Independence Days Update: Into Late Autumn
Sharon October 31st, 2010
This week seems to have been the transition point from early to late autumn. Early autumn is a time of harvests and golden afternoons, with crisp and chilly nights. Late autumn here is cold, one finds the spots where the windows have yet to be sealed by the cold wind blowing inside (I hate to seal up the windows before winter sets in in earnest - fresh air on the occasional warm day is just too important!) and there’s a transition from October’s brilliance into November’s brown.
I like November, actually. I always have - it gets quiet and peaceful, and while it is cold there’s still a lot of nice days left of what F. Scott Fitzgerald called “football weather.” Planting is done save bulbs and the garlic I forgot about and the thinsg I’m winter sowing.
It is time to fill the porch-root cellar up and take the ice packs out of the fridge and put everything on the porch. We look forward to this all year - the enclosed porch becomes our walk-in fridge and it is so much more accessible than the regular kind - no losing things in the back, no more playing with ice. Yay!
We need to get our wood and hay in - the hay was supposed to come yesterday but it didn’t. Our neighbor who brings it over is a busy guy too, so we just assume things will work out. No pressure.
Hemp and Basil went home to their new place yesterday, and it was a real pleasure to meet their new owner and know that they are going to be happy where they are.
The hens are barely laying, but despite that my wonderful step-mother made us a whole set of beautiful new nest boxes, in the hope of getting them to lay somewhere other than the goat’s manger. The chicken area looks completely refreshed and beautiful!
I’m moving the firewood into the mudroom and getting ready for the season of fires - we’ve already had a couple but it is beginning - we’re expecting days in the 40s and nights in the 20s. I have to settle the indoor plants in their permanent sunny spots - there are always too many things I’d like to winter over.
Otherwise, we’re concentrating on getting the new project up and running. How about you?
Planted: Tulips, some late garlic
Harvested: Last hot peppers, turnips, beets, kale, chard, broccoli, arugula, mustard greens, quinces, apples, dug marshmallow, burdock and elecampane roots, milk, a very few eggs
Preserved: Made apple quince sauce, dried hot peppers, dried and tinctured herb roots, made a bunch of goat cheese
Waste Not: collected fallen pears at a local orchard for the chickens, arranged to give a good home to the extra halloween pumpkins after the holiday (goats love them!)
Want Not: Sorting through what we’ve got in the house. Amazing what I find!
Eat the Food: Roasted squash with chipotle-maple glaze, beets with tahini and yogurt,
Build Community Food Solutions: A couple of articles, working on my local food resources evaluation.
How about you?
Sharon