First Big Tomato Harvest

Monday the 31st was our first big tomato harvest, and our last big bean harvest.

Winnie helps pick beans, and conversates the whole time. “Daddy, why are you so tall?”

“Because I started growing before you.”

“Daddy, what number are you old?”

“I am 41.”

“Daddy, you are going to die.” Pauses thoughtfully. “You are going to die of old age.” Then looking up at the sky, “Jesus? Why did you make my Daddy so big?”

That’s gardening with Winnie.

She is a very attentive little helper as well, just like Ellie was at that age.

She actually pays attention to instructions and tries her best to get it right.

Ellie still does that, but she has other interests these days, like sitting in the hammock and reading a book.

“Dad, I have a question.”

“What is your question.”

“Why does this tomato have a nose?”

“What is all this yellow powder on the tomatoes?”

“Look how gentle my touch is. I can touch this spider web without breaking it.”

“Oh look! A moth flew into the spider web, and it is breaking it. I am more gentle than a moth.”

Me: “Kill the moth! so it doesn’t eat my cabbages.”

“Now the spider is coming to get the moth. Should I still kill it?”

Me: “No, let the spider eat it.”

“Ew, I think the spider is eating the moth. It’s rolling it all up.”

That’s gardening with Ellie.

“Dad, I tasted a tomato and decided I didn’t like it, so I spit it in half. Arrgh!”

That’s gardening with Seppi. He didn’t help pick very much so I made him clean up the few rotten tomatoes we found.

Only a couple of them this year, hardly any blossom end rot.

Pulled a load of weeds from the old wheat row and the path between that row and the buckwheat.

That goes to supplement the hay for our ruminant friends.

It’s raining food!

This is the day Gertrude farrowed. We picked our last major harvest of green beans, enough for a pressure canner, another 7 quarts. Incidentally, this is why Mommy was up until late on Monday, because we expected to start the beans going early, but Gertrude threw a monkey wrench in that plan, so she didn’t even get the canner loaded until after 9.