Beans!

My favourite fall activity is shelling dry beans from the garden. I planted a 50-pack and so far have harvested about 3 litres of beans, and there's a lot more coming. Nowhere else do you get that kind of return on investment!

Address of new blog

For those who would like to follow along, I have started a new blog about the church renovations at

www.buyingachurch.blogspot.com

I can't promise it will be anything profound or where it will end up -- the journey promises to be a rather long one with unpredictable plot twists and an unforeseeable ending. But I'm happy to drag you along with me through it all if you'd like to come!

We Bought a Church

You know my addiction to looking at real estate ads. I've looked at everything from

to

to

But recently my husband and I stumbled across this:

and without giving it time to frighten us, we bought it. It's on a double lot within walking distance of a conservation area, in a little village twenty minutes from the nearest Walmart, and an equal distance from Lake Huron. It was super inexpensive, but we will eventually need to do some rather costly things like replacing the furnace and maybe the septic system. We will make an apartment in the basement, and the balcony/choir loft will be my writing and weaving space. The big empty sanctuary with its 20-foot ceilings will become...well, anything! Meditation hall, yoga space, bagpipe practising space, emergency evacuation centre, woodworking studio---anything it needs to be, we've got the space for it! Just have to figure out zoning and all that. Right now it' still zoned institutional.

The church was the hub of the community for many years, known for its music and the annual fall suppers that fed up to 800 people. It functioned as a church from 1939 to 2012. We will bring back the food and music, restore it as much as possible to the original, and make it a gathering space for people.

The best part of the church is its 11 stained glass windows, which are in need of repair because the lead cames have softened and sagged at the knees, leaving the windows bowed and stressed. One by one we are removing them, and I am gently coaxing them flat again, repairing the stress cracks, replacing the cement, and re-soldering the joints. My husband is doing the woodworking, restoring the frames that hold them in place. Each window is inscribed with someone's name, in memory of them, and I've looked them up on Ancestry.ca to learn more about who they were.

It's going to be a long labour of love, a project that will probably take years, so I think I will start a separate blog to track its progress. So in case I get a little quiet on this blog, you'll know where I am.

Tomatoes!

You may recall that last year I trialed three new tomatoes developed by the University of Florida. I had seeds left from two of them, so that's what I planted again this year. And once again they have flourished, turning into medium-sized trees that bend the wire tomato cages with their heavy branches, despite my pruning them faithfully. The tomatoes are the size of softballs, meaty and juicy and flavourful and such a deep colour that I know they must be vitamin-rich.

I had one plant go rogue and develop blossom end rot, so I doused it with calcium, and it has started turning out good fruit now. I'm picking about ten a day right now, but there's lots more to come. After eating all I could stand in every form I could think of, I stewed a bunch and froze them for future spaghetti sauces, even though they're beefsteak and not really paste type. But the flavour will be amazing this winter when I use them. I'll probably have to stew a few every day to keep on top of them all.

Such abundance! Such generosity!

We're fully into harvest mode

Peas still producing (they're Swedish Reds and produce all through the summer heat). Green beans by the bowlful. Zucchini the size of small clubs. Tomatoes finally beginning to come in about seven at a time, big fat things with a rich tang to them. Basil, to be whizzed up with olive oil, salt, and garlic and spread over pasta. The spaghetti squash look more like watermelon. Lettuce gone to seed. Kale crawling upward like something Jurassic. Evenings spent shelling dry beans. And soon it will be time to dig potatoes. I love this time of year!

Food Prices Rising

The news reported yesterday that there be a food shortage coming in the U.S. Prices are rising. The usual migrant agricultural workers weren't able to come this year due to Covid. The distribution chain has been restricted somewhat. So things could become worrisome as time progresses.

It won't be a quick fix. Crops left to rot in the fields can't be recovered at a later date. I'm not sure why, if unemployment is so high in the U.S. right now, they would be reliant on the absent migrant workers, because it seems to me they should be able to employ others who are currently out of work. (The work isn't terribly hard to learn to do. Is it unwillingness? Just lack of coordination?)

I see my humble little garden with fresh eyes, measuring out how much yield I think I'll get this year, and thinking about how to expand it next year. We own a building lot a couple of hours from here, and maybe I can figure out a crop to grow on it that won't take constant babysitting, so I can manage it from afar. I still have a lot of my bottled stuff left from last year, so I wasn't planning to do much this year, but maybe I should go ahead and do it anyway while I can. That way I can help feed my children and grandchildren and neighbours, if it comes to that. I will examine my inventory of food storage and figure out what I need to stock up on.

Back during WWII, people planted victory gardens. Maybe now is the time to push for people to plant Covid gardens in the spring.