Monday, October 01, 2007

Garden Season Over

I put my vegetable garden to bed for the winter. This meant I dug the potatoes (good crop this year), forked out the rutabagas, rounded up the scattered gourds, chopped the dried sweet corn stalks, cut the remaining heads of red cabbage (it had done well this year), pulled the tomato vines and took down my deer fence. Then I hooked my tractor to the disc and turned over the soil. Finally, I planted the entire garden to winter wheat, which I will plow down next spring.

I have followed this same ritual for many years. Putting the garden to bed is in the same category as geese flying south for the winter, and sandhill cranes migrating--a sign of the winter to come.

The Old Timer says: "Some of us have a terrible time stepping out from behind ourselves."

Officially launch of IN A PICKLE: A FAMILY FARM STORY last week. More than a hundred people turned out at Barnes & Noble West in Madison. Watch for upcoming IN A PICKLE events.

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