What happened to 2020!?

 I was prepared (and even inspired) to write a post with the lyrics to Sara's "Song Like a Seed" about the garden tucking in tight for winter when I logged on and...(screeching halt) that is exactly what I posted the last time I was on here, one year ago! SO...where did Nammah 2020 go? Well children, hold onto your hats!! Once upon a time...

...there was a year called 2020. SO many difficult things happened that there were jokes and memes about "when will it end?!" It also happened to be the year that Paula retired from her 30 year career at the University of Minnesota-Duluth! Coincidence? Nah.

2020 was the year of a virus called COVID-19 (and no, it wasn't the 19th virus, it started in 2019). 

This virus caused a world "shelter in place" just a week or so after the most amazing retirement party - 

followed by the best (and last) spring break trip to Red River Gorge in Kentucky! 

A cancelled flight and a COVID quarantine road trip home via rental car, and that was that! 

Almost 9 months later - we are still in the same place. With COVID19 and the timing of this blog post!

There is a garden that grows at night

Then in the winter it tucks in tight

Drifts off in dreams about birds in flight

Who carry the seeds of this garden’s life

~Sara Thomsen, from Song Like a Seed

  

SO...instead of planting songs like a seed (as Sara would do). Paula planted seeds like a song! A Sarah Greer style songtaneous improv jazz song!! 

Thanks to Paula's retired pandemic existence (and overall way of being), more than birds carried the seeds for Nammah's 2020 life! Neither Seed Savers nor Johnney's had seeds to sell (unless you were a commercial grower) so EVERY tomato seed in our saved seed stash was germination tested and planted. The result was over 120 tomato plants (though many more that did NOT grow.) Over half of these went out to friends and neighbors. Some seeds were exchanged. It was a great year to make do what what we had and collaborate!

The end result was a greenhouse filled with 48 tomato plants and 14 hot pepper plants with basil in between. The greenhouse was packed! 

And dear Sara spent days tying up determinates! SHE was the determined one. 

Still, it was more than we could keep up with so the air flow wasn't very good and the middle section of blossoms did not get pollinated (we did get some early lower vine tomatoes for eating.) I was feeling like a failure when late season, we hacked the tops and run away suckers, put a fan in for a couple of days and a late season boom turning into a banner tomato crop. 

Salsas, spaghetti sauce, chutneys, relish, sauce, paste, ketchup, BBQ sauce, everything tomato! Sara claims that it's a good think we lost the middle crop or she might have needed to build an entire new room instead of just the extra shelves she made for the pantry! 

The hot peppers had a good year too resulting in pickled jalapenos and habanero hot sauce.

More lessons were learned as we (hind sight) neglected the soil in our outside garden. We did spent an inordinate amount of time on the greenhouse. 

New raised beds, compost soil, replacing hole-y plastic...all to say that some of the raised beds outside didn't fare as well. I am guessing it was the soil and am determined to do better next year! Though baby beets are cute, they are not what I was going for!

SO despite the difficulties that 2020 brought, and continue to bring to the world, Nammah continued to sustain, and humble, us. More is not necessarily more! IF I can remember that lesson, I vow to plant fewer seeds/plants, and give them more space and nutrition. I'll let you know (a year from now) if less is, in deed, more! 

And still...the pantry is full!