An abundant harvest!
Look at all those hickory nuts! And this is just a small portion of what we were able to harvest - the ones that are still waiting to be cleaned. This year, for the first time anyone in the monastery can remember, we were able to harvest nuts from the tree in the garden within the enclosure. The tree has a plethora of nuts every year, but most years, we also have a plethora of squirrels who eat them long before we have a chance to get to them. However, strangely, this year there are very few squirrels, apparently having something to do with an overpopulation of squirrels last year who then didn’t have enough to eat.
Some of our figs!
The lack of squirrels meant that we were able to get lots of chestnuts from our chestnut trees as well this year. Because chestnuts are covered with a thick, protective spiky shell while they mature, the squirrels can’t get at them until they are fully ripe and the spiky shell opens. We’ve been able to get a relatively small number of chestnuts in the past by picking them before the shell opens and the squirrels can get at them. But this year, with fewer squirrels around, we got TONS of chestnuts, fully ripe, from our trees!
Also for the first time ever, we got figs from our fig tree! The fig tree we have is not native to this climate, and has struggled with our cold winters. Every winter, it dies down to the roots, and has to start over all again growing from the ground up each spring. It starts growing figs every year, but since they are delayed by having to wait for the branches to grow, the growing season never lasts long enough for them to ripen before frost hits. But last winter was a relatively mild one and for the first time the tree survived, branches and all. That meant that instead of trying to grow branches, this year the tree was able to grow figs! They were delicious and worth the wait - almost 11 years!
Lots and lots of kiwi berries
Our fruit vines also did very well this year. One of our vines grows a somewhat unusual fruit called a kiwi berry. Basically, it is a kiwi fruit in miniature berry form. It tastes pretty much just like a kiwi and looks like one if you cut it open. Interestingly, though, one of our sisters who is allergic to kiwi can eat the kiwi berries! This year, the kiwi berry vine must have been very happy because it gave more fruit this summer than it ever has before, and we almost didn’t know what to do with it all!
Our grapes were a surprise this year in a different way. One of the grapevines is full every year of large bunches of green grapes, but they would never ripen into the dark blue-purple Concord grapes we thought they were supposed to be. Well this year, one of our workmen asked why we were leaving our juicy, ripe grapes just hanging on the vine to rot. Juicy, ripe grapes? We thought they weren’t ripe yet! Well, they may not be purple Concord grapes, but we wound up with bunches and bunches of delicious mystery green grapes! We don’t know what they are, but they are good!
Who knows whether the squirrels will be back with a vengeance next year and whether the fig tree will freeze again in the winter, but we are most grateful for our surprise harvest this year! As we say in the monastery, “Blessed be God in his gifts!”
