There’s something primal about the rich scent of dark, freshly turned garden soil in September, when the warmth still lingers and the wasps are bumbling around searching for food.. In 2021, there were thousands of fat, almost-ripe apples hanging heavy on the branches. A nice surprise after our wet spring, an invasion of moth caterpillars and pandemic shutdowns. The year, almost nothing. At least there were no moths to hand pick and dunk in soapy water. Now that was a yucky task. I felt less guilty about harvesting last year’s windfall, however, when I noticed the coyotes were enjoying the fruit buffet after the first snowfall. By spring, they’d pretty much cleaned everything up, so I had no need to get out the rake…

+Read more