producing

All last week my gardening was done in fits and snatches with some of the produce getting too mature and having to be tossed. But this week I am pretty much on top of things and have gathered and put up (in the freezer) some squash and okra. I say that I put the stuff up because that is one of my many petty chores around the place. The squash has to be cut up, blanched and put in quart-sized Zip-loc freezer bags before being put in its icy place of waiting for later consumption.

The okra is cut up on oven trays, heated to curb the maturation process, bagged and also put in frozen confinement. So far the tally is 9 quarts of squash and 4 of okra. The prep for freezing is time consuming but worth it at time of consumption later in the year when the garden has long crashed and wilted.

The blueberries are now ripening and I have picked a little over a gallon of those – to be eaten fresh and/or frozen as well. These berries are such a treat, especially in deep winter when the price of most fruit is confiscatory and not very tasty either.

The cucumbers have been producing as well but a problem has developed with one or more deer concerning these. It seems that a certain deer has a real taste for cucumber leaves and munched about a third of them off. Of course this puts somewhat of a dent in the cucumber production of those particular plants. Haven’t seen evidence of missing leaves in about a week, hopefully Bambi found something else to have for a snack.

The animal also munched the leaves off of one okra plant but evidently did not find it to its liking since no more were bothered. Okra contact, when I cut the pods, makes my hands and arms itch, so maybe the deer got an itchy mouth for its trouble – I would consider that poetic justice.

The tomatoes are also giving forth its fruit and these have been used in salads. Several of the plants have been lost to some sort of plant disease – had to pull up three more yesterday. The plants didn’t actually die but were stunted with brown splotches on the leaves and the fruit looks weird – so out they came and were dumped on the burn pile.

The veggie garden is producing very well but am I running slack in the kind of spiritual fruit I should be bearing? Fruit like my character, my conduct, my contributions (to God and others), proper communication and winning converts to Jesus Christ. My spiritual garden probably needs some weeding. ec