Hello dear readers, 

I write to you this week from the sofa, fighting a two-day migraine¹. The sky is still filled with smoke, and the mountains are lost behind it, though I’m hoping clear skies are on the horizon (pun intended).

The garden has been in full bloom for some time, but there have been signs that autumn is on the way. Flowers that opened months ago have slowly begun to die, and I find myself pulling dead stalks from the beds with increasing frequency. I’ve begun collecting seeds for next year, and find myself drying lavatera, aster, cosmos, and nasturtium on a rotating cycle. The garden will certainly be awash in colour next year, too!

The vegetables, too, have been harvested over the past couple weeks. Our abundant potato field is entirely empty now, the potatoes living in their temporary homes until they can be passed off to friends and family, or storage found in cupboards and fridge doors. The beets, too, have all been picked and gifted, and the carrots are overdue for being dug up.

My tomatoes began ripening a few weeks ago, and I’ve been picking them slowly, taking only what I can eat in the coming days—saving whatever’s left for when I return to the farm. I do hope to make a batch of tomato sauce to jar for the colder months, but at the rate I keep eating them, I’m not certain I’ll have enough. That’s okay, though—I’m greatly enjoying warm, fresh tomatoes in sandwiches and eaten on their own as snacks.

The pumpkins and squash are certainly something, too. Each vine has at least a few large fruits to its name, so much so that I’m a little worried that we’ll be drowning in them like we did last year². But we have so many people we can hand them off to that this is the least of my worries.

What I am worried about is not having enough garlic to last me until next summer. I did plant more than I did last year, and yet I feel like it won’t see me through. I guess time will tell on this one—and I can always buy from the store if I need to³. My corn, too, seems to be lacking a bit; the stalks are tall—much taller than any corn I’ve grown before—but the corn itself is small, if it appears at all.

Otherwise, I am still counting down the days until autumn, and marking the seasonal change through what I see through my window. And the garden tells me that summer is slowly winding down, even if it still does have another month to go.

—Catherine

FOOTNOTES

¹ I just got back from a trip to Osoyoos with my family, so the migraine is entirely unsurprising, if not incredibly irritating.

² Which is entirely my fault, and I take full responsibility for. I just get so excited in planting season that I keep going overboard! 

³ But I do love growing and using my own garlic! One day I’ll plant enough.

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