The Final Harvest

This is an excerpt from the weekly News-Loveletter. If you would like it sent to your inbox directly (with all the other juicy bits, including a mini joy practice), you can add yourself to my mailing list here.

Well, not the final, final harvest. The greens will be going all winter long. But the peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers? They are finito. I picked all the green tomatoes and gave them to Jennifer at my insurance office, who is mad about green tomatoes. So happy they won’t melt on the vine after the first hard frost.

It’s been the best year ever in our garden. Seda and I teamed up as never before and a Joy Collective member helped with watering in the spring. The harvests just sing of co-creation. Look at that color and variety! The thing that most blows my mind is that the garden grew despite my calendar busting at the seams.

That’s how it is, isn’t it? That’s how we see what’s truly important to us. We discover that in the end, we have fit it in around the edges, in the middle, on the sides. We innovate and sometimes sleep a little less. But when we hold the harvest in our hands … that is such a sweet moment, isn’t it? I feel more like myself than ever when I see the garden growing, despite it all.

And yes, when I say that, I’m intentionally overlooking the new native plants that we didn’t manage to water enough, and others too. My garden is not “perfect.” I’ve not kept it all alive. And that’s fine by me. I am happy to focus on all that is growing and bless the rest as compost and food for the bugs. That is more than enough, my friends. More than enough.

How do you calculate abundance and celebrate the end of a season well spent?