{"id":6199,"date":"2015-11-11T22:34:04","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T03:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=6199"},"modified":"2019-05-15T13:49:29","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T17:49:29","slug":"the-last-harvest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=6199","title":{"rendered":"The last harvest"},"content":{"rendered":"

I made stir-fry today with Thai holy basil fresh from the stalk. This is a treat I did not expect to be having in mid-November, even in Georgia.<\/p>\n

\"Thai<\/a>
Thai basil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here it is, November 11, and we still haven’t had a freeze or even a frost. I planted these herbs in early March, which means they have been growing on our\u00a0deck for more than eight months.<\/p>\n

The forecast is for 35 degree lows on Friday and Saturday, so this may be the last harvest …. Or not.<\/p>\n

The regular basil gave up in early October, but everything else – thyme, oregano, chives, bee balm, rosemary, lavender, Thai basil, peppermint and spearmint –\u00a0just kept growing, albeit a little slower. I left the fallen tree leaves in the pots, figuring it acts as insulation for the soil.<\/p>\n

\"Oregano,<\/a>
Oregano, with oak leaves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had more peppermint and spearmint than I could use this summer, and so I have been plucking the leaves and grinding them in the Ninja\u00a0to form into ice cubes. \u00a0I love having\u00a0fresh mint to use in cooking and drinks all winter and spring.<\/p>\n

Ice cubes of mint are not quite the same as the fresh, but they\u00a0will still retain\u00a0the best of their qualities<\/a>. Not the least of which is the sheer memory of their stalks, alive, in the warm sun.<\/p>\n

Those trips out to the deck in the morning, scissors and colander in hand, are a soothing balm against the hours in front of a computer monitor.<\/p>\n

Most of my herbs are in the mint family<\/a>, which means that if you run your hand across their leaves your skin will pick up their fragrant, medicinal oils.<\/a> The mint family is known for its antibiotic properties. And for its ability to calm frazzled nerves.<\/p>\n

So many times, when the crunch and heat of too many problems have been interrogating my brain since 3 a.m., just the simple act of walking on the deck and touching the mint leaves reverts my brain to a smoother path.<\/p>\n

\"Spearmint\"<\/a>
Spearmint<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The normal growing season for deck herbs is over in early October. To have the gift of an extra month, in a period when I’ve been feeling especially out of sorts, feels like tremendous blessing.<\/p>\n

It is\u00a0in my nature, though, that when something goes well I immediately anticipate\u00a0a disaster to follow.<\/p>\n

This frost-free fall, gift though it is, also feels like a warning. It may be that I have many future autumns where I am still harvesting my herbs at Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

What will the consequences be of never having a frost in October? Which are the plants that rely on that frost to set their seeds for proper germination<\/a>? What happens when the squirrels<\/a> and bears are awake and roaming for an extra month? Is there less food for the spring babies? Do fewer oaks make it to maturity?<\/p>\n

I fear I will live to see the day when the last harvest of the season is simply the last harvest.<\/p>\n

Until then, I will gather the mints, pluck the leaves, and freeze them carefully into ice cubes, against a harsher winter.<\/p>\n

Day 128’s penny is a 2015, the first year of the November last harvest.<\/p>\n

\"Day<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I made stir-fry today with Thai holy basil fresh from the stalk. This is a treat I did not expect to be having in mid-November, even in Georgia. Here it is, November 11, and we still haven’t had a freeze or even a frost. I planted these herbs in early March, which means they have … read more The last harvest<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[321],"tags":[67,468,467,466,68,45,179,469,470],"class_list":["post-6199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tress","tag-67","tag-basil","tag-garden","tag-harvest","tag-herbs","tag-mint","tag-nature","tag-oregano","tag-thyme"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6199"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6210,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6199\/revisions\/6210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}