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At the beginning of the summer, I blogged about our garden. I promised an update, both on the harvest and whether I succeeded in using the garden to teach my girls about the agricultural mitzvot.
Some of our crops were bountiful. We had pounds and pounds of purple pole beans, and enough cucumbers to make us all a little sick of cucumbers. We even managed to avoid the tomato blight that decimated tomato crops up and down the east coast; we had lots of cherry tomatoes and a few delicious large tomatoes.
The sunless month of June led some of our crops to never quite get off the ground, so to speak.
This was our largest carrot:
and this was our only cantalope. Cute, isn’t it?
Fortunately, other farms in the area had enough produce, and generous enough farmers, to participate in The Gleaning Project of Western MA, a local effort (under the auspices of the Jewish federation) to get fresh produce into the hands of those in need. A few weeks ago my daughters and I joined a small group of volunteers to pick tomatoes.
It was hot. They kvetched. And kvetched some more. We only managed to pick for less than an hour. But we were part of an effort to take thousands of pounds of a bumper crop of tomatoes to several local pantries, and I’m glad we went. Someday, I hope, the girls will be too.
Are you a sucker for John Denver too? (If not, then surely you are a sucker for the Muppets.)
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click here to see all of our uplifting newsletters» About Me
I'm a mother of two girls, raised in suburban Baltimore, and transplanted to a small New England town. I teach, write, and try to create a vibrant Jewish home for my family while spending very little time in synagogue. Â I guess you could say we're home-shuling. You can contact me at homeshuling at gmail dot com.Check out Amy’s Books!
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posted September 24, 2009 at 10:54 pm
great post:-) we had a terrible crop this year too. but that hasn’t stopped me from planning for next year….
posted September 25, 2009 at 1:33 pm
We live in Manhattan where only a select few have gardens and we are not one of them:(.
posted October 1, 2009 at 2:37 pm
yes, our garden has been spotty as well. Lots of plums, pears, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, green beans, basil – and not much of anything else.
Tiny, tiny corn. A few tiny (but tasty) cucumbers. Not enough sun in most of the garden as the trees are getting too tall.
But we’ll be using the remaining basil and tomatoes to reinforce the “harvest” meaning of Sukkot, this year.