Today is the Day we Worked all Year for…
Garden is at it’s Peak
by Sandy Swegel
Most of the time in the garden I’m analyzing and thinking about what to do. What has to be done before it’s too late (weed thistles before seed heads mature), What should be done today (harvest zucchini before it’s a full-sized bat), What to do this evening (do some small batch preserving or dehydrating),
What to do before tonight (have row cover ready for tomatoes if there’s a danger of frost), What to do before the end of the season (cover crops in), etc. etc.
But today here in zone 5 Boulder Colorado, everything in the garden is at its peak. The nights are getting cooler so frost will kill things soon. Leaves are just starting to turn and pumpkin stands are popping up on rural roads. I realize how many great things are ripe in the garden. This is the time when everything tastes best. Wow. Then I realized. This is it. This is the day I worked in the garden all year for. So I decided that just for today, I’m just going to appreciate the perfect bounty nature has given me and not try to improve it, process it, or save it for the future.
Just for today
I’m not going to do anything useful in the garden. Today is more a day for celebration. Like when you watch your kids graduate from school or get married, today’s the day to feel proud and look at the accomplishment and bask in the success. Turmoil and trials, tears and laughter. In the end, it’s all worked out.
So here’s the plan just for today. (Or maybe just for all weekend.)
– Get the camera out and take some snapshots of the garden. Get somebody else to take a picture of the gardener holding a basket of harvest.
– Pick some grapes one by one and just suck on them and spit the seeds out. The flavor is perfect sweetness and tartness.
– Eat the most perfect tomato while it’s hot from the afternoon sun.
– Nibble on flowers of broccoli and arugula going to seed.
-Fix dinner by doing as little as possible to the food. Heat up the grill to roast some vegetables: small zucchini and patty pan squash, cloves of garlic, small red onions, tomatoes, a late-maturing ear of corn, an apple or pear. All on the grill with just some olive oil and salt.
– Chill the cucumbers and radish so they will be the perfect palate cleanser for the roasted vegetables.
– Spend the late afternoon looking at the garden as a work of art. Just for today, golden leaves and even browning foliage are just color and texture. Not something to be cleaned up or composted.
Just for today, it’s all perfect.
The food is all good. The air is fresh. The sun is still warm. Wild asters are in full bloom. The sky is really really blue. Today is the day we worked all year for. Today is the day the garden is just perfect. Nothing to add. Nothing to change. Nothing to do except enjoy and appreciate. And the gardener? Just for today, she’s perfect too. She and Nature have had a great year spending time together.