Home Grown * It's a Beautiful Thing

Disclaimer! The garden bounty kept me so busy that I never got around to uploading this post from July! Geesch! How did the year go by so fast?  

Hi, Everybody,

Here in my corner of Ohio, "vegetables" the current topic among my gardening friends. We never cease to be amazed by the bounty of our Spring (over) planting...like, gee, one zucchini plant will explode with more zucchinis that the whole town needs, but we'd better plant two (or, in our case, four) *just in case some of them don't make it. And then we have a tremendous amount of the green beauties that even our closest friends refuse to accept because they've been squashed out.Well, duh! All is not lost, because into the freezer they go.

This morning I went “grocery shopping” in our vegetable garden. Even though the garden got a late start due to cold, wet Spring weather that brought later than usual frosts (and even snow!) the plants are thriving.  Despite the dry spell we are now experiencing, I am picking a lot of vegetables and herbs every day. Such resilience and determination on their part is a refreshing reminder that, no matter what, we also have the ability to overcome life’s bumps and thrive.

This morning’s harvest is pictured below. Some of it will find its way into upcoming meals. The rest of this group will enjoy hanging out in the freezer to be enjoyed later. Other yummy vegetables will soon follow and have the same fate.

And then there’s the orchard.:)

Small apple and peach crops this year are offset by the plum and pear trees, which are fully loaded with delicious fruit. I can’t help but be grateful for the abundance of food that home gardeners are able to enjoy.

Food that hasn’t suffered from jet lag is a beautiful thing, indeed!

If you do not have a vegetable garden or friends pushing their excess on you, the friendly vendors at farmers markets have a huge array of seasonal foods. Jim and I don’t sell the extra from our garden; instead we get pleasure from sharing with friends and family. But we do set up at several farmers markets with our fruit and apple cider because, well, there is just too much of those left even after we give a lot of it away. I have to say, it is always fun to see, face to face, the people who will enjoy our produce. I simply love connecting nature to people via our fruit stand.

Marcheta *Slow food lover

UPDATE: The garden and orchard are buttoned up for the year and we are already enjoying the produce that found its way to our freezer. :)

Tired Barns

Morrow County, April 17,2020

Barns are an important part of our history. They housed animals and/or grain, making sustainable living possible. Barns were the "event centers" of early farming communities, where work became parties. I'm not sure that many people these days would look forward to a "corn shucking" party, but isn't it neat that barns have become meeting places again, with restored barns now popular for  weddings and other receptions? 

Family farms often had several barns, each with its own purpose. Examples of different types of barns are chicken coops, dairy barns with milking parlors, grain barns with massive hay lofts, and machine sheds. Some barns served multiple purposes.
I became inspired to photograph barns again when I joined the Barns of Ohio Facebook group. If you love barns, I suggest that you check it out. The group has many talented photographers, and the barns that are being 'saved' via imaging range from old and decrepit to well maintained. All are beautiful in my eyes.

I am not sure what the original purpose of this barn, found in Morrow County, Ohio, was. It probably served the farm family in  various ways during decades past. And now it appears to be tired. Reduced to storing miscellaneous rubble, I wonder what stories it could tell if its walls could talk. 

Barns and sheds like this one have character, which in turn give personality to our landscape. Somehow, the big metal buildings that are replacing historic farm structures give me a feeling of sadness because old beautiful barns are disappearing in their wake, taking a piece of our heritage along with them. 

The next time that you are out for a drive, why not snap a pic or two of the barns you see along the way? They just might be there the next time you pass that way.

Marcheta *Barn aficionado