Summer's Bounty

 

Flower blooms in our garden today

Spring came early this year and the growing season has been warm and wet, wet, wet! It has rained frequently in amounts that benefited crops, market gardens and flower gardens. My flower beds are crammed with blooms and plant growth. Weeds have little opportunity to grow between my clumps of perennials. My rose bush doubled in height and the blue Rose of Sharon (common hibiscus) is already covered in flowers. There is a bird bath in the rose garden but it is barely visible this year which increases the safety of birds who visit for a drink or a splash.

Market produce, my herb garden, Monarch butterfly on our Milkweed!

Vegetables have never grown well in our sandy soil so I support local farmers at the market instead. Today I visited the St. Jacobs Market for the first time this summer. Sweet corn is already available for five dollars a dozen. I paid five dollars each for a basket of peppers, green beans, eight good-sized zucchini, an enormous cauliflower and a 1/4 bushel of garlic scapes. I have never prepared garlic scapes and asked the vendor for ideas on using so many of them. The farmer also told me this is a very good growing year for vegetables! We bought more than enough vegetables for the week and I will make sure to visit the market regularly this season.

Herbs grow well in poor soil and my herb garden is very productive this season. I have a lot of sage and oregano and should dry some for teas and seasoning. Not surprisingly, sage has many health benefits and reportedly boosts memory, possibly promoting "sage-like" wisdom. I prefer the leaves fried crisp in butter which likely decreases the cognitive jolt!

I have noticed that the price of olive oil has increased significantly in the past year. Three years of drought and extreme heat in olive-producing countries in southern Europe have decreased harvests by over a third. We are enjoying perfect summer weather in our part of Canada but other places are experiencing less than ideal growing conditions. Farming is a challenging occupation with weather being an uncontrolled variable. 

The Great Litany is an intercessory prayer including various petitions said or sung by the leader, with fixed responses by the congregation. It was used as early as the fifth century and is complete in its confessions and petitions. I use some of it as a prayer guide.  One section says,

To give and preserve for us and for others the bountiful fruits of the earth, 

so that at the harvest we all may enjoy them,

We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

I give thanks for the bounty and beauty of the earth that we enjoy in this great land and the responsibility to share with others in need.