With Thanksgiving and Christmas just around the corner, it’s natural for everyone to start thinking about the events of this past year and to begin to speculate on what 2021 will bring. I could make a long list of this past year’s events that have caused me a lot of aggravation but in truth, there’s nothing that I can do about any of those things which that have passed. Instead, I want to write about things that are blessings to all who live in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. We have had one of the warmest of summers that I can remember but with very little rain. Once summer arrived, the farmers were able to get their crops planted and those fields which were located in the right spot received just enough rain for the corn to germinate. Farmers who have dairy cows were blessed that they could take in early cuttings of hay for their dairy cattle without worrying about rain damaging their hay crop.
There are many small vegetable farms in the area surrounding Canandaigua, and indeed in all of the Finger Lakes Region. These folks know how to deal wet or dry conditions. Their hard work resulted in an abundance of vegetables and that were sold at road side stands. And I might add that my garden did very well indeed, but I did have to keeping watering it almost every day.
The fields and trees are dormant now as they prepare for winter. But they (the fields and the trees) don’t really sleep, they just rest up for next year’s growing season. Some of the fields have been planted with winter wheat (wheat that survives winter temperatures and is harvested next year in July). The rest of the fields have been blanketed with green cover crops that will be harvested in the spring for animal feed or plowed under in the spring only to be replanted with corn or beans. These cover crops grow quickly and capture nitrogen from the air and store it in their roots as ammonia. The earth worms are busy munching and chewing on fallen organic material, creating rich soil next year’s crops.
Just as the fields take a rest during the winter months, we humans also slow down during the winter months. It is now our time to give thanks to all those essential workers this year who have risked their health so that we could have food, fuel, shelter, and good health during this pandemic. But most of all we need to return thanks to God for all those things that He has sent to us this year and to let Him take care of those things which we can’t change.
Happy Thanksgiving From Finger Lakes Living 360!