…we enjoy the cooler days and maybe not so much the even cooler nights. We work on finishing out this year’s garden season.

Turning our harvests into sustenance for the winter months consumes a great deal of our time and effort, like gardening, is ultimately worth it. Canning, freezing and dehydrating are the most prominent ways of preserving our produce.  Canners were impossible to buy for our gardeners this year but we did get vacuum sealers and dehydrators for those who wanted them. Lids, rings and jars were bought for those who already had canners. We purchased “The All New BALL Book of Canning and Preserving” for our gardeners. It is an awesome book and everyone loves it.

Pictures are awesome and I wish I had more. As you can see, in the pictures, the processed produce looks yummy! My granddaughter, Angel came to visit. She is posing with the produce she helped pick . (Yes, those are her “Work Clothes.”) I do not have any pictures of the vacuum sealer being used but you can see that this dehydrator was put to work drying tomatoes.

I had to slip a picture of Tim, the project coordinator, he loves that tractor. He too, loves the Grow Appalachia/Berea Program. If we had any idea when we joined the group that we would enjoy all this hard work so much. We would have joined sooner. Tim and I both are just part-time workers but we have a full time love of gardening and the people we serve. Thank you Grow Appalachia/Berea Bunch for all your help and support.

So as we come to an end of this season, we now have a new beginning.  We are making plans for next spring already. Our gardeners, new and returning, are getting their 2021 Grow Appalachia Garden Applications filled out and turned in. We are getting our soil ready for the winter slumber so it will be rested and ready for us to start in the Spring.

Life in the garden is good.

Happy Fall Y’all! See you in the Spring.