The Briar Philosopher - Iron Weeds - Taters, Onions and the Rest

Taters, Onions, and the Rest

Well y’all, coming back to work after a long weekend is always hard to do and this time it was particularly hard. That’s because unlike most long weekends we didn’t fill every day with work around the place. We piddled at things and mostly rested; an unusual and welcome way to spend the days off. I’ve mentioned before that rest is not a thing I’m very good at but I’m gettin better. I managed to rest without constantly feeling I should do something. That’s the real change, guilt free rest has been a stranger to me for most of my life. We didn’t have any big get togethers or cookouts. I did grill some chicken but it was just the two of us. That’s not because we don’t recognize the importance of the 4th. It’s because we do and our particular “pursuit of happiness” just happened to be not doing very much, sleeping in and eating well. Sometimes the blessings of liberty come in quite little forms.

We didn’t light anything on fire except the grill but neighbors all around were shooting off fireworks from Thursday night through Saturday nights. This are the nights our dogs refer to as “the war.” They don’t like it one bit. Our closest neighbors and friends saved theirs for Saturday night. We went over and shared a meal with them then walked back home before the fireworks show so we’d be on hand to comfort the dogs. There’s just no way to bring all the dogs in the house. Two of them were in but the other three had to go through “the war” in their pen. It is huge and comfortable and there is a equipment trailer in there that they use for shade sometimes and for cover during the war. I won’t leave them alone with their fear so I sit on the trailer and sing to them until it’s all over. It seems to calm them to know that I’m there and to hear me singing. They are all very glad that the war is over now, as am I. I love the pretty sky show but I’ve never cared for the noise.

We did a little bit of mowing. For me it was just enough to mulch our new row of corn that is just about 6” tall. I always plant a row every two weeks so we’ll have corn for many weeks in a row. The first row has tassled and the ears are beginning to fill. I could 4 dozen ears in this 20 foot row. The Boy did some trim mowing and lopped quite a few tree of heaven saplings from around the pond. They are very easy to cut at this point in their lives but they come up like weeds and it seems a never ending battle to keep them in check.

Sunday I dug potatoes, because they were in a ditch and couldn’t get out by themselves. The Boy asked if I wanted help but I declined. I love digging potatoes. I might have mentioned that before but its life a treasure hunt for me. Each hill I dig is as exciting as the last because I don’t know what I’m going to find. Well, I do know that I will find potatoes but I don’t know how many or how big. It may sound silly but it’s about my favorite thing to harvest and if I’m not careful I’lll harvest too soon. Not this time. The vines were all played out so I knew there would be no more growth. I was thrilled with the crop. Out of just two 20 ft short rows I dug a good 65 pounds of potatoes this season. I started out planting 10 pounds. In my book that’s a pretty good return on my initial investment. I also planted half a row of “left overs” from last year’s crop. They were all very small and mostly made of eyes and I just laid them all out in the trench and let them do what they would do. It will be another adventure to see how they fared. I dug a test hill about a month ago and they seemed to be doing pretty well. None of them were very big but I didn’t really expect them to be that early in the season.

I also had planted a short row of onions and dug what was left of them as I’d been eating on them for about 2 months. I still ended up with about 15 pounds of onions, which will do me for quite some time as the Boy doesn’t eat onions. I will still replant the row so I’ll have more this fall. And, though I’ve never done it before, I’m going to replant the potato rows as well. There should be time enough to bring in another crop before frost as it has been frosting later and later for the last several years.

I suppose the philosophy within all this is about returns. As with many things, you do indeed reap what you sow and if you are very good at seeing to the needs of what you’re attempting to grow, you many reap tenfold what you started with. So cast your bread upon the water and your seeds on good soil. And tend, tend, tend, that crop, whether it be corn or a relationship and your harvest will be great.