The Fruits of Labor

We’re finally starting to see the fruits of our labor…literally. Working out in the pasture garden today, I found flowers on our sunflowers, melon, tomato, squash and watermelon plants. And two baby watermelons! They’re about the size of a jawbreaker. Hopefully they will get much bigger…and juicy…and sweet.

Many of our plants and trees are finally starting to pop out of the ground and/or flower and/or fruit. The hot peppers are curling out of their buds. The red cabbage is forming its head within the giant flower-like leaves. The carrots are changing color. The two pear trees have fruit about the size of a golf ball. The Asian pear tree is so weighted down with fruit, John had to prop up the branches. It was lucky enough to flower and fruit prior to the freaky late freeze we had in late April. The Bartlett was not so lucky. It burst into flowers the day the freeze hit and blackened most of them. Some of them pulled through and we’ll probably get 100-150 pears, but that’s probably 1/3 of what we got last year. The pomegranates are about the size of a small fist (mine). July and August we’re going to be busy harvesting and eating. Look for overflow packages coming your way!

We did a late winter fertilizing of our trees and it seems to have perked them up quite a bit despite the lack of rain. I’m hoping the pecans will see positive results too come this fall, but they’ve got a longer time span to be affected by the dry conditions.

It’s a relief to see our hard work paying off. It’s inspiring to see how resilient plants (and animals) can be in spite of our lack of knowledge and expertise, and the forces of nature that one day work for us and the next seem to work against us. It really is an amazing gift of nature and god to be able to grow something so simply.

Some people wrongly label our life “alternative” (oh, it and we are SO not) simply because we moved out of the city, we’re trying to be more self-sufficient via the land, and we’re attempting to do it without the chemicals that have become the norm, those used especially by our main food suppliers. We’re not the first and I hope we’re not the last. There used to be a time when every home had a garden (heck, even the government promoted Victory Gardens), when farming for food was considered important (uh, hello, anyone?), when gmo and RoundUp weren’t casually used in everyday conversation. Now, when we drive on the Turnpike into Florida, I’m confounded to see promotional posters by the state of Florida basically stating “you don’t need the trouble of a garden, just buy Florida produce”. Ironically, what has become alternative was and is actually the original, natural method nature and god intended. It really can be as simple as seed, soil, water and sun. Of course, I’m assuming we all have and will continue to have those basics. As long as we have them now, I’m going to try to use them positively.