Lehman's Country Life

Fall provides an abundance of natural materials for decorating and crafting. If we search our gardens, farm stands and even along the roadside, we can collect items just waiting to be transformed into an autumn creation. From gourds and straw bales to pumpkins and corn shocks, it’s wonderful to use decorations that can be eaten or tossed in the compost pile rather than the trash can at the end of the season.

From our popcorn patch, we tie together bundles of three colorful ears for decorating and later dismantle the trio to shell for winter popcorn. Our compost pile was generous in growing an assortment of gourds and even a huge pumpkin this year. The pumpkin stood guard at our steps for a week before becoming a pumpkin cake for a November birthday boy. Our family raises a small patch of sorghum cane and we save the beautiful burgundy seed heads to create fall swags embellished with wheat, sea oats, rose hips, teasel and other dried finds. Once Thanksgiving arrives, we hang the swags in a tree to feed the birds so they can enjoy their own feast.
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If you are a gardener and a cook, homegrown garlic is a must-do on your fall garden list. Nothing beats the taste of lovingly grown garlic and being a crop that grows well in many regions, there is no need to purchase imported garlic in the store (check labels!). Growing your own also opens up a whole new world of variety possibilities.

Pictured is the basket of labeled garlic I use for my Thursday demos at Lehman’s store and it’s interesting to hear folks who thought that “garlic was garlic” be amazed at the options. I am planting fifteen garlic varieties this fall, and one year a friend of ours (who is also a Lehman’s employee) planted fifty different kinds! Some are sturdy hard neck varieties like German Extra Hardy, the soft necks like Lorz Italian are great for braiding,  others like Georgian Fire have a more pungent flavor, while some are great for roasting like Chesnok Red. Our family favorite is Music, which is a Porcelain hard neck variety with large cloves and an excellent medium garlic flavor.
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Autumn is a busy season of squirreling away the garden’s bounty for winter nourishment. These days it seems that every waking moment is consumed by picking, preparing or preserving food. However, to be honest, standing over a hot stove is not my favorite place to be when the weather is gorgeous outdoors. So although we do have plenty of beans in the freezer and tomatoes on the canning shelves, I am also contributing to our winter food storage by doing more planting in the garden.

A number of years back I purchased Eliot Coleman’s book “Four Season Harvest” from Lehman’s, and it has transformed our winter food plan. Eliot is an innovative organic gardener from Maine who runs his gourmet salad business during the winter months using various cold frames and high tunnels. I decided that if he can do it in Maine, I can surely do it in Ohio and the past seven years our family has eaten fresh salad greens all winter long out of my cold frames.
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Greetings! I am Karen Geiser and our family lives on a farm just a few stone throws down the road from Lehman’s in Kidron. We raise grass-fed Hereford cattle, pastured chickens, a handful of Jerseys, a couple goats along with a small herd of free range children and various other pet critters (including a neighborhood peacock). I also tend about an acre of garden that feeds our family plus supplies a ten-family CSA.

At our house, September is a full and abundant season with harvest in full swing. So right now there are pears in the dehydrator, tomatoes begging to be made into sauce, more fall spinach  waiting to be planted and a school bookshelf needing organized. In the midst of the busyness, I sometimes wish for a winter moment when I can curl up in a blanket and read a good book (or seed catalog!). But we’ll keep plugging away and be very thankful in January when we can rest and enjoy all the good things from the garden that we “put up.”  
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