Plant science

Now that the date for the 2012 Veterans Dinner and massage clinic has been set, the preparation begins.

There is a great deal of work to get done behind the scenes to carry off such an event successfully, and we're getting started now.

There will be several "preserving parties" between now and then, where we make by hand the fruit preserves that we will be handing out as gifts to the veterans we are hosting. The preserving parties won't, in themselves, count for CE credit under Washington state law; they're just too far away from actual massage subject matter to justify that.

What they will do, however, is bring us together to have fun, to learn, and to create handmade gifts that will thank the veterans at the event for what they have endured, and to show our appreciation. So it's related, but the preserving parties themselves will not be part of the continuing education credits for Washington-state LMPs going into this event.

Although the Italian plums from the particular harvest shown here won't be part of the event themselves--this particular batch was donated, instead, to Northwest Harvest for Puget-Sound-area families that do not have enough food--this is how we always start with the preserving process.

Harvesting our own fruit for preserving to eat year-round as the autumn brings the growing season to a close is a gratifying reminder of how closely we are connected to the earth for our food.

Our friends Emma and George's Italian plum tree. For over a decade now, they've generously donated fruit from their garden to various causes, including Northwest Harvest and the Medicine Wheel Society at the University of Washington.

Interestingly, it can be harder to see the actual fruit when you're up on the ladder than it is to see it from the ground, so I keep Iain's ladder braced, and spot fruit to point out to him from my vantage point.

The end-of-season harvest yielded about 10 quarts of Italian plums. This batch went straight to the food bank, but we'll use other Italian plums, as well as other fruits, for gifts to hand out to the attendees at the Veterans Dinner and massage clinic.

cheers, to Emma Bartholomew and George Reilly!