Still harvesting

The frosty collards below were really quite edible yesterday with a little olive oil and feta cheese. Amazing how they withstand frost. Come winter, I still should be able to harvest a few leaves.

Just received an online list of seed companies, heirloom and otherwise at Skippy's Vegetable Garden, an inspiring gardening web site.

I think this would be the year to start ordering in December, put out a table of seeds in March. It's the end of October and I'm already longing to be out there with the sun on my back in the morning, pulling up weeds, seeing our efforts pay off.

Even with winter as hard and as long as it is here, we will be able to reap the benefits of the garden almost year round. Dry beans, potatoes, carrots, kale and collards are the main ones for now. Two bags of potatoes sit on my back porch "drying" out. But we've already had a few for dinner. Knowing they haven't been sprayed with fungicide and then with some other chemical to stop the sprouting, makes me grateful for those red and gold tubers.

We are still eating the last of the green tomatoes that ripened. I've been amazed at how long they've lasted. I was going to freeze some, but have been enjoying eating them fresh. Only a few left, and then it's back to store bought for awhile.

Made a black bean soup last night. Ben and I went out in the garden after dark with a flash light and dug up some carrots, picked a few collard leaves, and some cilantro. Along with store bought celery and organic onion, and an anaheim pepper I picked before the first frost and some of the tomatoes, it made a great soup.

I feel like looking forward to the garden is what is going to get me through this winter. I know I get a little blue in the fall when the color fades and the storms begin their trek over the mountains, but this year feels especially bleak. I think because of the daily stresses of caring for mom's ongoing and ever-increasing needs. I have cried lately. I have hit these places before. Wanting it to be over. But knowing that once it is...well, then, I'll be an orphan!!

My dear friend, Bonnie, suggested that there are friends of mine who are doing a bit of hand-wringing and nail biting, hoping that mom doesn't wear me out first.

Today I took her to the doctor for him to look at a bone spur on her heel that is causing a great deal of pain. He laid on the floor so he could reach her heel and file it. She had a back x-ray to rule out a fracture from a fall she took last week.

Mom said, "You probably didn't train to be a geriatric specialist, did you?"

He said, "That's part of being a family practice doctor."

"Well, you sure are one now," she said.

Then she told him she would love him more than she already does if he could fix her bone-spur so it doesn't hurt. He loves her, too.

I called Ben to help her get up on the x-ray table. Fortunately, he was close by, just up the road working at someone's home. It's hard for her to move, let alone climb on a table too high for most people. She's moving slowly, but amazing grace, she's still moving.

In the car she said, "So, I just have to let this heal," referring to the "strain" in her back. She is always looking to healing. Always looking to getting better.

Her motto, "Never ever give up."

That's the least I can do.