One of the things that I love about where we live in rural Kenya is the abundance of produce. There is no time of year when you won't find SOMETHING that can be harvested, whether it is potatoes, cabbage, maize, mangoes, avocados, beans, watermelon, or bananas. Or the ever-present and aptly named "sukuma-wiki" - the kale-like leaf that "pushes through the week." Each fruit or vegetable comes in their season, and while those seasons are a complete mystery to me, they are fortunately known and understood and bountiful to the farmers and gardeners in the area where we live. (Recently our region has been undergoing a drought, which puts pressure on the many farmers who rely on a small cash crop to bring in enough money to buy next year's seed, pay school fees for their children, have something available for emergencies, and maybe invest in a building project, animal, or new piece of equipment for the home or farm. We anticipate a difficult year ahead.)
Ask me someday if you want to discuss what I believe are some of the cultural (anthropologic?) implications of society developing in an area where food is always grow-able and harvest-able to some extent, but food preservation and storage are a major challenge due to the climate and insects. I think there's a lot to unpack there, and someone has probably already written that book - I just never took any anthropology courses and had to learn it all by experience!
Anyway, back to harvest - one aspect of living in North America that I always loved was the bounty of harvest season. Although we missed out on opportunities to go to county fairs this year, we did make it to the Potato Festival in Manhattan, Montana, crabbed in the San Juan Islands, picked ALL the plums off a neighbor's tree in Shoreline, and gleaned apples near Lynden, Washington. And then the canning, canning, canning! In the past I might have done ONE of those things in a year, but we're squeezing a lot into this Home Assignment year. Enjoy the pictures!
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| I think we'll find some bigger crabs off-shore... |
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| There they are! We harvested our limit in record time! |
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| The work carried on for several hours after the boat came ashore, but we all went home with plenty of crab meat! |
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| Some free apples from Birch Bay made tasty apple butter... |
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| And left a mark! Watch out, it's hot! |
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| Grandma's hand-crank food mill still in the original packaging. |
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| Dominic and Grandpa hard at work on applesauce day. We processed about 250 pounds of apples! |
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| Looks like the crew took a coffee break! |
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| No one working in our second kitchen (next door) either! |
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| They must have returned eventually, we had 77 quarts of applesauce to show for a fun day of work |
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| Pumpkin sourdough bread - still working on the technique, but it tasted great |
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| We have a hydroponic countertop garden for fresh lettuce and cilantro, a poor substitute for the generous neighbors who share their produce with us in Kapsowar, but we still enjoy it!
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| Pictures from apple-picking day |
