As September flew by and October moved in, the children and I are now excited for fall, our favorite season. I made our first pot of soup since the temperatures started falling. Chicken noodle from scratch with fresh whole wheat bread. We have changed our nature table to include a cornucopia with dried Indian corn, shiny orange pumpkins, and the last of the blooming rabbit brush flowers.
My daughter's creation....Fairies made out of her clothespins with silk flower petals for wings...Also some guinea feathers, sticks, and acorns from our fairy house material stash..
One of the most exciting things we enjoy as part of gardening is saving our seed. Today I hung bouquets of blooming chives to dry. Not only are they beautiful, but we'll enjoy a storage of flavorful herbs for cooking and enough seeds to last for years.
Our creator has designed nature to be in such a perfect working order. It always is so amazing to me that one piece of fruit or vegetable has the potential to propagate itself hundreds of times over. Take this single carrot.
When you look closely at the beautiful greenery and flowers you will see hundreds of tiny seeds, each one holding the life force to create a delicious vitamin packed root vegetable. I would like to make sure you know that generally the carrots should be left in the ground until the flowers dry and the seeds turn brown. My nephew didn't know this though and picked this beautiful specimen. Isn't the quantity of seeds incredible?
Yesterday we brought in a large harvest of melons, peppers, tomatoes, and squash. We have been harvesting our garden regularly over the past few weeks, but with the arrival of chilly weather the next week will be especially busy. The tomato plants, many of them still heavy with fruit, must be picked clean before the first frost. Soon our windowsills will be lined with firm green tomatoes which will slowly ripen during the coming months. For the moment though, we are savoring the perfectly vine ripened flavors of the may varieties of heirloom tomatoes we planted this year.
I hope that you all are enjoying this special time of harvesting and preparing for the coming winter.
such a beautiful post, i love your sentiments about the carrots and seeds! So very beautiful and true! Your heirloom tomatoes are so gorgeous, there is nothing like them! I love how guinea feathers are spotted : ) so magical to find them!
Posted by: gardenmama | 10/03/2009 at 04:59 PM