Harvesting the Garden
The month of November has arrived. It seems like just yesterday, spring was here and the planting of the garden was in full swing. The long hot days of summer were more exciting with the new swimming pool in our back yard. We swam, barbecued, ate outside and enjoyed the heat of summer. Then we blinked and it was October.
At the beginning of October, our corn was on (ready to harvest). We ate as many cobs of corn as we could consume and then froze and canned the rest. This brought back memories of a beautiful book by Jane Yolen titled The Scarecrow’s Dance.
The Scarecrow’s Dance
by Jane Yolen (Author), Bagram Ibatoulline (Illustrator)
Jane Yolen writes her books using poetry as the text. The illustrations blend with what she has written and as the story moves the scarecrow jumps off his poll and dances into the yard of the house. He peaks into the window and sees a little boy on bended knee saying his prayers. After hearing the pray, the scarecrow dances away from the house. And it makes me wonder, what is the scarecrow going to do?
Well, I think I have written enough about this year's harvesting and canning. This has to lead us to some great read aloud books. I hope you will enjoy these books as much as I did.
We started out canning peaches bought at the farmers market near our home. Then we moved to the remaining two vegetables from our garden. We knew we had tomatoes galore. And the pumpkins? Who knew how many pumpkins we ready had.
Let me tell you a story about those pumpkins. My daughter planted just 2 plants. Those 2 plants grew and grew and then grew some more. They grew out into the pasture where the horses tasted a couple and decided they were not good to eat; They grew out over the lawn and the tomatoes where they had to be pulled back or they would kill out the lawn and take over the tomatoes. We could see pumpkins growing all over inside the patch but had no idea how many were in amongst all those leaves. Then finally it froze one night, the leaves withered up and we had golden pumpkins laying all over the ground My son-in-law drove his pick-up out to the patch and loaded them in the back. We had a little over 100 pumpkins from medium size down to small.
I took one look at all those pumpkins and I thought, “We have,Too Many Pumpkins” and this reminded me of the book Too Many Pumpkins By Linda White and Illustrated Megan Lloyd
Too Many Pumpkins
By Linda White and Illustrated Megan Lloyd
This is a story about Rebecca Estelle who planted everything in her garden but pumpkins because she hated pumpkins. One day a big truck full of pumpkins roared past her house. A pumpkin fell out and smashed scattering seeds at the edge of her garden. They laid all winter until the next spring, when a big pumpkin plant grew at the edge. She ended up with too many pumpkins. Read the book and see what she does with her pumpkins.
Somewhere during that time, my granddaughter bought 100 pounds of apples to make into applesauce. This jogged my memory about the book Apples to Oregon, by Deborah Hopkinson and illustrated by Nancy Carpenter
Apples to Oregon: Being the (Slightly) True Narrative of How a Brave Pioneer Father Brought Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries (and Children) Across the Plains
by Deborah Hopkinson and Illustrated by Nancy Carpenter
As the title alludes to “Slightly True” which would indicate to me that a lot of it is not true. But Apples to Oregon is a delightful tale about Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries. Inside the cover of the book is a map showing where the fruit and children came from Salem, Iowa to Milwaukie, Oregon. The story tells about all the adventures they had as they made this trek across the plains.
Well, I think I have written enough about this year's harvesting and canning. Tthis has to lead us to some great read aloud books. I hope you will enjoy these books as much as I did.
Notes about me:
Jylene Morgan is a retired educator. She is passionate about the importance of reading aloud to children from top quality children’s books. Writing about her life experiences she captivates her audience by telling the tales of her family’s adventures. The first several books are written about funny exchanges that occur when human and wild animal’s lives come together.
To read more about me, my passion for reading aloud to children and my books go to www.jylenemorgan.com. Make sure you join our mailing list so you receive Jylene's "Most Treasured Books List". So you can also be the first to know when Jylene's next book, BUMMER and the Nanny Goat, is available.
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