Even So

 THE WEED OF THE YEAR CHAMPIONSHIP GOES TO....

This year brought the least-plentiful harvest we've ever had, even with repeated plantings.  We planted more pumpkin and winter squash hills than we ever have, only to harvest a few small ones.  We picked two-- TWO!-- zucchini, when normally we'd be groaning with the burden of getting rid of piles of them.  What little delicata survived until harvest rotted after being in our basement only a week, much of it with soft spots from beetles.  Three hundred onion sets resulted in only one small batch to dry.  We had plenty of tomatoes to eat fresh, but even with 125 plants, only had enough of a harvest to fill 10 jars.  Beets, lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, peas, and corn filled our bellies over and over again, though, and we had a bumper crop of garlic, which can soothe a great deal of garden disappointment.

We were given lots of free peaches from my aunt's tree, and I only canned some bruised ones for jam, in favor of us gorging ourselves on fresh ones for several days.  What a feast!  Free plums from the Purdy side = spiced plum jam and the gift of fresh cilantro from a friend and from Mopsy's thick patch = nearly a hundred packets in our freezer to spice up our winter.

It's telling that even in a Terrible No Good Very Bad Year for harvest such as this, I still have all these pictures of food that God provided in spite of it.  Our bellies were full of healthy, fresh food all summer long, and we have a few jars packed away, besides.  

I speak thanks for it all.