Special Double Feature: Mabon and Samhain

With the snowy weather in late November, we finally have a special very late double feature: Mabon and Samhain.  Due to repairs on our roof in September, we first lost our internet satellite dish so this interfered with Mabon.  And then I caught a strange flu, tooth ache, and ear infection in October, which interfered with Samhain!  So now we are house-bound with the first snow-storm of the season and we can reminisce about the fantastic extended summer and the wonderful last two harvest festivals.

Linda made a beautiful braided onion garland.

And she also sold some braided onions at the community market stand.

There were a lot of other greens that she sold too.

The extended summer weather was so great that we rode our e-bikes ten miles into the village to sell our produce almost until the end of October.

But we kept our pumpkin that ripened on the deck next to Wilma the Cat and the Super Gnome.

We also kept for ourselves the mouth-watering cantaloupe that had ripened in the wonderful greenhouse.

 

 

There were also incredible sweet Hungarian red and green peppers in the greenhouse.  We ate lots fresh and then we froze the surplus.

Fuzzy is very interested in the red, yellow, and black cherry tomatoes that also came from the greenhouse.

 

Mabon is a great time of the year for opening up one side of the compost bin and spreading it around all the plants that have given up their nutrients for us to eat.  We dug up fifteen wheel barrows of lovely black compost full of worms from the right side of the compost bin.  Thanks to all our food scrap donors in the village where we collect every Saturday to feed the compost bin.

We seasoned our onions in the solar drier and then hung them up in mesh bags in the pantry for winter.

Here is the seasoned garlic in a bin that will also go into the pantry.

With the warm fall, we were able to keep selling lettuce mixes right into the first week in November, which culminated with the "Ultimate Salad Mix" for our special direct sales.  Here is the lettuce drying on the kitchen table after being cleaned in the giant lettuce spinner.

Below is a sample of all the greens that kept growing right into November.  

This is the lettuce bed in the greenhouse.

Here is the basil in pots at the back end of the greenhouse.  Popular to make loads of basil pesto!

 

These greens are in the garden late into the fall.  We then put mulch around them for the winter months.

 

Baby kale.

 

Parsley.

 

Celery.

 

Walking onion (a perrenial).

 

Baby beets.

 

Oats (which will become oat straw for tea and green manure for the soil).

 

Sorrel.

 

 

Lemon balm.

 

Fuzzy the cat is checking out the Hungarian Cheese peppers!  These are small peppers and early producers.

 

Another successful Hallowe'en laying out the treats for the six Mitchell Bay children (and the young at heart) in our new pumpkin altar.