Used to be that the sun was up by now... now being 5:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning. I just peeked outside to enjoy the dark velvet night sky sprinkled with stars. The Big Dipper is sitting out there at the horizon. Yep, September is sliding into fall, and the harvest here at Mellow Meadows is in full swing.
Yesterday, Mr. Wonderful and I awoke at 4:30. Yeah, I know... that's crazy. I have to wake up early to get to work, and we have gotten into this outrageous habit of waking by 5 at the LATEST, so when we make a 3:00 bathroom trip, sometimes we just can't get back to sleep knowing full well that soon is coffee time. So, we had our 1 1/2 hour 'coffee sip' in bed watching the night sky out the windows and then GOT TO WORK.
There were 4 pounds of zucchini to process, followed by 12 pounds of beans. The half bushel of tomatoes can wait, and the 8 pounds of chard will get done by me solo after lunch. Mr. W. is great at prepping (he used to be a chef and worked two joints at the same time... what a guy!), so he was in charge of bean prep. I am the blanching - cooling - packaging babe. We have quite an operation going when it is in full swing.
The only problem is that we are running out of freezer space. We have a poppa freezer and a baby freezer, and both are reaching capacity. We don't have any more chickens to add, but we do have plenty of chard, tomatoes, beans and squash still waiting. UH OH. I suggested that we get a mama freezer to make the trio complete, but Mr. W. thinks another poppa sized one would be better.
Why?
Because there is a promise from the hunters who keep the deer population under control in the back 40 that this season, they will be giving us one. OMG, where is that going to go???? One of our daughters raises cows and pigs and has asked if we'd like some grass fed beef. Hell, YES! (...and that makes us wonder if we should start raising a pig or cow or two ourselves... hmmmmm) Yeah, another poppa freezer is probably in our future.
The other night, we had grilled chicken (that we raised) with zucchini and corn (that we raised). The only nonorganic - locally grown thing on the plates was the butter! That felt good. Last night, freshly dug potatoes with tomatoes and cukes graced the plates alongside some grass fed beef we got from a local grower. Yum. Yep, that feels REAL GOOD.
The season is definitely switching. Flecks of red, orange and yellow tinge the trees out back. Shadows are getting longer. The sun, when we are blessed to have sun, sits lower in the sky. Goldenrod is golden-ing and nights are wonderfully cool. September is sliding into fall, and the freezers are ready for the winter to come.
Nice.
