It’s hard to remember that the first harvest festival is in August. The farm is to busy trying to stay afloat to really take in the shift of the season. There are still sheep to be moved into new paddocks. There are eggs laid daily to be collected. The days are still long and that ungodly week of 100F temperatures (and humidity!) is sure to descend on us sometime this month. We are too busy with life to remember that the season of death is right around the corner.
As Lughnasadh comes in, though, we begin to harvest the onions and set them out to dry. I wait until they have grown out of the soil and begin to dry out to pluck them from their home and onto a drying rack. Once the top couple layers have dried completely I’ll stack them away in a dry place for storage during the Winter. Maybe one of these years I’ll grow enough and dry enough to properly see us through the whole year.
There are other garden crops starting to come in. Our garden was planted late this year, so even the tomatoes aren’t quite ripe yet. But we’ve gotten a few cucumbers. The greens are long gone but it’s cool enough I can replant some Swish Chard and Kate for the fall garden. Even the carrots can be planted since I missed the first round in the Spring. The squash flowers are still blooming for us, but that will end soon too to be replaced by big round masses sure to bring delight to our fall table.
It’s still Summer here in Wisconsin. Lughnasadh may be the first harvest festival, but here it reminds us to harvest the sunlight and long days of work. There are evenings to be had with friends and family still before the cold Winter comes to our door.
Esoteric Moment 