Gardening

Some of us have less than a month until we can begin planting the garden.  Others have a bit more time to wait, or prepare, as the case may be.  I was hoping to have huge glorious photos of a flourishing green house, but that didn't happen as hoped.  I've got greens going, and for the first time ever, I'm actually raising parsnips, but it's really been nothing to brag about yet.  It would seem, I need to start these even earlier than I did.  The Land of Goshen, here in SWMO continues to be a work in progress.

Several people have asked me just what I plan to do through Shemitah.  How will I keep myself busy?  I've replied with varying jesting comments, but I really hope I spend that year as a Shabbat, as well.  I've been working very hard at a number of projects, and although I haven't perfected some of them, I have made progress.  I'm believing I'm going to enjoy the break, and there will still be goats to milk and calves to feed, as well as picking what grows "wild."

The orchard has a wonderful edible broad leaf that makes delicious salad and grows with determined propensity.  The lane is lined with dewberries, blackberries, and grapes.  In all my years of homesteading, I've yet to see a year that didn't have some vining volunteers of the last year, so I think I'm approaching this Shemitah with the wonderment of a child . . . a child of the Most High.

As an adult with a call and responsibility, I must sound the warning, that this is the last garden and vine tending year before the land rests, so use this time wisely.  If you simply have no way to plant anything, then my suggestion would be to increase the pantry inventory through this time.  If our Creator causes the land to rest, I have no idea what to expect on the market shelves.  We've got plenty of non-food already available and much of what we consume doesn't grow anyway, so perhaps that will be the supply.



I can't say, at this time, I can only recommend that we get the garden growing and the pantry well stocked.