Give Thanks!

This week we celebrated Thanksgiving. It is great to be reminded to give thanks for all that we have. I got so busy toward the end of the summer that I just didn’t do anything on the blog. I put up a lot of fruits and vegetables. I took a lot of pictures and videos; but, I haven’t post anything for a long time. Now that it has started snowing I will take a break from working outside. I got a little bit overwhelmed at the end of the summer/fall. I had so much produce that I was trying to take care of,  I just couldn’t do it all. I am planning to get better at it. 

I lost some of my tomatoes and peppers because I didn’t go out and pick them before the temperature dropped below 40. I was waiting to let them ripen as long as possible. I guess I waited to long. It is not that big of a deal. I already had a lot of tomatoes canned. The peppers I was able to save even though they were a little soft; I just cooked them and froze them. Even so, it was eye opening to see how just a little oversight could cause so much trouble. 

It just makes me very grateful that we don’t depend on the garden for our livelihood or even really for food. We garden as a hobby. We can buy food year round for relatively cheap. However, gardening does help me relate to my farming ancestors. I can only imagine how stressful it would be to put up fruit and not know if it would be enough for the whole winter. Or, what if you messed up and forgot an important step and it all spoiled, and all your efforts were wasted? Talk about stressful! I stress about it now and it isn’t even life and death. How did they do it? 

This week in church the hymn we sang was “Come Ye Thankful People, Come”. The verse that spoke to me was:

Come, ye thankful people, come, 
Raise the song of harvest home! 
All is safely gathered in, 
Ere the winter storms begin; 
God, our Maker, doth provide 
For our wants to be supplied; 
Come to God’s own temple, come; 
Raise the song of harvest home!

The part that says “all is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin” struck me. I really did work hard to get our harvest safely gathered in before winter started. As I think about how much I have in my little fruit room. I feel a little thrill of accomplishment when I see all that we were able to save for later. I also feel a huge amount of gratitude for the God of the Harvest! I am so glad for the experiences I have had and the things I have learned. I am amazed at the joy I feel about bottled fruit and frozen vegetables!

When I get my pictures edited I will put them in.