I thank God for the difficulties in life, for the ugliness, the sorrow, the pain that ultimately show us the joy of love, peace and joy. The spring colors after the fall and winter of brown.

Slow Day at Home

It was a nice, slow, day here at home. The days are getting shorter and the crickets and cicada are singing almost all day long. The garden continues to ripen and the flowers to bloom. There was a rhythm to the day that was soothing and calm. 

More end of summer doldrums

I'm still lamenting the end of the summer. My garden is starting to die off, especially the squash vines. I've harvested onions and potatoes and just today cut off the first of the butternut squash. I always plant it a little early but it seems to be no worse for it. 

My dahlia's have been blooming all summer. This was my first experience with them. I was appalled when I saw the price of one plant. I had no idea it bloomed so proficiently for so long. Now it seems it was quite a bargain. I'll definitely have to buy a few more next year. 

Band camp has started and the cicada are singing. These are sure signs that the end of summer is approaching and the school year will begin. It's funny, I'm usually really ready for school to start but for some reason I wish it were a few more weeks off this year. I'm just not ready. 

Yet time waits for no man. So I guess we'll start looking for the binders and the backpacks and making sure the uniforms are clean and pressed and ready for another adventure. Nathan will be attending a half day culinary program and Nolan will be competing in his first marching band competitions. Good stuff.

I'm going to enjoy this one last weekend and pretend we've got all the time in the world. Which, I guess, we do depending on how we spend that time. 

Here's hoping you have a peaceful weekend as well.