The Harvesting Wind Of 2020

2020 started with a very dry "rainy season" but fortunately we had an ample share of "secondary water" which allowed us to keep our small orchard and garden areas watered.

We were looking forward to another bountiful harvest of fruits and vegetables from our small Garden of Eden (https://hubpages.com/living/A-Garden-Of-Eden-Takes-Time). The bountiful 2019 harvest would be repeated.

We knew it would, because the danger of a late, hard frost was passing and the fruit trees were once again heavy with their potential for the 2020 harvest, just as they had been in 2019.

But then there arrived a cold front from the Gulf of Alaska.

It was not cold enough in our valley to freeze the transplanted tomato and green pepper plants, though it did snow atop our neighboring Mount Timpanogos, and the overnight temperature dipped to a threatening 39 degrees.

What it did do, however, was to usher in steady winds of 60 miles per hour, even stronger than the expected 40 mph winds that each spring scatter the dandelion seeds throughout the neighboring lawns and fields.

We watched as the plum trees, and apricot trees had their branches whipped to and froe. We knew it was not going to be good for our anticipated harvest.

We were right. In the morning the ground beneath those trees was littered with the promised fruit. The maturing plums were the size of small olives. The maturing apricots were nearly full sized, although still green.

It was the old lesson of not counting our chickens before they hatch. In this case not savoring the taste of the tart sweet plums before their harvest.

There was another lesson, too. What is preserved in a season of plenty, will provide sustenance in a season of scarcity.

It had been a welcome labor in 2019 to preserve that year's fruits in the freezers, and as sauces, jams, and fruit leathers.

Now, in 2020, we could still enjoy the earlier harvest replacing the lost one, while pickling the undersized plums for the taste they might still provide. That in keeping with the old adage of "waste not, want not" or the knowledge that "God giveth, and God taketh away."

That Mother Nature had huffed and puffed was clear. Thanks to our earlier efforts we still, for the present, had the upper hand.