Posts Tagged ‘harvest’
Small, small garden
Arthritis means my days of the big garden are over. But I can still enjoy digging in the earth, planting seeds, pulling weeds and harvesting, just on a smaller scale.
~
On our deck are two Veg Trugs (Lee Valley Tools used to sell them) and one bag of soil, slit open and supported on a metal frame. In the ‘gardens’ I have two snow pea plants, three yellow wax bean plants, three parsley plants and one cucumber plant.
~
~
Each day for the last month, I sit on the deck and nibble on my ‘harvest for the day.’ Sometimes it’s one bean pod and a snow pea pod, sometimes two beans, sometimes a cucumber sandwich. Seems small, but I think I enjoy these little sessions more than the buckets of produce I once harvested from my garden.
~
getting the better of … a squirrel?
At readings of my book within easy reach, I often include the poem ‘beaked hazelnuts’ and tell my audience:
If I don’t pick my hazelnuts by August 6, the squirrels will get there ahead of me. They watch the calendar!
~
hazelnuts viewed from the underside of the shrub canopy
~
The Beaked Hazelnut is a wiry shrub found in mixed woods. The edible nut is contained in a bristly, beaked husk. We have three clumps of the shrubs in our yard, probably sprung from the stashes of squirrels over the years!
For my battles with the squirrels over the hazelnuts, just have a look at
https://janetims.com/2011/08/07/competing-with-the-squirrels/
and
https://janetims.com/2011/08/18/competing-with-the-squirrels-2/
~
This year, I also watched the calendar. And on August 5, I picked most of the hazelnuts on our hazelnut ‘trees’. Picking is tricky because those pods are covered with sticky sharp hairs that irritate thumb and fingers.
~
~
Never-the-less, I have a small bowl of hazelnuts to call my own (I left a few for the squirrels, more than they ever did for me). Now I will wait for them to dry and then have a little feast!
~
beaked hazelnuts
(Corylus cornuta Marsh.)
~
hazelnuts hang
husks curve
translucent, lime
they ripen
~
this year, they are mine
~
uptight red squirrels agitate, on guard, we watch
the hazelnuts ripen, slow as cobwebs falling, nut pies
browning through the glass of the oven door
green berries losing yellow, making blue
dust motes in a crook of light
float, small hooked hairs
shine
~
two more days
~
hesitate
and red squirrels
bury their hazelnuts
~
~
From within easy reach (Chapel Street Editions, 2016)
https://www.amazon.ca/Within-Easy-Reach-Jane-Spavold/dp/1988299004
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2017
yard work – the grape harvest
We had a frost on October 4 and today, I harvested my grapes. You will imagine tubs of ripe fruit, hands stained purple and a row of grape jelly jars on the counter.
~
my grapes, wandering about in the birch tree
~
But my grape harvest is a bit small. However after ten years, this is the first ‘harvest’ from this vine so I am quite proud! No jelly though. I ate the lot of them, sitting in the yard, admiring the autumn leaves. They were juicy, sweet and delicious.
~
the entire harvest!
~
~
Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
apple picking time
October has taken hold and now signs of autumn are everywhere. Color seems to be the theme… the orange of pumpkins and gourds, the yellows and reds of the maple leaves, and the red of ripe apples.
On our way to the lake, we drive past orchards of apples. Most of the apples have been picked, but some trees are still laden with fruit. For me, the orchards are full of memories, of picking apples with my family when we were younger. I remember how much fun we had, my son and niece and nephew excited to be able to run free and pick the apples, and the adults thinking about the apple pie possibilities from those loaded trees.
~
~
orchard outing
~
wooden bushel baskets
of laughter, the delirious tumble
down the avenue of trees, shadows ripple
among the dapples, Cortlands tied
with scarlet ribbons and boughs burdened
to reach for us, my son grown tall
on his father’s shoulders,
stretches to pick the McIntosh
with the reddest shine,
small hand barely able
to grip the apple
~
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2012
nichepoetryandprose 