Dožínky, Mabon, the Autumn Equinox and the Second Harvest Festival

The name "Mabon" for the fall equinox was coined by neo-pagans, but Dožínky continues to be celebrated more vigorously in eastern European Slavic countries where agricultural roots are strongest.  

The harvest from the second year of our garden in Mitchell Bay continues to get stronger.  We planted over 300 onions, which were cured in the August sun on the deck and are now sitting in our new pantry in the Art Haus.

The tomatoes were grown in the small polytunnel and most never quite ripened before it started getting wet and we needed to harvest them.  They are now ripening in paper bags in the cabin and are being roasted with other veggies to make "marinara" for spaghetti sauce.  Next year, the tomatoes will have more heat when we convert a "Shelter Logic" garage into a greenhouse.

Here are our beans (Appaloosa and Kidney), tomatoes, and sweet peppers laid out in the fall sunshine on the dining room table.

The first of the fall storms brought a bounty of seaweed that we quickly gathered from the beach and spread on the harvested garden beds.

Linda likes to plant oats to replenish the soil and sometimes harvests for her teas.

Some raspberries continue to ripen deep into the fall.

We had a nice handful of "Redfree" apples from the trees that we planted a year ago.  The bad ravens got our only three Gravenstein apples since we didn't cover those with remay cloth.  Next year we'll try to use old bed-sheets from the thrift store to guard our fruit from the ravens and other flying predators.

We got a nice big load of six buckets of kitchen food scraps from the famous Coho Joe cafe in downtown Sointula.  Thanks Keegan and Radka!

The compost that had been sitting for a year was opened up and spread out on the garden.

Linda saved 100 of the biggest and best garlic cloves for planting anytime now.

Here is the seaweed feeding the kale!

And also adding to the oatstraw green manure.

The clover likes the cool weather.  It is also harvested for tea and tastes a bit like black tea.

 The nasturtiums also like cool weather.  Great to brighten up your hippy salad. 😀😀😀😀😀😀😻