Summer Harvest (Encore)

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Speaker 1 Welcome to Bedtime Stories for Everyone,

Speaker 1 in which

Speaker 1 nothing much happens.

Speaker 1 You feel good,

Speaker 1 and then you fall asleep.

Speaker 1 I'm Catherine Nikolai.

Speaker 1 I write and read

Speaker 1 all the stories you hear on Nothing Much Happens.

Speaker 1 Audio Engineering is by Bob Wittercheim.

Speaker 1 We are bringing you an encore episode tonight, meaning that this story originally aired at some point in the past. It could have been recorded with different equipment in a different location.

Speaker 1 And since I'm a person and not a computer, I sometimes sound just slightly different.

Speaker 1 But the stories are always soothing and family friendly. And our wishes for you are always deep rest and sweet dreams.

Speaker 1 Has this ever happened to you?

Speaker 1 You're in bed, reading your book,

Speaker 1 and maybe even scrunched up in a not-so-comfortable position. But you can't keep your eyes open.

Speaker 1 Then you turn off the light, get as snug as possible,

Speaker 1 and suddenly you can't sleep.

Speaker 1 What happened in those few seconds is that the narrative of the story was replaced by your thinking mind.

Speaker 1 So that's how this works.

Speaker 1 I'll provide a story. Simple, relaxing,

Speaker 1 and told twice, with the second reading a little slower than the first.

Speaker 1 Let your mind just follow along, as your eyes would have moved across the page.

Speaker 1 And before you know it, you'll be in deep, restful sleep.

Speaker 1 If you wake in the middle of the night, rather than letting your brain brain take over,

Speaker 1 think back through any of the story that you remember,

Speaker 1 and you'll drop right back off.

Speaker 1 Now it's time to get comfortable.

Speaker 1 Switch off your light.

Speaker 1 Snuggle your body down into the sheets.

Speaker 1 And feel how good it is

Speaker 1 to be in bed.

Speaker 1 Let's take a deep breath in through the nose

Speaker 1 and out through the mouth.

Speaker 1 Good.

Speaker 1 Once more, breathe in.

Speaker 1 Sigh out.

Speaker 1 Our story tonight is called Summer Harvest.

Speaker 1 And it's a story about the result of a season's worth of hard work and planning.

Speaker 1 It's also about telling time, like a farmer would.

Speaker 1 A red popsicle eaten under a maple tree,

Speaker 1 and rows of canned tomatoes neatly lined up in the pantry.

Speaker 1 Summer Harvest.

Speaker 1 We'd We'd gotten here early today

Speaker 1 to take advantage of the cool morning air.

Speaker 1 The sun was just coming over the trees, and the dew was still thick in the grass.

Speaker 1 We were old hands by now.

Speaker 1 We knew how to weed, when to water,

Speaker 1 and mostly, when to harvest.

Speaker 1 We'd had a few missteps along the way.

Speaker 1 Those potatoes had been tricky, as predicted.

Speaker 1 But we'd managed to get a small crop of new potatoes and left some in the ground to grow bigger for the fall.

Speaker 1 I'd been too timid to cut the broccoli, unsure if it was ready, and came one day to find that the beautiful green florets

Speaker 1 had bloomed into even more beautiful yellow flowers.

Speaker 1 Oh well,

Speaker 1 we were learning.

Speaker 1 Today we were here to harvest.

Speaker 1 There would still be much more to come,

Speaker 1 but the plot was producing so quickly that we'd had to come up for a plan for all that we'd grown.

Speaker 1 We'd brought giant wicker baskets to fill with pounds and pounds of tomatoes.

Speaker 1 I had a laundry basket lined with an old blanket for the cabbages and cucumbers and zucchini.

Speaker 1 The runner beans and green beans are mostly finished by now, but we'd left a row of the runners to dry on the vine for winter soups.

Speaker 1 Those wouldn't be harvested until almost all their leaves had dried and turned brown.

Speaker 1 When I walked past them, I thought to myself that they would be ready about when the potatoes were.

Speaker 1 I liked thinking in these terms. Instead of Tuesday or Wednesday,

Speaker 1 instead of 1:30 or 6 o'clock,

Speaker 1 I timed things by when the potatoes would be harvested

Speaker 1 and the beans would be cut down and shelled.

Speaker 1 We started in the tomato plants,

Speaker 1 the tangy smell of the vines rubbing off on our hands as we carefully picked the fruit.

Speaker 1 We had romas for sauce,

Speaker 1 huge lopsided heirloom tomatoes for slicing and salads,

Speaker 1 giant beef steaks that would go in canning jars today,

Speaker 1 and about a million tiny, crispy cherry and grape tomatoes that burst with an acidic snap in your mouth.

Speaker 1 We took a few that were yet unripe for fried green tomato sandwiches,

Speaker 1 and some that had fallen heavy and with split skins to the garden floor. We didn't mind their bruises.

Speaker 1 We set the baskets under a tree.

Speaker 1 The day was getting hotter, and as we stopped for a rest and a cool drink, drink, the family with the allotment next to ours arrived.

Speaker 1 Their two boys ran to greet us.

Speaker 1 We were old friends by now.

Speaker 1 They told us, one talking over the other in a quick, galloping rush of words,

Speaker 1 about summer camp

Speaker 1 and their new backpacks for school, and that their neighbor had a pool. Do we know them? We don't.

Speaker 1 And later the going swimming. And did we want popsicles because mom brought popsicles?

Speaker 1 We didn't, but as my friend headed back to the rose to work,

Speaker 1 I sat for a few minutes at the picnic table under a big maple, and the youngest boy came back, popsicle in hand,

Speaker 1 and awkwardly climbed up onto my lap.

Speaker 1 He sat, swinging his feet

Speaker 1 and contentedly staring into the distance while he ate and dripped his treat onto my dusty work clothes.

Speaker 1 I rested my chin on his head and hummed a little.

Speaker 1 When he was done, he handed me the red stained stick and rushed back to play in the dirt again with his brother.

Speaker 1 Back to work, then, I said, and join my friend in the rows of zucchini.

Speaker 1 There were so many zucchini that we were a bit overwhelmed.

Speaker 1 I'd been grilling it, sauteing it, and baking it into muffins and bread.

Speaker 1 I'd shredded zucchini on my box grater and sauteed it with olive oil and garlic and tossed it with pasta.

Speaker 1 I'd given it to neighbors until they'd refused anymore.

Speaker 1 I remembered an old joke, something my uncle used to say, that if you left your car unlocked in a parking lot this time of year,

Speaker 1 you'd come back to find it filled with zucchini.

Speaker 1 We weren't the only growers with an overabundance.

Speaker 1 And luckily we'd found a food pantry, happy to take all that we wanted to give.

Speaker 1 They'd even set out bins at the entrance to the gardens, and we'd be leaving an awful lot of zucchini there today.

Speaker 1 We packed the fruits of our labor into our cars and shook hands, silly and content at the successful completion of the plans we'd made,

Speaker 1 back when the snow was still on the ground.

Speaker 1 We'd done it.

Speaker 1 We were farmers now.

Speaker 1 From here, we headed back to my place to can tomatoes until we dropped.

Speaker 1 I'd been reading up on it and had the counters lined with clean new jars and my pressure canner on the stove.

Speaker 1 There was a lot to do, but before anything else, we needed to eat.

Speaker 1 I laid out a plate of sliced cucumbers with sea salt sprinkled over them.

Speaker 1 I'd boiled some of those new potatoes the day before and cut them into chunks and drizzled them with olive oil and rosemary and salt.

Speaker 1 I'd set them out on the counter with a towel draped over the bowl before leaving the house that morning, so they'd be room temperature when we were ready to eat.

Speaker 1 I pulled the towel off the bowl, and the smell of rosemary hit me.

Speaker 1 Then I rinsed and halved a mess of those tiny red and orange grape tomatoes.

Speaker 1 I drizzled olive oil over them and ripped basil leaves into the bowl.

Speaker 1 I added salt and a few garlic cloves, which I'd peeled and just cut in half.

Speaker 1 They were there for flavor, not for eating.

Speaker 1 Then I handed the bowl to my friend and dug out my tomato salad stirring spoon from the back of the drawer.

Speaker 1 It was old from my grandmother's kitchen. It had a long handle and was plenty big and deep.

Speaker 1 I told my friend to stir without stopping for five minutes.

Speaker 1 She raised an eyebrow but set to work.

Speaker 1 You can't be hasty with some things.

Speaker 1 Some things take a long time to cook or combine or ripen or grow.

Speaker 1 And all you can do is be patient.

Speaker 1 I turned the broiler on and cut a half dozen thick slices of bread.

Speaker 1 I laid them out on a sheet pan and brushed them with more olive oil and pushed them in.

Speaker 1 She stirred.

Speaker 1 I watched the toasting bread.

Speaker 1 Bruschetta is meant to be well toasted,

Speaker 1 so that when you top it with the juicy tomato salad, it stays crisp.

Speaker 1 I waited for golden brown and just a little char around the edges and took them out.

Speaker 1 She dutifully kept to her work with a spoon while I plated up the bread and poured us glasses of tea.

Speaker 1 Okay, I said,

Speaker 1 and she brought the bowl over to add to the rest of the feast.

Speaker 1 The tomatoes had given some of their juice to the oil, and the fruit was glossy and fragrant.

Speaker 1 We piled it onto the warm toasts, picking out the garlic and crunching away with the satisfaction that comes from eating food you've grown yourself.

Speaker 1 We made our way through the potatoes and cucumbers,

Speaker 1 and And when she sat back with a sigh, I filled her tea glass and broke the last cookie in the jar in half to share.

Speaker 1 We looked around the kitchen, taking in the baskets of tomatoes, the rows of jars, and all the work yet to do.

Speaker 1 But we didn't mind.

Speaker 1 We'd turn on some music, tidy up the dishes, and start.

Speaker 1 We'd chat or work in comfortable quiet

Speaker 1 as we cored and scored the fruit.

Speaker 1 We'd blanch and shock it to take off the skins, then stew them and sterilize the jars.

Speaker 1 Finally, the jars would go into the canner, and as they came out, we would set them top-down on towels till they cooled.

Speaker 1 We'd split them up and set them neatly on our pantry shelves for soups and sauces in the winter.

Speaker 1 We were farmers and now canners as well.

Speaker 1 Summer harvest.

Speaker 1 We'd gotten here early today

Speaker 1 to take advantage of the cool morning air.

Speaker 1 The sun was just coming over the trees,

Speaker 1 and the dew was still thick in the grass.

Speaker 1 We were old hands by now.

Speaker 1 We knew how to weed,

Speaker 1 when to water,

Speaker 1 and mostly when to harvest.

Speaker 1 We'd had a few missteps along the way.

Speaker 1 Those potatoes had been tricky as predicted.

Speaker 1 But we'd managed to get a small crop of new potatoes and left some in the ground to grow bigger for the fall.

Speaker 1 I'd been too timid to cut the broccoli,

Speaker 1 unsure if it was ready,

Speaker 1 and came one day to find that the beautiful green florets

Speaker 1 had bloomed into even more beautiful yellow flowers.

Speaker 1 Oh well,

Speaker 1 we were learning.

Speaker 1 Today we were here to harvest.

Speaker 1 There would still be much more to come,

Speaker 1 but the plot was producing so quickly

Speaker 1 that we'd had to come up with a plan for all we'd grown.

Speaker 1 We'd brought giant wicker baskets to fill with pounds and pounds of tomatoes.

Speaker 1 I had a laundry basket lined with an old blanket for the cabbages and cucumbers and zucchini.

Speaker 1 The runner beans and green beans were mostly finished by now,

Speaker 1 but we'd left a row of the runners to dry on the vine for winter soups.

Speaker 1 Those wouldn't be harvested until almost all their leaves had dried and turned brown.

Speaker 1 When I walked past them, I thought to myself, but they would be ready about when the potatoes were.

Speaker 1 I liked thinking in those terms.

Speaker 1 Instead Instead of Tuesday or Wednesday,

Speaker 1 instead of 1.30 or 6 o'clock,

Speaker 1 I timed things by when the potatoes would be harvested and the beans would be cut down and shelled.

Speaker 1 We started in the tomato plants,

Speaker 1 the tangy smell of the vines rubbing off on our hands as we carefully picked the fruit.

Speaker 1 We had Romas for sauce

Speaker 1 huge lopsided heirloom tomatoes for slicing and salads

Speaker 1 giant beef steaks that would go in canning jars to day

Speaker 1 and about a million tiny, crispy cherry and grape tomatoes that burst with an acidic snap in your mouth.

Speaker 1 We took a few that were yet unripe for fried green tomato sandwiches,

Speaker 1 and some that had fallen heavy and with split skins to the garden floor.

Speaker 1 We didn't mind their bruises.

Speaker 1 We set the baskets under a tree.

Speaker 1 The day was getting hotter,

Speaker 1 and as we stopped for a rest and a cool drink

Speaker 1 the family with the allotment next to ours arrived

Speaker 1 their two boys ran to greet us

Speaker 1 we were old friends by now

Speaker 1 they told us one talking over the other

Speaker 1 in a quick galloping rush of words about summer camp

Speaker 1 and their new backpacks for school

Speaker 1 and that their neighbor had a pool. Do we know them?

Speaker 1 We don't.

Speaker 1 And later they're going swimming.

Speaker 1 And did we want popsicles?

Speaker 1 Because mom brought popsicles.

Speaker 1 We didn't, but

Speaker 1 as my friend headed back to the rose to work, I sat for a few minutes at the picnic table under a big maple.

Speaker 1 And the youngest boy came back, popsicle in hand,

Speaker 1 and awkwardly climbed up onto my lap.

Speaker 1 He sat swinging his feet and contentedly staring into the distance while he ate

Speaker 1 and dripped his treat onto my dusty work clothes.

Speaker 1 I rested my chin on his head and hummed a little.

Speaker 1 When he was done,

Speaker 1 he handed me the red-stained stick and rushed back to play in the dirt again with his brother.

Speaker 1 Back to work, then, I said,

Speaker 1 and joined my friend in the rows of zucchini.

Speaker 1 There were so many zucchini

Speaker 1 that we were a bit overwhelmed.

Speaker 1 I'd been grilling it,

Speaker 1 sautéing it,

Speaker 1 and baking it into muffins and bread.

Speaker 1 I'd shredded zucchini on my box grater

Speaker 1 and sautéed it with olive oil and garlic and tossed it with pasta.

Speaker 1 I'd given it to neighbors until they'd refused anymore.

Speaker 1 I remembered an old joke,

Speaker 1 something my uncle used to say

Speaker 1 that if you left your car unlocked in a parking lot this time of year,

Speaker 1 you'd come back to find it filled with zucchini.

Speaker 1 We weren't the only growers with an overabundance.

Speaker 1 And luckily, we found a food pantry, happy to take all that we wanted to give.

Speaker 1 They'd even set out bins at the entrance to the gardens, and we'd be leaving an awful lot of zucchini there today.

Speaker 1 We packed the fruits of our labor into our cars and shook hands, silly and content at the successful completion of the plan we'd made,

Speaker 1 back when the snow was still on the ground.

Speaker 1 We'd done it.

Speaker 1 We were farmers now.

Speaker 1 From there, we headed back to my place to can tomatoes until we'd dropped.

Speaker 1 I'd been reading up on it,

Speaker 1 and had the counters lined with clean new jars,

Speaker 1 and my pressure canner on the stove.

Speaker 1 There was a lot to do,

Speaker 1 but before anything else, we needed to eat.

Speaker 1 I laid out a plate of sliced cucumbers, with sea salt sprinkled over them.

Speaker 1 I'd boiled some of those new potatoes the day before,

Speaker 1 cut them into chunks, and drizzled them with olive oil and fresh rosemary and salt.

Speaker 1 I had set them out on the counter with a towel draped over the bowl before leaving the house that morning, so they'd be room temperature when we were ready to eat.

Speaker 1 I pulled the towel off the bowl, and the smell of rosemary hit me.

Speaker 1 Then I rinsed and halved a mess of those tiny red and orange grape tomatoes.

Speaker 1 I drizzled olive oil over them and ripped basil leaves into the bowl.

Speaker 1 I added salt

Speaker 1 and a few garlic cloves which I'd peeled and just cut in half.

Speaker 1 They were for flavor, not for eating.

Speaker 1 Then I handed the bowl to my friend

Speaker 1 and dug out my tomato salad stirring spoon from the back of the drawer.

Speaker 1 It was old from my grandmother's kitchen.

Speaker 1 It had a long handle. and was plenty big and deep.

Speaker 1 I told my friend to stir

Speaker 1 without stopping for five minutes.

Speaker 1 She raised an eyebrow, but set to work.

Speaker 1 You can't be hasty with some things.

Speaker 1 Some things take a long time to cook, or combine, or ripen, or grow.

Speaker 1 And all you can do is be patient.

Speaker 1 I turned the broiler on and cut a half-dozen thick slices of bread.

Speaker 1 I laid them out on a sheet pan and brushed them with more olive oil and pushed them in.

Speaker 1 She stirred. I watched the toasting bread.

Speaker 1 Bruschetta is meant to be well toasted,

Speaker 1 so that when you top it with a juicy tomato salad, it stays crisp.

Speaker 1 I waited for golden brown and just a little char around the edges, and then took them out.

Speaker 1 She dutifully kept to her work with the spoon

Speaker 1 while I plated up the bread and poured us glasses of tea.

Speaker 1 Okay, I said,

Speaker 1 and she brought the bowl over to add to the rest of the feast.

Speaker 1 The tomatoes had given some of their juice to the oil, and the fruit was glossy and fragrant.

Speaker 1 We piled it onto the warm toasts, picking out the garlic

Speaker 1 and crunching away with the satisfaction that comes from eating food you've grown yourself.

Speaker 1 We made our way through the potatoes and cucumbers.

Speaker 1 And when she sat back with a sigh,

Speaker 1 I filled her tea glass and broke the last cookie in the jar in half to share.

Speaker 1 We looked around the kitchen,

Speaker 1 taking in the baskets of tomatoes, the rows of jars,

Speaker 1 and all the work yet to do.

Speaker 1 But we didn't mind.

Speaker 1 We'd turn on some music, tidy up the dishes, and start.

Speaker 1 We'd chat or work in comfortable quiet as we cored and scored the fruit.

Speaker 1 We'd blanch and shock it to take off the skins, then stew them and sterilize the jars.

Speaker 1 Finally, the jars would go into the canner,

Speaker 1 and as they came out, we set them down on towels till they cooled.

Speaker 1 We'd split them up and set them neatly on our pantry shelves for soups and sauces in the winter.

Speaker 1 We were farmers,

Speaker 1 and now canners as well.

Speaker 1 Sweet dreams.