Today I made 8 jars of dilly beans. I picked the beans, actually, I ripped the beans out of the ground completely. This was one of the last days of harvesting for me as my family begins the daily commute off-island to school tomorrow. This batch of beans will go in the back of the cupboard so we will know to eat it last (longer fermentation). Making these beans today started back in May, when my husband first sowed them into the ground. I remember thinking, hmmmm I think it's a bit early for out here on the island to plant beans. The temperature of the soil isn't warm enough for them to have a fair start. Sure enough, in the next week or so when the seedlings of beans emerged, they got eaten by an enemy (slugs, beetle, ?). My husband then left the planting to me. The second time worked. It was early June and we had our first picking of beans in later July.
Gardening is my solace. It is the place I find peace. Today I was frustrated with the difficulties of setting up this blog. While I ripped at those beans I thought of how I would need to return to the computer later and give it another try. I did, and here is my first entry.
This little lesson of planting, knowing when to plant, studying the foes of that planting, watering that plant, adding fertilizer (mulching rows) and waiting for the harvest is like teaching kids how to write in general. To be a teacher of writing I think you need to know about the conditions surrounding that child, like the temperature of planting time. Is the child ready? Does the child have the proper tools (pencil, pen, paper or computer)? Are they afraid of any foes of writing (criticism)? I also beleive they need lots of watering and fertilizing through words of encouragement and good examples to follow.
I hope to use this space as a place of reflecting this year as I start a graduate program in literacy and writing. Whether the ideas come out of my garden, out of my classroom of second graders, out of my family, or out of my class, I will be recording them here.
Hurray for Amy!! Good for you in hanging in there and completing your first post. I can picture the "ripping" out of beans :-) It's nice to learn a bit about your gardening interest along with your philosophy of writing and teaching. I look forward to more interesting posts growing on this blog!
ReplyDeleteAmy, Your post SO resonated with me. I am a gardener as well, though my poor garden is Japanese beetle and weed-ridden as we speak, and I'm too preoccupied to get out there and take care of it. You would appreciate that I canned 6 pints of tomatoes today!
ReplyDeleteOne thing that might help with the blogging -- I find it a little hard to compose on the blog site itself (I'm always worried that I'll press the wrong button and experience the POOF myself! Or that it will get "timed-out" before I'm done and disappear! So, what I'm doing is composing on a Pages (or whatever word-processing program you have) and then copying and pasting it into the blog. Really lessened my anxiety!
Looking forward to hearing more of your "seedlings" posts. Hey, do you have any ideas (other than sauerkraut) to preserve cabbage? I have 3 purple and 2 white (and a too-damp cellar). There's only me (as hubby hates it), so what do I do with it?
By the way, LOVE the movie The Mission. My other fav -- The Four Feathers. Historical period piece buff.
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