September 19, 2021
Happy Last Lovely Days of Summer!
The air is crisp and the light golden as summer slips away and autumn emerges. The hummingbirds have left, geese are flying overhead, and crows have returned. Their caws replace the songbirds’ morning melodies, and the comical clucks of wild turkeys bring us smiles throughout the day.
Its been quite a season, marked by deluge after deluge which followed a 15-month drought. As an old-seasoned farmer of some 43 years, I’ve learned to bob between the waves.
The summer raspberries were a heart-breaking loss - 100 pounds, down from 400 last year. Blueberries were also scarce, but I’m sure we’ve picked every single one. Blackberries were amazing - 400 pounds for the second year in a row. We made many Blackberry Crisps in celebration!
Ralph put up a dozen half gallons of pickle slices with the bountiful cucumber harvest and zucchini found it’s way into many suppers. The girls and I ate kale salad every day for lunch and I still love it under my poached eggs for breakfast every morning.
Tomatoes were so plentiful we have a whole freezer full, and have put up dozens of pints of sauce and cases of Tomatoes Rustica.
Peppers are still coming on strong. We love the Italian varieties - Carmen from Johnny’s Seeds and a new outstanding variety we were trialing called “Sunset” from Park’s. We’ll have plenty of Pepper Preserves, now and in the months to come.
“Reliance” peaches lived up to their name and provided a stellar yield - especially considering their venerable age and challenging site. We love these for our Peach Preserves. We also grow “Elberta” - a late-season variety of fabulous flavor, but a soft, melting texture which doesn’t hold up in preserving - so they must simply be eaten fresh - and with delight!
Elderberries are having a good year too. The first two varieties were abundant, and the latter two look promising. Some folks think that the work plucking the tiny berries off their stems is too tedious to bother with, but I actually enjoy it. I can sit in the afternoon sun with my feet up on my grandmother’s stone bench, bag bursting with elderberries to my left and bowl on my lap. I’ve learned that if I have a glass of kombucha by my side, the yellow jackets will dive in in about 5 minutes, but if my beverage is a gin and tonic, they’ll leave me alone.
The best of the late summer harvest are the “Caroline” raspberries. Welcome in every year, but especially given the dearth of the summer harvest, these tasty beauties are plump and plentiful and it looks like they’ll give us their best yields ever. Beyond Raspberry Preserves, these will go into our pies once I start baking again…probably by the end of the month.
In the meantime, Ralph’s been baking Mooncakes every week which now have quite a following of fans. PattiPops are such a hit I’m going to keep making them at least into November. (Last year I stopped making them in September and sadly disappointed some kids. I learned that just because I’m a little old lady whose body temp runs cold, that’s no reason to stop production!)
Tiny Farmstand has visitors every day now, and we’re grateful for everyone who has traveled off the beaten path to find us! Mail order is also going very well and our mail carriers have become good friends. If you see our products in shops, bakeries, or farmstands, you can be sure that everything is fresh and the proprietors are friends, because we only sell to friends, and only in small quantities. Our freezers (nine of them!) are full and life is good!
Abbey the Joyful continues to make us laugh every day. She’ll be nine next month, but you’d never know it by the way she follows the girls to and fro, prances and plays, and teases us by stealing our underwear.
The sky is a brilliant blue and the day beckons. There are elderberries to pick and peppers too, and the last drop of tea is gone.
Wishing you and your families good health and a chance to enjoy these splendid days before winter rolls around!
With Love,
Patti (and Ralph and Abbey-ca-dabby)
Caroline Raspberries