The Fall Harvest

Needless to say, I hope everyone who celebrated had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was lovely- lots of family time, and exciting announcement (adoption!), meeting a new baby, and of course lots of delicious food. Although I was really happy to not be traveling anywhere (well, there was a lot of driving, but we didn't leave the state), I did miss being with my own family. As much as I love Jared's family (and I do) and as much as I love having some family here in Minnesota, it's still not the same. Next year...

Anyways, of course we left our camera at the house for the entire weekend, missing out on what I'm sure would have been beautiful photos of food, children, family, that beautifully perfect dusting of snow and especially those beautiful sunrises over the lake by Jared's uncle's house where we stayed for a few nights. This will be my New Year's resolution- stop leaving the camera at home!

Okay, I wanted to tell you all about a little pre-Thanksgiving excitement over here as well...Back in April, when I planted the garden (you may remember this), I planted some broccoli. Being my first garden experiment, I did not start the broccoli seeds earlier in the spring like I should have. But I figured it would be okay because the seed package said "plant in spring for fall harvest." All summer, Jared has been asking when the broccoli would be ready. So finally on Wednesday, I figured it was time for that "fall harvest" and headed over to the garden. In addition to my not quite matured broccoli, I was reminded of all the beets that I had left in the ground to grow just a little more...


Look at this beautiful November harvest! How yummy. Having my garden this past summer was such a fun and rewarding experience. The harvests were much more plentiful than I could have imagined and I learned so much. I tried my best to keep a gardening journal so that next year I won't forget all that I learned over the summer. I already have lists of what I want to plant and how I'll change things next year. I lost a little steam towards the end of the summer, with life just getting a bit more busy, but this final fall harvest certainly rejuvenated me for thinking about next year. And I think next year, I'll also be better about starting seeds earlier (is February really that soon?!). Oh yeah, but the holidays are upon us first. And that's where my head will be for the next month.