Harvest / Thanksgiving

It's "Thanksgiving Weekend," and we who live in Nova Scotia have "plenty" to be thankful for. (Pun intended!)
How can we celebrate it?
This year, we have been blessed with the most bountiful harvest in many years. Commercial and backyard farmers alike are using the terms: "superb" and "bumper crop" to describe the results from this year's cultivated fields and gardens.
Generally, farming in this province is a gamble: uncertain weather, risks of pests, high costs of seeds, investment of time, equipment costs, insurance fees, market competition ... always with the strong possibility of low prices at the end of the season.
Farmers are said to be the only commercial producers who "buy retail and sell wholesale!"
The weather factors -- the greatest variables -- all "came together" this growing season: damp spring for germination, sunny and warm summer, with enough rain at the right intervals for maximum growth.
So, get out to your local farmer's market and reap your part of the harvest. And, if you want an eco-hobby, get into backyard gardening: order your seed catalogues now!

You can celebrate Thanksgiving in any number of ways, and I present but a few:
1. Visit your neighbourhood church ("WHICH church?" you ask. Your own or another, it doesn't matter.), bring some food items to help stock up your local Food Bank. While you're there, take some time to join the prayers to thank the Creator for the bountiful harvest, meet the other folks, and, to top it off later, chances are there will be "goodies" and refreshment on offer!
2. Offer of your time and talents in your community: visit a shut-in, teach reading or computing, coach a sport, heft some food boxes at the food bank, serve meals at the soup kitchen, get to know some youngsters or seniors -- the list is limited ony by your imagination.
3. Visit one of the varied harvest fairs around the province.
Here are some that I've heard about:
-- the Scarecrow Festival in Mahone Bay;
-- the Wolfville Gravely Ghost Walk;
-- the Gaspereau Valley Annual Charity Grape Stomp, celebrating our emerging wine industry;
-- the Golden Gourd Scavenger Hunt;
-- the Pumpkin People Festival, in Kentville;
-- the Annual Pumpkin Regatta, from Falmouth to Windsor, home of the late Howard Dill, developer of the world-famous giant pumpkin;
-- the Corn Maze, at Noggins Corner Farm, in Greenwich, with loads of fun for "children of all ages."
Take up one or more of these activities; you'll feel good, and you'll be helping others in your area.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!