THE GRAPES ARE READY

Last night I was watering flowers and noticed the Concord Grapes were bursting with color.

This time of year, the night shift critters have usually picked the vines clean.  I ran really fast to the kitchen for a container and began picking grapes.

Next, I had this flash from the past of a fall day in Galena when my high school friends and I were in a grape stomping contest.  Let me tell you grapes are slippery, and  cold, and they turn your legs purple. 

 But I am not making wine with these grapes.  Nope, these will be cooked and poured into cute little jelly jars.  Then smeared on warm rolls drenched in butter.  Yummy.

                              Here is my right hand "paw" helping me with the harvest.

 I only have one grape vine but it is a doosy, hanging over the fence and on the ground.

By the way, it is almost dark again.  I never get to garden in daylight, except at my day job, inside, behind a desk, tied to my chair, whipped daily, and spat upon.  Ok, you know I am kidding.
I love my job.

 

 And I love these grapes! 

                                                     Hey, that is not a grape!  But it is ripe.
                                                               I ran to get another bowl.

 

I am not making jelly or wine with these tomatoes.

But I could cook some mean tomato sauce.

 

The hens were clucking as they jumped up on the roost.

I looked in on them.  More eggs!

No, I am not  making egg jelly or wine from these eggs.

 

 

It's been fun harvesting the fruits of my labor.

It's also been fun laboring over the harvest.

And fruiting over the fun.

SELLING MY FLOWERS AT OUR LOCAL MARKET

 

After visiting the Farmer's Market at the Peoria Riverfront, I thought maybe I could sell my flowers at a market.  I asked my friend, Doug, at Heritage Farmer's Market, if I could bring some flowers to his market.  Doug kindly said yes.  

I contacted another friend who runs our college horticulture program and asked for her suggestions. 

Genny is a wealth of knowledge and was also very kind to share her knowledge with me.

Genny covered such things as when to cut the flowers, how to cut them, preserving the flowers and tieing the bundles.   

On this early Saturday morning, the air was cool.  The flowers were loving this unusually nice weather.  Look how happy this one is!

 

This is his sister.  She is singing, "You Are My Sunshine."

 

 

 The difficult thing about picking from my home garden is that I hate to pick the blooms.

I would prefer to be selfish and keep them all to myself.

 

 

The yarrow and lilies are full of clean, perfect little blooms.

 

Then I moved on to the pink garden.  I took a few cuts from  each plant.

Then picked some red Bee Balm and more lilies.

 

 

I trimmed the stems to get rid of some torn leaves.  I took a handful of flowers and held them upside down.  This way it is easier to stretch the rubber band around the bundle, and snip the ends off straight.

I filled several white buckets with water and a drop of bleach to kill the bacteria.

Then put the bundles in the buckets.  I set the buckets in the back of the van and headed to market.

How fun!  Now this would be a great retirement job in a few years. 

At the market I used a pretty tablecloth on the table and set up a grouping of my flowers in some pretty vases.  I set out a little sign with my name and price.  Well, not 'my' price, but the price of the flowers.  I could get arrested if I'm not careful.

Since this day, I have sold some flowers and am reading every flower power book I can get my dirty, grubby, little hands on.  After ten years of growing my garden, I am thrilled to have some very nice flowers.

 

Bloom where you are planted. Do what you love. Love what you do.  Do da day. 
Do wa diddy diddy dum diddy do.