Can You Dig It?

This year our garden has been largely an expensive set of learning experiences. This, folks, is a picture of our largest harvest to date. Tomatoes were basically a complete bust. We've gotten a few cherry and pear tomatoes from the plants on the porch, but everything else just sort of grew and then died without fruit.
The purple pod beans did reasonably well as did the one blue lake bean plant. Sadly though there's no need for a chest freezer to store this year's bounty. The only thing that seemed to do well were the cucumbers, which last year died of powerful mildew. This year, it's all we've really gotten, and my desire to can turned them into pickles. (I just did them today so I hope they turn out!) It felt amazing to be in my kitchen when the thermometer is pushing 90 outside and we have no air, sweating and knowing that, however small in scale, I was spending the day as many women have for generations, putting food up. I feel someone more grounded and a part of something larger than myself.
I doubt three pint jars of pickles will last us the winter. In fact, they'll probably be gone before the snow flies, but this year I learned to not start seeds inside in February, that it takes a good solid year to build a chicken coop and that you should always, ALWAYS plant through mulch to avoid spending the rest of eternity pulling weeds.