The busiest time of the canning season is winding down

[alt_molly]

June brought the earliest crop: cabbages, beets, broccoli and green peas. We finish up the onions and spinach and then the berries start coming in. We had a good crop of strawberries this year, and I managed to trade some of my blackberries for raspberries. Then as July slides into August and September, my days are the busiest as we're putting up the main part of the garden: tomatoes in sauces and tomato jam, corn, beans, squash, and peppers. And okra. Yes, I planted okra this spring as usual, and it wasn't until harvest time that I remembered that none of us really like it except for my dear Arthur. So I put the cans up and traded them all away. I won't plant it next year.

So silly to get teary-eyed over a glass half quart of okra.

After the stone fruit (plums and cherries, if I can save the latter from those dratted birds), then it's time to dig for potatoes and sweet potatoes when the cooler weather sets in. Pumpkins round out the season. I also start my cider operation at the end of September. I have to remember to dig my press out of the cellar in the next week so I can sterilise it and make sure it's in working order. It looks as though we will also be having a fine apple crop this year. Then things settle down and I concentrate on harvesting walnuts and deciding what I can trade when our neighbours start butchering their pigs and start making sausage and putting up fletches of bacon.

All the while we're trying to get the emporium up and running, too. My goodness, I'm as busy as can be from sunrise to sunset. I'll certainly be ready to sit by the fire and do nothing but my knitting come November!

Comments

[alt_ron]

Hiya, Mum.

It made me really hungry to read this! And thirsty for your cider. Are you planning to juice the pumpkins this year? Or just make pies and biscuits? If you do, could you send some of the nice iced spice biscuits? I can taste them just thinking about it!

Miss you.

Your favourite son,
Ronald

[alt_molly]

I'm looking forward to the cider, too! I'm running low this time of year, until the harvest comes in.

I'll juice a bit of the pumpkin, so you'll have some when you are home for the holidays. But you know that I don't like pumpkin juice quite as much as you do. So I do plan to use it mostly for baking, yes.

Of course I'll send you some spice biscuits! And you'll get some shortbread and some molasses buscuits by owl tomorrow to tide you over until the pumpkins are ready. Don't forget to share them with your friends and your sister!

How are classes going, dear?

[alt_ron]

Thanks, Mum. You're the best!

Er, classes? Well enough, I reckon. Nothing but homework, homework, and more homework, though. But I'm managing.