2012-10-04 Lesson 7562 from the garden

Post date: Oct 04, 2012 7:1:41 PM

Tonight the forecast low in Edmonton is -2C. it warms up again next week, but we have some serious frost risk over the next few nights. We have been trying to figure out how to harvest tobacco, and Isabel - one of the Elders we work with - just suggested we try a few things to see what works and what doesn't.

Today we went out to see if the tobacco leaves felt ready to come off the plants as we're not sure what frost will do to them. They don't seem ready yet. But what is suddenly ready are the seed pods.

Tobacco grows largish seed pods from its flowers.

They are ovoid and very green, and - until today - hard and full of tiny white seeds. I was in the garden Tuesday evening showing people seed pods that looked just as described.

Less than 48 hours later however many of them have taken on a brownish hue.

Now when we touch them they feel dry and hollow. And when we open them up hundreds of tiny reddish brown seeds pour out. I'd love to take my class out to do some of the seed gathering, but we have a midterm tomorrow and the seeds need to be harvested before they explode out of the pods.

So, lesson 7562 is that things are ready when they are ready and that may not be when it is convenient to your teaching schedule. Somewhere in a buried place that remembers a life with more time, I knew this ... Today I remembered it. Living projects are fabulous but you just have to live with them.