August 8, 2005

Late Summer at Greenlevel Farm

If that sounds like the title of a children’s story, it might as well be. As we harvest the fruits of our labors from this year’s vegetable garden, sometimes I feel like a kid again! 

   Chris and I have been nurturing the watermelon you see here for months. Determining when a melon this size is ripe for the picking is more of an art than a science. Thumpers tell you it’s easy; just thump on it with your knuckles, and you’ll know. Squeezers and smellers tell you the same based upon their preferred sensation. 

   In the end, you just have to use your best judgment and do it. This melon weighed in at 40 lbs., and there are more where it came from. Not to mention baskets full of tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers. Chris has been jarring pickles and salsa for a month now which would bode well for the coming winter if not for the fact that the boys and I seem to consume everything Chris makes before she can put it up in the pantry. The latest purchase of Ball jars and tops indicates there’s no end in sight so we may enjoy a taste of summer in December after all. 

   Harbingers of autumn are in the air. There’s a different angle of the sun over the front porch banister. The hens are laying fewer eggs each day. The Purple Martins have departed. The remarkable appearance overnight of Surprise Lilies at the base of the old oak trees. School buses practice their runs. Soon it will be time to put up firewood once again. 

   For now, the watermelon is delicious.