Summer harvest coming in as the days turn shorter

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Summer is drawing to a close and much of the garden bounty has been reaped. 

I hate when summer is over. Southern CA with its mild weather year was a favorite home, even if I only lived there a year. Sure, the traffic is awful and elsewhere there is a beauty in seasons. Nonetheless, hard to beat that weather. The growing season was also extended. Not, that I'm a gardener. Nope. Even if I was physically up to it, it's not my thing. Enjoying the garden and the harvest - another thing entirely. I love fresh produce.

I am fortunate that my husband, Cal Barwick, and my son, Joe Heffernan, find gardening a satisfying hobby. So good to eat all the fresh wholesome food and am especially grateful that Cal took a Master Food Preserver course at UC Davis. We get to enjoy the garden goodness all year long; he cans, dries and freezes many foods he grows. I am happy that Joe is following the growing things tradition. Who knows? Maybe someday he'll get into canning. It's good to see that home food preservation continues in our family. My Mom made a wonderful crabapple jelly as well as canning many foods. Daughter-in-law, Laurel Brode, is another family member who has been exploring jams and jellies, and she makes marmalade something Cal does not. Yum!

It's hard to see the growing season coming to an end; but, we know that in the cold of December and January our mailbox will be stuffed with seed catalogs full of glorious colorful pictures of what next summer's harvest will bring.

This year is documented. This may not be the final version of the page. I see some areas that may need some work but it's good to have this slice of life recorded.