September sunshine

Yesterday the weather was just about perfect.  Temps in the low 70's brilliant sunshine lots of happy kids and staff running around the place.

I had noticed that there were a lot of cherry tomatoes ripe on the vine and to told Josh to get the after schoolers out to pick them before they end up rotting on the ground.  It just so happened to be gardening day and a lot of cherry tomato eating with some picking was the outcome, and the parents were allowed to take those sweet red beauties home for free.  We also had some of the kids scrape sun flower seeds off the pods this afternoon.  Josh promised to soak the seeds in salt water tonight so they would be ready for next weeks snack.

I cannot think of a better place for a child to be after school than at Mountainside in the fall.  There was a mom touring the facility with her first grader

to decide if he wanted to become part of the fun.  She could not get her little boy to leave.

We had 220 eighth graders out on Monday and Tuesday from a nearby middle school for high ropes and team building.  With the exception of a few kids who thought they were about to plunge to their imminent death as they prepared to jump off the zip platform, we had nothing but smiles.  Even the young man who was shaking and wiping away some tears as I helped him dismount from the zip was going to go home with a huge sense of accomplishment.  Two other private schools are visiting this week for outdoor education which is keeping us from getting the greenhouse up and running.  Speaking of which...The framing us mostly up and secured, and I fully expect the greenhouse to be completed by the end of next week.

I ended the day driving my grandson Frankie back to the house on the four wheeler bathed in the amber light of the setting sun.  A big dinner awaited with Nancy, three of my kids, their spouses or significant others and and all 4 grandkids.  It is not possible for life to be better than that.

Fall is winding up.

As I watch the garden transitioning from summer to fall(i.e.
tomatoes rotting on the vine, corn cut down, cuchs and squash ripped out and the sunflowers sagging) life for the year seems to be on the ebb.  Not so.

For one thing there are plenty of pumpkins, okra, and the watermelons that have come out of the garden are some of the best I have ever tasted even though they have lots of seeds and the flesh is yellow.  I don't have a lot of experience with okra but we did fry some up last week with lots of Old Bay mixed in the batter.  Not Bad.  The other thing I learned about Okra is that the blossoms in the fall are truly beautiful.

So Josh wanted to introduce me to a farmer in Thurmont who is an engineer and a soil guru.  I tried to follow their conversation as best I could to no avail.  I did learn that the reduction of acid rain thru the Clean Air Act has depleted area soils of sulfur and left farmers scratching their heads as to why some of their veggies are not producing.  Who would have thought that the closing of coal fired power plants in West Virgina could ever have a negative effect on the region.

While we were there Josh needed to pick up some fertilizer for the strawberry rows we will be planting.  I thought the fertilizer was coming in bags and brought my pretty F150 instead of the stake body.  1 1/2 tons of compost dumped in the bed had an interesting aroma and a lot of bugs that were very much at home in the scoops.  I had to stop at a gas station and everyone at the pump was glad to see us leave.  If I did not employ the power washer I probably would not be allowed to park in the truck in the driveway.   Lets be clear about organic compost.  It either came out of somethings butt or it died and is decaying.  The term organic is very sexy in food circles but there was nothing sexy in the back of my pick up yesterday.  Bottom line is this, farmers from all over the region buy this guys organic compost.  As we were spreading the black gold on the strawberry beds, Josh gave me another wry smile and said that the strawberries next year are going to absolutely amazing.  The guy has already grown the best tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and watermelons I have ever eaten so it is all good.

The greenhouse came today so next weeks post will be all about that.