It is SUCH a long time since I wrote a blog piece for this website because I write a descriptive piece under the You Tube video that goes out every Sunday and I have also started writing a blog on Substack.  I thought that I would pop up a quick note here about harvest time.

We are now at that time on the Wheel of the Year known as Lughnasadh, a festival that marks the beginning of harvest.  We have been busy harvesting potatoes, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, grapes, squash, turnips, swedes, beans and peas.  (Wow!  I hadn’t realised how many types of vegetables and fruit we had to harvest.)  Then there is the processing of them as obviously we cannot eat them all at once.  Potatoes and swedes and turnips, (what IS the difference? ) can go into our root cellar as can the onions.  Tomatoes are being eaten as they come.  Cucumbers are being eaten and made into juice as are the grapes and apples; apples can also be stored in the root cellar.  We have all of these varieties of fruit and veg but not a whole amount of them so storing them doesn’t take too long. Making chutneys and jams is something I have to do for use over winter along with pestos and sauces so it is a busy time of year.

Apart from the fruit and vegetables now is the time for the last of the herbal harvests.  Many of the medicinal plants have already been harvested since March onwards and now I am gathering the last of the herbs and those that are late blooming.  What a strange summer it has been; blackberries were out very early as were Hawthorn and Rowan berries and yet the St. John’s Wort which is usually expected to be in full bloom at Summer Solstice is only really getting going now.  If I do not make a fresh tincture with a plant, I dry it for tea or for future use. I also infuse the herbal harvest into oil, vinegar or I might make an oxymel or syrup bearing in mind that the damp of autumn and the chill of winter will eventually be upon us.  The wonderful sunshine captured in the plants will be of great benefit in the dark months as food and medicine.

Some of the herbs I have still to harvest and/or process are Golden Rod, Woundwort, Meadowsweet, Passiflora, Valerian, Elecampane, Dandelion and Horseradish as well as the flowering tops of St. John’s Wort.  Such a lot of work to do but it so satisfying and fulfilling to have my apothecary full to the brim with sweet smelling herbs in their various forms of medicine.

What are you harvesting at this time and what are you making with your harvest produce?