Here where the growing season is lengthy---our gardens are beginning to produce the last of the summer crops. It has been a HOT summer and the summer sun is not kind to our gardens. Most of us gardeners are novice growers like me. I have a raised bed with a few plants, but most of my produce comes from the friendly Ruston Farmers Market.
Any crop which is currently being harvested can be found at our local farmer's Co-op. The best crops of the season are on display and available for your culinary adventures. My mouth waters thinking about all those seasonal delights.
My uncle was a "Real" gardener. We are talking about acres of crops. He had LONG since retired from one of the area gas companies, but every summer he still planted his garden. In the waning years of his life, he still planted peas. Acres and acres of peas. One of my last visits with my aunt, I commented on my Uncle's fields. She told me that only thing he plants in his golden years is those peas. "I told him I am not shelling, cooking, or putting up one more pea. For all I care the deer can eat them." I have laughed over that story many a time. Uncle Jim just like to watch the crops grow. Once they were grown, his part of the job was over. He knew by the weather and the garden when it was time to plant, when it was time to weed, and when it was time to harvest. He did not know much about the processing end of getting it on the table. My Aunt had retired also---and one of the things she retired from was putting up the garden. LOADS OF WORK!
Recently one of my neighbors told me her family was going to Kentucky to help in the places the tornado had destroyed so much. I have done my share of service trips and told her I hoped they had a "fruitful trip". They are out there being the hands and feet of Jesus. Sharing the message--bringing in the sheaves. They are sowing seeds on fertile ground and waiting for the fruit to grow. What important work. What a crop they will reap--the souls of God's beloved.
" He who goes out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him."
Psalm 126:6
Another wonderful analogy, Lulu! My dad was an avid gardener, and summer was the best time to enjoy the produce his garden yielded. The one thing I wish about where we live is that we had at least one sunny spot of land in order to plant tomatoes, at least.
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I lived on 5 acres of trees, Martha. I feel your pain! I learned to love shade gardening too, but it never works for crops!
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