Thankful for the Harvest and Friends

    OK, the trick here is for a greenhorn to boast of botanical bonuses (and pretend to have a green thumb) while not sounding like one of her grandmother's garden reports. If I skip the rainfall stats (there wasn't much to speak of anyway), average temps (everyplace has temps), barometric readings (ummmmmmm), dew drop indexes (duhhhhhhh) and whatever else, I'll have....

Gardenia in the Herbarium

    THANKSGIVING!   The joy of serving up smidgens of one's own puny garden as part of the grand feast and calling oneself Pilgrim.  It took me entirely too long to figure out that if the winter's rains were not going to happen, I would have to water by hand. A neighbor's tomato plants are as tall as a man, my tomato plants are knee high.  But, the long dormant gardenia plant came to life. A gorgeous, fragrant bloom heralded the harvest to come.  The herbs growing in the  same location were ready to take their place on my table.  The beets went through waves of new greenery which, happily proved par for course for that vegetable. In fact, although not a traditional Thanksgiving dish, Yale Beets was served up as part of my harvest.

   I suppose someone could complain about a lot of effort for so little result [the clay pot behind the gardenia yielded just these four beets] but I am completely stoked over the result. The greens provided a second meal's vegetable and I quickly enhanced the soil and replanted more beet seeds with the hope I'll have vegetables before summer ends. There is no 'harvest season' here like in North America. Fruit and vegetables grow year round on their own harvest schedules.  Tomatoes don't see much of summer and soon I will be picking some farmer's crop for my canning pleasure.  

Keith,  Kev,  Paul and turkey

    But back to the present,  It's getting too warm to do serious indoor cooking and, while I would cook a Thanksgiving supper on the Fourth of July, this time we have an out-of-town guest.  A friend of Kevin was here from Melbourne and the sun went into hiding for two days. So I snipped some thyme, pulled some semi-developed onions and eased the beets out of soil.  The turkey stuffed and in the oven (the smell so great a torture to the neighbors not invited) then I cut corners on preparing the  beans and sweet potatoes. Hey, it wasn't that cool outside or in to do all sorts of casseroling.  The cranberry sauce was right out of a jar. It's the best part about cooking a T-giving dinner for neophytes, they don't know what it is supposed to look like and won't know where the skimping has been done. Our neighbor Keith, who loves roasted turkey, joined us.  
    So, modest as it was on all accounts, this Thanksgiving we were thankful for the harvest and friends to share it with.