Some of us have been planning our gardens since receiving the winter’s catalogs and anticipating fall harvest. After all the work of preparing the soil and planting the seeds and the plants, there came a brief time of relaxation. Waiting for that first blossom…then that first fruit from the blossom…and then the first ripe vegetable, seemed to take an eternity. Then vegetables and fruit start ripening, and we hurried to harvest these and possibly can some for the winter.
As the days grew shorter, there was less to harvest, but just around the corner, frost was rearing its ugly head. There was a constant watch of overnight temperatures, and the decision of when to harvest the last of the tomatoes or harvest the basil weighed constantly on our minds.
I harvested the last of my tomatoes, placing them in a cardboard box to ripen on their own. They were not doing much of anything at that point. I also place a box on top of them to keep out the light and have had good success with this method. I harvest the last of my herb plants from the garden for drying, or in the case of basil, making pesto for freezing. The herb plants that I have in pots, I also harvest for drying. I cut back these plants and place in our greenhouse. I can then harvest them during the winter when fresh herbs are needed. The herbs that I harvest can also be used to make herbal vinegars.
Despite this mad rush to harvest as much as possible from annual plants, there is a wide variety of cold weather plants that can wait to be harvested. Pumpkins, gourds, broccoli and cauliflower are a few that can be harvested after frost hits. At this time of the year it is wonderful to look at a field of pumpkins. The pumpkins have been hiding under the cover of their vines until frost hits, and then suddenly overnight they appear. But as fast as they appear, they disappear, being harvested for Halloween and fall displays.
For those of us who live in a frost zone, the fall harvest is bittersweet. Knowing that I must harvest the last of the tomatoes is sad, because I know that when they are gone, I will have to rely on store-bought tomatoes. But it is also good to reflect on this past growing season and all of its wonderful harvests, and maybe not so wonderful harvests.
*Most of these sites require registration or login to bookmark