Why I love August

A garden in ruin, thank you wood chuck. Decapitated broccoli and cauliflower, a mysterious destruction of one pole bean plant, but not another. And a days happy harvest.

I don't want to start out whining, but I'm going to anyway.

That little devil.

That evil, awful, covetous little animal.

I'm sorry, but I think there is plenty of food in this town for a woodchuck to munch on other than my broccoli. I mean LOOK at it. Broccoli plants are supposed to be (and were) tall and leafy with little broccoli growing protected in the crooks of the stems. Now where will the broccoli grow if they grow at all? Why on earth did the woodchuck eat it from the top down, do the same to the cauliflower but also pull their roots up, steal my ONE ripening tomato and nibble off one side of the brussel sprout plants? Does it have a gas death wish?

I can't really do anything about it today. We live in a village, so we can't just shoo it. We borrow the plot from a neighbor who isn't using it, so we can't just go make whacky changes. (A friend just sent me a message via Facebook and told me to try moth balls. Tomorrow, I'm moth balling the whole lot. Not that will save my broccoli tonight...) But that ends the whining.

Anyway, since I discovered gardening and gleaning and all that grand stuff, August has become my favorite month. If you want to eat your own preserved food any time later this winter, August is the month to think about it. Right now, I'm freezing beans every day. I will probably be doing squash and trying something with beets.

But my favorite August activity thus far has been blackberry picking with my kids. We have been stalking blackberry bushes, getting enough each time to make a small batch of jam. (And I am a quasi giddy idiot over that jam. Don't stop by unless you want to fondle the jar, admire it's beautiful color, etc.) The kids LOVE berry picking. We've been going every couple days. I drive very slowly, with Raffi singing his silly songs on the radio, letting them sit in the front seat so when they spot a bush out of all the brambles along this particular road, we can all jump out and pick. It has been so fun and so rewarding. The berries are delicious, organic and free. It teaches my children the origin of food and that you can survive from the land in a pinch. It also teaches them that while the grocery store has food of all stripe year round, there really is a time and a season for all things.

And it gives them happy summer memories and jam for the cold winter days to come. :)