Harvest Days

It is a wonderfully busy, satisfying time of year!!  Here at Lily Spring Gardens and Farm harvest is in full swing.

One of our very own apple trees (the Jonathan) produced for the very first time!  So we made an apple pie in celebration!

Faith has been the canning queen around here.  All the jars in the picture (and some I didn't get) were part of one day's work!! Pickles, apple jelly, apple sauce, canned pears, and more!

The gardens are all winding down and are only waiting for us to have time to clean them out and put them to bed.  One fine October day (which we have had quite a few of recently) Mumsie, Faith and I harvested the squash and dry bean patch.

{Gourds}

Butternut squash is one of our favorite winter side dishes!!  We love this squash, and have never been able to grow enough.

Spaghetti squash is our next staple.  Wonderful for gluten free spaghetti!

Almost completely hidden by the squash vines were our Jacob's cattle beans. These are adorable spotted dry beans which are SO photogenic. :)

 {“The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”}

~Chs

Fall Raspberries

 While our raspberries didn't perform very well in the summer, this second fall bearing has been magnificent!

Every other day (or when we remember) we go out to our happy patch and pick nearly a quart of juicy red jewels.

{little froggy joined us picking one evening}

{delicious} 

Very thankful for this lovely harvest of berries this fall!

~Chs

Last Birthday of the Year

Last Monday we were privileged to celebrate the last birthday of this year for our family.  Charity turned 31.  And while the day was a little fractured and busy and the cake was a bit of a flop, we still had a delightful party celebrating our first born, beautiful, extremely smart sister and daughter.

{the "flop" peanut butter chocolate torte}

Charity is our numbers person, and computer whiz.  Whether it is formulating chicken feed, fixing a frozen computer screen, or finding out some random fact, the name most often heard would be --Charity!

Praying that God would bless her with many more years, and improving health as those years go by.

~Chs

Pearadise

At the moment Apple season is in full swing, but a few weeks ago before our dreams were swamped with Macs and Spys, fritters and pies;

 we were in Pearadise.

We had bushels and bushels of pears.  Some laid out in the basement, some strewn on papers across the garage, others tucked in Josiah's room, and the ones we couldn't spread out sitting in baskets awaiting our pleasure.

You see we had three different pear trees (owned by three different people, and therefore in three different locations) offered to us for picking.  So any spare afternoon, off we would go baskets and ladders in tow to pick the pears.  Not all the pear trees (alright, most of them) were not pick-from-ground-height.  So sometimes extreme measures had to be taken.

Often that simply meant on a ladder with a pear/apple picker to extend your reach.

Other times though, it meant standing on top of the 8 foot ladder (yes, I mean on the part that says "no standing sitting or leaning" etc..) and using the rest of your 7-8ft. reach to get those stubborn pears at the top.

Like so.

To be honest, only Josiah had the balance and bravery to attempt the a fore mentioned feat.  The rest of us applaud, caution, and stay far enough down the ladder to be perfectly safe and comfortable, if not with both feet planted on the ground.

And there are times, when even a 8 foot ladder will not suffice.  Especially if you are a young man who is pearanoid (misspelling intended :P) about reaching every last possible pear on the tree.  If you can see in the above photo, the ladder is at the bottom, and Josiah... well he climbed.  A backpack worn in front allowed for two free hands - one to hold on and one to pick.

Once the pears are all safely home, the work had just begun.  There were pears to can - plain, cinnamon, and a new one - with raspberries (excellent by the way).

 We also pressed them in the cider mill, mixed them with the early apples and create a delicious pear/apple cider to drink.

We made pear crisp, pear clafouti (or patouti as it is affectionately known here) and pear cake.  Of course plenty of them were eaten just the way God made them.

Then there was our newest find.  Pear mince!  Sweet luscious chunky pears with plump raisins, heavenly spices, and zesty lemon.  Oh the combination!  It is wonderful to eat on its own, or you could put it in a pie, and I think it would be an excellent sauce with meat.

We have since left Pearadise, but it was a lovely visit, and we have some wonderful jars of proof in our cellar.

~Chs

Where to Start?

I was going to just begin now, and not try to catch up on everything.  But that just wouldn't be right, so many exciting things... so the question now is...  Where on earth do I start?

Do I start the 3rd week of August with the horse show at Banbury, which was such a wonderful (if super hot and exhausting) day.

Or do I start the next weekend when I spent a few days up in Port Austin with Josh and Theresa helping Theresa at the farmers market.

What about the first week in September when Mom and Dad got away for a day to celebrate their 32nd anniversary.

Or the following week when Faith, Josiah and I were able to watch a fox hunt start off in Metamora.

I could tell about the first, and subsequent, super early frosts.

Then there was the wonderful week I spent up at the ELIM retreat at the tip of the Thumb helping in the kitchen.

Oh, and the delightful time we were able to spend with Annie, one of the missionaries at the retreat who stayed with us for a couple days.

Of course there is always something else going on here at the farm.. like did I ever mention that we had an Angora Rabbit?

You see what I mean, by having such a hard time choosing!!  :)

~Chs

Where September Went

Yup.

I know it.

The whole month of September gone and not a single post on the blog.  

Now please understand that this silence does not mean that there has been nothing going on.  Quite the contrary.  We have been so busy, with so much post worthy things going on, that I have had no time whatsoever to let you all know about it.  I am hoping to change that.  No, I don't expect us to be less busy in October (I have stopped hoping that a time will come where everything slows down) but I mean to try to post little blurbs and pictures along the way.  I am not even going to attempt to catch up on all the things I missed in September.. sorry, you will just have to imagine.  :P

Till next post.. (hopefully sooner that later!)

~Chs

Proclaiming their Creator

{Photos from a sunny August afternoon in a patch of wild bee-balm}

Annual Harrison Reunion

A couple Saturdays ago, we were able to attend our annual family reunion in Port Huron.  It is a reunion of our mom's, mother's family, the Harrison's.

It was a beautiful sunny day, not too hot, and there was a luscious array of food for everyone.

{our yearly tradition that we only make for the reunion - Pizza Cookie!)

{Chatting and catching up}

 {Grilling}

{Sisters}

This year we had a cookie contest.  Aunt Beth's Snicker-doodles won first place.  Our Pizza cookies received third! 

There were a couple fun games that were played. This one was a game where the goal was to unwrap a box.  The challenge was to do it with oven mitts on.  You only could do it after you rolled double with the dice, and of course as soon as some one else got a double they grabbed the mitts from you.

 The three remaining Harrison sisters.

{Traditional water ballon toss}

 All the family.  Grateful for being able to gather with our extended family for yet another year.

~Chs