Citrus Aurantifolia to be exact

Whose pungent aroma fills the air when plucked from the tree.

Whose yellow skin is natural, unlike the forest-green globes one sees at the grocery store.

They wait, offering a treasure.

My own little eden, in the middle of a sprawling city.

I have tried not to love you, tried not to sniff the fragrant white blooms and coo at the sight of baby limes appearing in the middle of fall.

I am entranced. I am in love with you.

For the memories you trigger. That of visiting St Simons Island, meeting new friends.

Remembrances of sand and sun, summer breezes and serenity. Oh how I miss the golden community, especially now as the grey of winter approaches.

I smile at the memory. We carefully placed you in the car where you would ride beside my teenager for many hours, eventually arriving in your new home in Atlanta.

My golden remembrances have carried me through the summer and will linger when winter nips at the tips of the “outside trees.” You will be nestled safely inside in your new home. We want you to be happy here and create your own memories, with us.

Reluctantly, I have planted my “winter greens” (lettuce, kale, spinach). However, I didn’t have the heart to leave the green pepper and tomato plants outside to suffer a frigid death. Nor could I rip them from the earth and toss them on the compost pile. 

My handy-dandy greenhouse

Yes, there are tomatoes, pepper plants and even a cucumber vine growing in my bathroom.

Black Crim tomatoes ripening in glass jar

As the weatherman predicted frost, I rushed to Billy’s with a pair of scissors and cut every tomato from the vine. Leaving a large amount of “limb,” I placed the stalk into a glass jar filled with water. The stalks will eventually turn brown and look terrible, but the tomatoes will ripen at their own pace and still taste spectacular.

When cooler weather forces us to turn up the thermostat, I place a warm-steam humidifier in the greenhouse as a way of keeping the plants moist without over watering them, as I am prone to do.

My Winter Garden

While I realize that most of the plants will downsize, shedding their leaves during their winter rest, all of them will enjoy their new home. Come spring, I will transfer the pepper plants and the lone tomato directly into the soil. Both will get a spring trim which will encourage new growth and, hopefully, give me a few months head start on the growing season.

None of these plants will produce a bountiful harvest as they did during the summer, having them nearby reminds me that winter won’t last long.

 Renea Winchester is an award-winning author whose book, In the Garden with Billy: Lessons About Life, Love & Tomatoes earned her a SIBA and GAYA nomination. She is currently teaching emerging author workshops across the Atlanta metro area in conjunction with her newest release: Stress-free Marketing: Practical Advice for the Newly Published Author. Visit  her at http://adviceforauthors.wordpress.com

I have met some of the most precious people during the In the Garden with Billy book tour. Many have given me gifts. I’ve received cosmos, zinna, and columbine seeds from flower gardens. Recipe books, aprons, (much needed) dishtowels, picture frames, even a birthday cake …all are appreciated and enjoyed. At home, I don’t display items that have special meaning, I use them.

With that I must share the most unusual, thoughtful and much-needed gift that I received yesterday… a pair of tomato knives.

For those who have read the “Sharp Knives” chapter of In the Garden with Billy, y’all know how important it is that kitchen implements retain their shiney-sharp nature. You also know that this chapter is about my grandfather, Frank Winchester. So when a reader from Pittsboro, North Carolina sent a set of Rada Made in the USA pair of knives, I almost cried.

Pause for a SHOUT OUT to my North Carolina family of readers…hey y’all! Big hugs!

I’m deeply touched because someone cared enough about my story to spend money their hard-earned-money. I just know that this is the kind of reader who would drop everything and help her neighbor. She understands the story behind the book. As my grandpa would say, “She’s good people and I’m proud to know her.”

The precious part about her gift is that even though it is October, I still have tomatoes ripening on the vine. It is in her honor that I “wore the new off” my knife and whipped up a batch of salsa.

How richly blessed I am. Thank you all for enriching my life.

Renea Winchester’s next book Stress-free Marketing: Practical Advice for the Newly Published Author will be released in November. She advises authors on the path to publication at her blog Advice For Authors. Visit it here. Those who subscribe to the blog are registered to receive a free copy of the book which will be given away in December by Make Your Mark Publishing.

To everyone who has read the book, told others, and incorporated it into their book club reading “Thank you.” For those who haven’t read the book, your local bookstore can order it for you in a snap! Until then, please enjoy photos from that very special day. For those who have asked, I am working on a sequel titled In the Kitchen with Billy. But first, Make Your Mark Publishing will release Stress-free Marketing: Practical Advice for the Newly Published Author.
After a year of book tours, I realized emerging authors need someone to guide them through the marketing process. Visit my blog at http://adviceforauthors.wordpress.com  Subscribers to the blog are registered to received a free copy of the book. I am also booking workshops now which will be held in independent bookstores across the south. If you’ve written a book and need guidance, contact me here to schedule a workshop or email my publisher at publisher@makeyourmarkpublishing.com

Renea Winchester is an award-winning author. When she isn’t writing, she volunteers at her local library.

Renea Winchester is the author of In the Garden with Billy: Lessons About Life, Love & Tomatoes. Make Your Mark Publishing will release her second book titled: Stress-free Marketing: Practical Advice for the Newly Published Author in November, 2011.

A quick word about local bookstores: they are NOT dying. I laugh every time someone says that the written word is dead. Indie bookstores are doing well because they know that readers matter! Indies will survive. I believe it will be the small businessmen and women of America, those who understand the importance of personal relationships who will continue to prosper.Honestly, we all knew the big box would one day collapse. Let the revival of personal customer service that was crushed beneath the weight of BB stores begin.

Thanks again to everyone for reading. Thanks for emailing me, for coming to events, for supporting the written word. Much love and BIG hugs ! Now let’s look at some photos. Note: I won’t try to name everyone. With over 100 thousand photos on my computer, I somehow managed to lump a majority of them into a file named “writing events.”So much for my husband’s attempt at organizing. God bless his heart. I hope you enjoy Part One of Happy Anniversary In The Garden With Billy: Lessons About Life, Love & Tomatoes.

Renea Winchester can be reached through her website here. Her book can be found at your favorite independent book store. If they don’t have it in stock they will be happy to order it.

This has been a busy week. I had planned to finish proofing the manuscript for my next book titled: Stress-free Marketing: Practical Advice for the Newly Published Author, but you know what they say about plans.  I was deeply focused when the telephone rang.

“I’ve picked six bucket of figs. Do you think you can put them up?”

Figs, lots and lots of figs !

I knew this call was coming which was why I posted a Facebook announcement, practically begging people to go to Billy’s and buy figs (pears too). But alas, no one came.

Reluctantly, and I do mean very reluctantly, I stepped away from editing, packed my car with jars, posted an SOS on Facebook that said, “If you want pears (or figs), come to Billy’s.” Fortunately, Jennifer Carver responded. I’ll blog about her adventure later.

“Canning” figs after a rain is a difficult process. Figs must be harvested within  a few hours after the rain or they begin to sour on the vine. Add to this a higher water content and you have a recipe for a long, hard day hovering over a steaming pot of figs praying for them to thicken.

Eventually, I ran out of time (6 hours later) and had to settle for figs that weren’t as thick as I would have liked. Fig “preserves” at Billy’s do not “set-up” like typical jam. We use no preservatives: instead equal parts sugar/figs with a squeeze of lemon juice to add a bit of acid, is all we use. Because of this preservative-free process, once the jar has been opened it is best to consume it all or keep it in the refrigerate and use in a few days.

Additionally, my kitchen table is adorned with beautiful peaches from the Grier Orchard. The last of the peaches to be exact.

Last Saturday, I drove an hour and a half (one way) to get “the last” of the peaches. It was worth every dollar in gas and second of my time. I will not convert these peaches to jam. Instead, I enjoy two delicious each morning while silently mourning the dwindling amount.

This is why the fall season hurts me. Trees become naked. Local fresh fruit: non-existent. Truly, I believe it is the lack of fresh fruits and vegies in the winter that make us feel so badly. That and (I’ve discovered) the older I get, the more I need to be warmed by the sun.

But there’s hope. Praise God I have some late beans coming along. I’ve also convinced a couple of cucumber vines to grow. I’ve done this by keeping them protected with large jars until the vines begin reaching for something to climb. I’ve also planted them in a container. My prayer is that once they bloom and begin to produce tiny cukes, I can trick them into living indoors.

I know, I know, but please humor me. Soon I’ll be in denial. I also have a tomato plant I’m hoping to move indoors as well.

Are you planning to grow vegies indoors? Are you hoping to extend the growing season? Do you have any ideas to share?

Renea Winchester is the award-winning author of In the Garden with Billy: Lessons About Life, Love & Tomatoes. She may be reached at www.reneawinchester.com

It happened again. My grandiose dreams of a bountiful harvest have (again) been crushed by triple digit temps and neglect.

Yes, it’s honesty time. The last month of July, through the second week of August, I’ve either been too busy, or out of town. I haven’t even called my parents (and ya’ll know that isn’t good!).

“Real” gardeners know that one never leaves her vegies during the peak of the season. 

In an attempt to ease the anxiety of being a freshman in high school, my daughter and I traveled to the lovely home of Tommye Cashin. Here we were hidden away for a week, enjoying seafood, sand, and some extra snooze time. While we’re resting, my precious tomatoes wilted. I don’t even want to talk about the squash. 

Upon our return we shook off the sand, laundered the clothing and repacked for a trip to Charleston SC to bunk with the Moeller family. Truly, life-long friends are such a blessing.

After all, one can only spend so much time in the garden. I can’t “make” the tomatoes ripen…right? 

Prior to my departure, I pulled weeds, watered well and snaked a pipe which would feed the heat-pump condensation into the garden. Certainly that would provide enough moisture…right? And it would have, were it not for some sort of Possum, Coon, Cat or Coyote that dislodged the hose. Then there were, of course, consecutive days of centennial temperatures. 

Last year at this time the food dehydrator hummed with figs being preserved for the winter and tomatoes drying. This year, the only “fruits of my labor” are J-shaped cucumbers. 

J-shaped cukes

Those vines were, of course, dead upon my return. And as hard as I’ve tried to convince myself that they are only vines, I am reminded of the deliciousness of cucumber sammies. 

So as we enter the “dry season” of fall my heart still longs for fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. I may be an eternal optimist, but once again, I’m going to chunk a few cucumber seeds in the ground and hope for the best. I’ve taken cuttings from the remaining tomato plants. I will push the growing season to her limits. Perhaps this time I can be a real gardener and give the plants the attention they deserve. 

How has your garden grown this year? Let me know, and remember…keep those hands dirty. 

Renea Winchester is the author of In The Garden With Billy: Lessons About Life, Love & Tomatoes. The book is availablein bookstores everywhere and is now available via Kindle and Nook. She may be reached at www.reneawinchester.com

On July 20^th I confessed in the entry Letting Go, While Hanging On that I am— what we in the South call— a Hanger-On. I attach an intense amount of emotion to people in my life and to inanimate objects, such as the ring my dad gave me many years ago. 

I don’t believe it is a lack of faith that binds me to people, but my eagerness to show them God’s love, and generate positive experiences that (hopefully) make others want to have a personal relationship with Him as well. I also like the warm and fuzzy emotions surrounding pleasant memories. What I sometimes overlook is that having a personal relationship with God should be more important than the personal relationship I have with people on earth. 

Because every day, when we open our eyes, God is waiting to spend the day with us. He wants to help us out of bed and be with us throughout the day. 

If we’re honest, most days we’re too busy for God. We use him as the emergency brake, or the “easy” button. Admittedly, that was my first reaction when I discovered that my precious ring was missing. However, when God didn’t reveal the ring (immediately, if not sooner, pretty please), I was forced to analyze the attachment I had to it, and other things in my life.

The Sunday I lost the ring I lay—face tilted sideways—in the parking lot of church, searching for the lost token…begging and pleading for God to reveal it to me. I didn’t understand why He didn’t help me find it. He knew how important the ring was. He knew I was distressed, despondent and discouraged that I had misplaced the only article of jewelry my father ever gave me. 

As the days passed, I posted a notice at church, (whined to ya’ll on this blog), and then vowed to find a replacement. I called Mother and asked her to pray. Certain that I would find a replacement before my visit to North Carolina; I didn’t admit to Dad that I had lost the ring. 

Of course Mother told him. 

Contacting the owner of the shop where he had purchased it twenty years earlier, I explained through tears, what had happened only to learn that she had sold her stock to someone in Alabama. Scouring the internet, I searched, I cried, I prayed. Then I did something I should have done in the beginning; I realized that I could not “make” the lost token reappear; just like I can’t change many of life’s circumstances. Finally, I released my attachment and accepted that is was forever-gone. Perhaps it was blessing someone as much as it had blessed me. 

“Lord, you know how much this ring means to me,” I confessed. “And as painful as this is I must admit to you that I was too attached to this ring. I have wasted a tremendous amount of time searching for something that is valuable to me here on earth when I should have focused on leading people to You.” I apologized for wasting time, and I gave up the search. 

I also gave Him a few other things I’d been carrying around in my heart. Hangers-on tend to carry loads of worry instead of allowing the One who can change the circumstance the opportunity to do His perfect work.

Are you hanging-on to something today? Do you need to pull worry out of your heart and place it at the across?

As my prayer ended I left my selfish concerns at the foot of Jesus. 

A week passed without one thought of the ring. Then while taking my daughter to a friend’s house that “voice” (you know the one that isn’t your voice, but His guiding whisper) said, “go look in the parking lot for your ring.”

Now my church is a busy one. There are scout meetings, AA meetings, choir, and community meetings, not to mention two church services at Christ United Methodist Church. It’s an open-door kind of place. I knew that the odds of finding the ring after so many days had passed were zilch, minus ten. 

Pulling into the parking lot, I explained to my daughter that I was “going to look one more time.” She didn’t protest. She understands about “listening” to the whispers of God. 

Stepping out of the car, I walked to where I had parked weeks ago and there it was. My precious ring; bent and scuffed; a tarnished example of letting go. 

I motioned to Jamie to look at the ring then explained, “This ring is valuable because my Dad gave it to me. It is also valuable because it’s a sapphire from the mountains of Western North Carolina (my home); but the main reason the ring is so valuable is that when you look very close, you’ll see a cross inside the stone. 

Thanks be to God, for being the cross inside my stone.

Renea Winchester is the author of In The Garden With Billy: Lessons About Life, Love & Tomatoes, and a soon-to-be-released title: Stress Free Marketing For Newly Published Authors.

My apologies for all the gardening buddies who have been looked to me for guidance, I have been too busy to blog…a sin of epic proportion.

After hearing that the price of food should double in the next 5-10 years, the children and I launched into what can only be deemed as a mission of madness.

Vinca...bane of my existance

Locating the sunniest shady spot on the property, my son dropped a few trees while I and my (very reluctant) teenage daughter battled vinca minor for dirt in which to grow beans. 

The vinca might remain victorious. Cussed, infernal nutrient sucking vine!

Gathering scrap lumber of a pile in the basement, my son constructed “raised” garden beds. Mind you, we’re on a budget. We have exactly zero dollars in our budget. As an aside, the beloved husband knows nothing of this tree-dropping create (another) garden-plan. Rifling through my seed “stash” I located a couple of packets of green beans.

Our raised beds. Not fancy, but functional

The weather is hot and dry, so I soaked the seeds to expedite germination. Same goes for the okra. I also discovered a seed known only as the “mystery seed.” They look like cucumbers, or cantaloupe. We’re not certain. Regardeless, we’ve got room so they’re getting planted.

Organic fertilizer that has been watered.

When clearing a spot that is —literally—in the woods expect roots and hard-compressed soil. Hence the need for a mattock and a whole lot of sweat equity. I hacked a row while Matthew scooped the organic fertilize into the rows. Since it’s june, to expedite the decomposition, I watered the pellets which caused them to expand.

Jamie crumbled dirt back in the row. We continued this process, five hours every single day until our shirts were drenched and our tempers were testy. 

For the record, hacking holes in the earth makes momma one tired gardener. Clay, it seems, is a member of the concrete family. 

With the earth ready, the children and I delightfully scattered seeds. We planted cucumbers, squash, beans, zucchini, spaghetti squash, pepper plants, tomatoes, watermelon, and…of course, the mystery seeds. Four days into our quest for more home-grown food we were done. Then something miraculous happened. Dog days: a wonderful meteorological event in the life of a gardener when it rains every single day. The seeds were up in two days!

Soaking the seeds expedite germination

Now, we’re praying for a bit more sun and that the mystery seeds are something we like to eat.

With our garden planted it’s time to visit Billy’s farm to see what help we can offer. Even with summer upon us, it’s not too late to plant late crops. In two weeks, I’ll plant another row of beans. My goal is to have fresh vegetables up to frost. I’m also planning to enclose the smaller “raised bed” or at least incorporate something that will shield the plants from frost.

How is your garden growing? Drop me a line and let me know. Now excuse me, I promised my workers a trip to the pool. Remember, keep those hands dirty ! Renea Winchester is the author of In The Garden With Billy: Lessons About Life, Love & Tomatoes.

Even the animals “helped” create our new garden.