harvest moon bento 2012

 

Hello, all! It has been a very busy weekend in the garden for us. To start, we harvested the tomatoes grown by the former owners of this house (launching Jamison on an ambitious gazpacho project, soon to be blogged) and amended the main bed and several raised beds with a great deal of compost and other soil enrichers. Under an intense Santa Rosa sun, in went starts of broccoli rabe, cauliflower, wild arugula, onions, chives, with other beds readied for radish, carrots, peas and other seeds.

 

Speaking of planets, this weekend was illuminated by the enormous harvest moon, and with it a sense of rich cycles and the plenty of earth. With a garden, those cycles will be part of our daily lives in a newly immediate way. As I worked in the main bed today and removed small rocks prior to planting the veggie starts, I felt amazed by the magical potential of this one spot, newly dark with nutrients and large with the dreams of its gardeners...

 

 

This morning, the delightful Sebastopol Farmer's Market was bursting with fall color:

 

 

Beautiful microgreens from Earthworker Farm--a pleasure meeting Farmer George today. We will return to his stand for sure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dahlias capture the late-sun fireworks of autumn in such radiant colors and forms!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some market bounty, back home...

 

 

 

 

 The tomato harvest from our garden:

 

 

 

 

This post and harvest moon bento is something of a blogiversary for me, circling back to my first ever bento blog post celebrating the Autumn Moon/Harvest Moon. In this year's edition, a melange of light and seasonal foods. Representing the lunar-romance theme of this holiday in Asian culture, and the almost universal association of rabbits and the glowing moon, two egg bunnies sit cozily atop soba accented with fiery farmer's market carrots and green peas.

 

Next door, a piece of white roughy baked with mayo and sesame-nori flakes. A small tomato and arugula from our garden reflect the harvest theme. Baby green grapes and slices of Charentais heirloom melon are from this morning's market (such a subtle, perfumed flavor--want to try to grow this variety next year!). Microgreens, orange calendula and blue borage blossoms lend autumn's Persian carpet resplendence to the last shokado box section...

 

 

May the autumn season bring you love, peace and the rich contentment of good harvests--in the garden and in life!