Harvest

Listen to the air.

You can hear it, feel it,

smell it, taste it.

Woniya wakan, the holy air,

which renews all by its breath.

Woniya wakan, spirit, life, breath, renewal,

it means all that.

We sit together, don’t touch,

but something is there,

we feel it between us, 

as a presence.

A good way to start thinking about nature,

talk about it.

Rather talk to it,

talk to the rivers, to the lakes,

to the wind,

as to our relatives.

                            JOHN LAME DEER

As the temperature warms . . . finally summer? . . . the Cascadia pea plants finally are ready to be removed. The seeds saved from last years' crop were planted on March 05. Peas are a cool weather crop. Usually by now they would have long ago been pulled up. As we all know climate change is wreaking havoc globally. AND here in Northern California is no exception. We have had unseasonably cool temperatures thus the peas have been harvested here in midJuly.

Why Cascadia peas you might ask? Jim Bagget at the OSU Vegetable Research Farm created this particular pea because you can harvest the pod or wait for peas to fill the pod. They particularly thrive in the Northwest.

As is my long time practice 4 or so seeds were planted in each of the concrete block's holes on the East side of the West most bed and on the West side of the East most bed. Once the plants are 4 to 6 inches tall all but the strongest looking is pulled out. When I had ducks these would have been put in their huge watering bowl. The ducks gobbled them up in nothing flat as the saying goes. Now, since I no longer have a compost pile they go into the green waste bin.

Wire is secured against the blocks to support the vines.

From this pile of pulled up vines the pea pods were picked.

I partook of just plain old shelled peas with my lunch. Delish!!! The peas that were too old to eat will be dried for planting next year. My plan is plant way earlier in the Spring of 2024.

When we moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and had covered raised beds

I planted Cascadia pea seeds when snow was still on the ground. These seeds had been gathered from my garden at MuRefuge.

  Calycanthus occidentalis (Western spicebush)
Today when I was watering
in the front yard
I noticed the bloom on this shrub.
The color of this shrub's flower
is most unusual . . . not
truly orange nor pink nor red
rather a combination of all these.

So on this sunny, now windy, Summer day I