A Slower Way...A Show and Tell Post

This week I have several pics with my post so I'll try my best to keep it short and sweet but you know how I am...

Every summer since before I can remember, my family has had a garden and we always "put up" fresh veggies for the winter. I remember we used to go to my great grandmother's house and have this elaborate family affair where we picked all the vegetables and brought them back to be prepared, canned or frozen, and divided amongst everyone. It was a really neat thing to be a part of. So few people actually do this anymore but our family has done it for many generations. I now realize how blessed I was to share in this!

After my grandfather died, my grandmother couldn't do a large scale garden like she used to so we started hunting around for different places to get our veggies. At the time she and her sisters and brothers still tried to do a garden at my great grandmother's house but it wasn't on the scale it used to be. My grandmother decided to try the Amish community in her town and we have been going there ever since. It is an honor to be allowed to do business with them and their produce is amazing!

We went this past week to help my grandmother can our vegetables. She is on oxygen now and has the early stages of dementia so she can't do much, but we try to make her feel in charge. It is a hard task to take on!

We got up super early Tuesday morning and headed out. We drove around for almost an hour going from house to house looking for various things. Our main goal was green beans. We finally found some at the last house and we ended up with almost forty pounds! We had to come back for the second batch that they were picking as we pulled in but that was ok with us! When we came back they didn't have quite enough for the bushel we had hoped for and the little girls all ran out to pick us a bucket right there! It was neat!

During this time I got some neat pictures. I love the Amish community and I feel fortunate and blessed to be able to share a tiny window of their lives with them. They are wonderful people who do beautiful work. We are blessed to live near them. They are really antsy about cameras, so I missed several amazing pics of the children but I don't want to disrespect them in any way.

At one point there was a tiny little boy in his short dress (they dress boys and girls in dresses until they are about three) pulling a wagon behind him. He was the cutest little thing you have ever seen! Then at the last house a girl of about four came running across the gravel barefoot and grinning from ear to ear. Her dad had decided she could take the horse out to pick more corn. She hoped up on this gigantic Belguim horse bare back and waited anxiously as they hooked the horse up to the crate they use to gather corn in (looks kind of like a sled with really tall walls). Her little brother, maybe two or three, hopped up on the back of the crate and this little girl took off towards the fields on a horse that would intimidate Shaq I think!

It was a fun day and thankfully we managed about thirty jars of beans and almost twenty of tomatoes! I know this winter, each time I open a jar, I will think back to the wonderful fun we had!