A Season of Bounty

Cherry tomatoes - pop ‘em in your mouth!

A Season of Bounty

That’s how acclaimed naturalist Bernd Heinrich subtitled his book “Summer World.”

And what better description for our few short months of photosynthesis, mating, nesting, growing, harvesting, and eating?

Bumblebees probe thistles for nectar. Bluebirds forage for caterpillars in our broccoli. (THANK YOU!)

Hungry bumblebee

Dragonflies dart and zip over the prairie to gobble the latest insect hatch.

Deer nonchalantly nibble whatever greens happen to be within munching distance.

And I can’t pass the garden without pausing to pop yet another cherry tomato into my mouth.

Or to pucker up as I suck on a wild plum.

Maybe that’s why I tolerate the season – despite my general dislike of hot weather.

Kale

If warm days are what it takes to bring on the green beans, cabbage, sweet corn, kale, and broccoli, OK. Don’t forget the zucchini. If you do, you could be overwhelmed by this prolific summer squash!

Green beans

Picking beans for supper just whets my appetite, since I invariably devour a few raw before they reach the kitchen. Same for broccoli, too – although I usually take a second look at the florets just to reassure myself that the bluebirds did a thorough job of de-worming!

But there comes a point when picking a few veggies for a meal can’t keep up with the produce production. Especially when we’ve been diligently watering to combat the drought!

Now the work begins – as we knew it would.

Freeze green beans.

Dig potatoes.

Pick the wild plums before the critters beat you to them.

Wild plum tree was LOADED!

Then comes the fun (?) of cooking up plum puree and sorting out the small, hard pits. Can’t beat the purple tang of wild plum jam. We leave the skins in the puree for a little extra pectin and even more zip

Plum puree

Jam for winter

Eating a few springs of fresh chard instead of lettuce on a classic bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich can’t keep up with the green growth, so we pop more chard leaves in the freezer

Sweet corn

Sweet corn? Margaret and I both grew up on farms where picking and freezing sweet corn was a summer ritual. Our farmer fathers planted it seemingly by the acre. We’ve now opted to let others manage a big corn patch, and we’re happy to buy a few dozen from a local stand to support our neighbor’s efforts. AND to stock the freezer with some fixin’s for February corn chowder.

Ground cherry

My Grandma used to make ground cherry pie. The dainty, yellow berries inside the papery husk tempt my sweet tooth – but we barely raise enough for an occasional juicy snack.

Pepper

Peppers? As much as I tease Margaret about all the peppers she grows, I’ll confess to liking the salsa that she and our son make.

Beet seedlings

Beets aren’t my favorite, either, but they’ll color up this fall’s veggie stir-fries – assuming the just-planted little seedlings survive the marauding rabbits.

Following the heat wave, the big tomatoes are ripening all at once. That means several batches of home-made tomato vegetable soup, which is a quick-meal winter staple for us.

Soup still on the vine

We had a decent crop of early spring lettuce – thanks to grow lights and transplanting. Now Margaret has started more lettuce seedlings. (They’re under the grow lights again, to foil the mice or chipmunks or other hungry garden citizens.) We’re counting on greens well into November.

With all these goodies to tend to, we let our neighbor harvest the aronia berries this year. (He promised to share a bottle of the wine he’ll be brewing.)

And does anybody need some Concord grapes? We’re running out of freezer and pantry space, so we might just let the raccoons have the grapes

Grapes

Late word: A friend just gave us two bags of apples - which we WILL NOT give to the deer or ‘coons. We love apple crisp and applesauce. The challenge will be to find room on the shelves in the root cellar. Nice problem to have - in this SEASON OF BOUNTY

The gift of apples!

NOTE: Lakeside Lab director Mary Skopec and water quality expert, blogger, and book author Chris Jones will join Margaret and me for a leisurely paddle “Listening to the Lake” at the Okoboji Writers’ Retreat Sept. 17-20. Okoboji Writers' Retreat

Thanks to the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative for reconnecting me with several old friends from my 25 years as outdoor water/photographer with the Des Moines Register from 1972 to 1997. Plus the group has helped me discover the talents and insights of a new (to me) set of writers. I‘m looking forward to sharing my Iowa roots, memories, observations, frustrations, and joys with those folks - and with readers.

I come at this endeavor as an Iowa farm kid who has never outgrown playing in the “crick.” I believe that every kid should have that same opportunity to go outside and get muddy. And I can easily wax nostalgic about the wild places we have lost in my seven-plus decades on this planet. For more about where those times, people, and adventures have led me, here’s a link to my website.

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To see commentary by some of Iowa’s best writers, please follow your choice of Iowa Writers’ Collaborative members:

Iowa Writers’ Collaborative columnists

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Stephanie Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Nik Heftman, The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

LettersfromIowans, Iowa

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Lake City

Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Wini Moranville, Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines

Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtains, Washington, D.C.

Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Urbandale 

Macey Spensley, The Midwest Creative, Davenport and Des Moines

Larry Stone, Listening to the Land, Elkader

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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