Lordy what a month! I swear it was just last week I posted my last blog. So many things have happened that I’m not even sure what’s happened! Folks have come and gone, renovations have started on campus, and  all our summer events are finally over. In the world of Hindman Settlement School, summer break does not exist.

Folk Week, Dyslexia Summer School, Grow Appalachia workshops, Appalachian Writers Workshop, and in between them all – days in the garden, farmers markets, potlucks and square dances. A never ending cycle of big and small events.

We’ve seen tomatoes harvested, beans, zucchini, peppers, more zucchini, summer squash, and (yep you guessed it!) zucchini! We got our first harvest of corn just the other day, and man there’s nothing like eating fresh off the cob. There’s also nothing like picking it barefoot ankle deep in mud after (and during) heavy rains.

So the reality is, I misplaced my boots and none of my other shoes were high enough or waterproof enough to keep out the mud and water.

Okay, okay, I’ve made mistakes. Gardening do’s and don’ts: Don’t forget about your zucchini for a week or you’ll end up with this monster.

We’re still waiting on construction on our canning kitchen to begin, but that hasn’t deterred us from processing and storing any excess veggies we’ve got! A Grow App participant led a Beginner Basics Canning workshop where we canned two bushels of tomatoes. We’ve been busy ourselves since Writer’s Workshop ended putting up more tomatoes, zucchini (surprise!), beans, and corn.

Despite the fact that we are in what should be the dog days of summer, the weather is cooling a bit and the mornings hold a crispness that comes with the fall months. With fall coming on, we held a cold weather crops workshop just last week to prepare folks. With exhaustion setting in from the long summer days, people are ready for things to slow back down. To me, fall gardening seems to do just that, and besides, now I get to do the fun part: ordering seeds!

Until next time my friends!

Ashton

** PS. If you’re like me and curious about where those dog days came from, take a look at the article linked above in the dog days.