Independence Days Update: The Gift of Frost
Sharon September 29th, 2009
I mention our dances with frost so often because we are seasonal eaters. When seasons pass, we feel short term sorrow, because there are things we have not had enough of. But there are pleasures accompanying these shifts as well - the greens are sweeter after frost, the last precious ripening tomatoes extra delicious, the crisp air inspiring and energizing, and after months of frenetic gardening, the end, and a winter’s rest, is in sight.
We had a first, preliminary frost on Friday night - it iced the car windows. We were busily getting ready for a family gathering, and I didn’t do much more than cover some of the basil, but we got lucky - the frost didn’t penetrate to the places where most of the still-growing tender things are. But a wave of cold air is headed our way, and the real thing is likely to hit in the next few nights.
This is ok, it has its pleasures - but today will be spent gathering the last remains of summer - basil for mountains of pesto, eggplant for parmesan and baba ganoush and strange flavor eggplant, tomatoes to be sauced, sweet and hot peppers to be dried, the last sweet corn, cut off the cob and made into chowder and succotash, the last green beans dried and dilled, the sunflower heads hung to dry for winter chicken feed, the amaranth and corn harvested. And since we have to go visit our favorite farmstand to buy sukkah decorations, we’ll probably supplement our remaining production there - more eggplant, sweet corn (which I didn’t grow this year, since I’m saving seed from my flour corn) and tomatoes - I can’t resist one more taste of summer.
Today we will delight in green tomatoes to make pickles from, half-ripe tomatoes to sit upon the windowsill and ripen, and rich ripe ones to be sliced into a few more tomato and goat cheese sandwiches. Today we will gnaw sweet corn from the cobs, and smear pesto on bread, layered with roasted red peppers. Today we will grill eggplants and eat its smoky, rich innards. Today we will glory in summer’s end. And tomorrow, we will rise and glory in the coming of autumn, the tastes and textures and pleasures that accompany it. We do not mourn what passes - but we do not give it up before its time.
It has been a busy week here, with visiting family and friends and getting ready for Yom Kippur, the most contemplative and thoughtful day of the Jewish year. Now we are approaching the next holiday in the cycle - Sukkot, in which we celebrate the harvest (Judaism has two harvest festivals, one for the harvest of milk and the first harvest of grain in June, Shavuot, and then Sukkot in the fall). During sukkot, we eat in our sukkah, a small hut we decorate with symbols of autumn, and we invite guests. We’ve managed to arrange to have guests nearly every single night of the holiday, often many at once, so starting Friday, we will overflow with good food and company.
Today we must get the harvest in, and begin putting up our sukkah. We are still waiting for Maia to give birth, the new chicks are out of their box (and a few of them are headed home with my step-mother this week, to fill out her chicken coop), and we’re ready to start milking Selene. Tekiah has doubled in size (she’s still tiny and awesomely cute - I guess I hadn’t realized that the dominant mode of self-propulsion by baby goats was not walking or running, but boinging - and sideways at that) and now spends a lot of her time chasing the poultry to watch them run away - since they are considerably bigger than she is, this is pretty funny to us, too.
We adopted a new cat, to assauge the kid’s sense of loss over Zucchini - and lit a memorial candle on Yom Kippur, when we remember those who have died, not only for our lost family, for Inge and Cyril, my Uncle Bobby and other family, but for Zucchini, and Rufus and the baby goat born dead. Rubeus (as in Harry Potter’s Hagrid) is a skinny black and white half-grown kitten with an affectionate personality and a purr that sounds like a marble rolling back and forth between wooden slats.
There’s a lot to do in the fall - the season of fruits is shifting (there are still apples, of course, and quinces and pears and others, but still) into the season of roots. I think of the Northeastern year as following the cycle of autumn, when all things are drawn back into the ground, and roots shine, then winter, the season of trees and barks, before the sap runs, when the life of the wild things and the domestic ones is best found in the traces of green and the hollows of trees, then the season of leaves, where the first green things burst forth, and finally, the season of ripe fruit, when we devour, and juice runs down our chins in abundance. I love the season of fruits for its virtue - but I’m ready for roots, for parsnip soup and sweet potato pie, and for treasure in the soil. Otherwise, we’re just happily busy with the shift from one season to another, one cycle, one moon to the next.
Planted: Winter wheat, some cuttings of geranium and fuschia for next year.
Harvested: Tomatillos, tomatoes, hot peppers, beets, carrots, broccoli, kale, collards, green beans, sweet peppers, eggplant, pea shoots, pumpkins, squash, sunflowers, milk, eggs, amaranth, onions, herbs, cabbages, hickory nuts.
Preserved: Basil as pesto, froze corn, froze eggplant, dried green beans, pickled zucchini, dried herbs, dried tomatoes, made sauerkraut, saved seed, made basil-chile flavoried vinegar.
Waste Not: dried corn silk for tea, fed corn husks to goats, composted, diverted new source of grey water. Began making a quilt out of old fleece pjs with broken zippers and holey feet, of which I have many.
Want Not: Ordered rolled oats and split peas.
Eat the Food: New recipe for German potato salad, stuffed pumpkins.
Build Community Food Systems: Not so much.
How about you?
Sharon
- Independence Days Challenge
- Comments(26)
Its funny how we all think the same way at fall. I just wrote something similar today, just not as eloquently.
I love what you say about the turning of the seasons. That’s how we’ve been feeling, too, gorging on fruit while it’s here, but looking forward to the fall. We’re still busy catching up on all the canning we failed to do this summer, but I’m finally feeling like we’ve got some good stores. Details here:
http://inthepurplehouse.blogspot.com/2009/09/independence-days-challenge-week-22.html
Not much to report this week as we took a quick trip down to the eastern shore of Maryland for a long weekend. Picked tomatoes, ate up leftovers, and started a year end house cleanup/organizing project.
Beautifully written, Sharon. We don’t have such well-defined seasons in the south, but I’m still very much looking forward to cooler weather and less-frantic garden activity.
My update is on my blog.
Planted: Lettuce.
Harvested: Tomatoes, hot peppers, sweet peppers, beets, carrots, eggplant, pumpkins, squash, basil, cilantro, chard, milk, eggs,
Preserved: Froze pesto, dried figs and sweet peppers,
Waste Not: Fed weeds and cornstalks to goats, gave 20 pounds of tomatoes to a friend who had a bad tomato year. I have canned/frozen 15 gallons and that’s quite enough.
Want Not: Located local source for bulk orders without extra shipping charges.
Eat the Food: Last homemade ice cream of summer. First beef stew of autumn.
Build Community Food Systems: More produce to the food bank. They roll out the cart when they see us coming now.
Oh Sharon I am sooo glad I found your blog. Thanks to you I started to pressure can a few years ago. This past winter we moved into a new to us house with a big backyard that gets sun all day long. I put in 4 large raised beds. I could only get two planted (hubby was quite ill at that time), any way this is the first veg garden for me ever. I have cabbage and made my first sauerkraut 4 weeks ago, I have swiss chard and onions, garlic and shallots. My first ever kohlrabi and peppers and eggplants (those two didn’t do to well I planted late) and tomatoes and yellow and purple and green beans, squash and zucchini and a few small pie pumpkins.I have a few herbs and will put in an herb garden next summer. I canned peaches and made apple and peach pie filling and canned more meat for dinners. And it is all because of you. I am so proud of myself and happy I could bust. I now compost and try to use my car less and my bike more. I hope to inspire others to do the same and maybe one person at a time we can change this world for the better. Thank you.
PS I love when you talk about your religion and the traditions you keep. I was in Israel 10 years ago and found it wonderful. (I’m not Jewish please don’t hold that against me LOL) Your kids sound wonderful and I would love to visit your farm, as I have come to want one. But I realize now as from a previous post I have a farm.
I’m looking forward to hearing about your Sukkot celebration!
(I wrote a post last year on Green Phone Booth about our unorthodox holiday-combining a little silliness with some info on our fall harvest and a long discussion of hunger and poverty. It was very much inspired by you. http://www.greenphonebooth.com/2008/10/living-in-booths.html)
I love the way that you embrace each season fully and with such joy.
Autumn has ARRIVED here in Minneapolis as of Sunday evening — I noticed it when I walked some tomato remnants (from canning! Yay!) out to the compost heap that the air had turned in that indescribable way from late summer to autumn. It had been raining, just a bit, and the air was cold and damp, smelling of fallen leaves and drying grass. And it sent a chill directly down my spine and into my innards that I haven’t quite shaken yet. Time to take the tea out, methinks.
Am in the midst of canning 2 bushels of tomatoes we picked up Saturday at the Farmer’s Market. Large, roundish, and fairly tomatoey red — they do seem to be a LOT of water, though, which makes me think my intuitive acquisition of Roma-type tomatoes for sauce last year was right. Oh well — so they take a little more time to boil down. I did have the misfortune of breaking a friend’s food mill while trying to process them Sunday — spot welded handle, and not very sturdy — so I’ve acquired one of my own that will hopefully handle the job. Now I just need to *do* it….
To date, I’ve canned:
6 pints of strawberry jam (and the leftover 1/2 pint we’re eating) plus 2 pints that need to be re-liquified
21 (?) half-pints of peach jam, some plain, some low sugar, some with candied ginger
5 quarts of tomato sauce
4 quarts cut up tomatoes
Anticipating:
another 8 - 10 quarts tomato sauce (I hope!)
a couple of bags of organic pears from my sister in law’s friend’s orchard, to make jam and/or butter (with some being passed back to my SIL in thanks)
If there are LOTS of pears, I may can some as plain fruit
Still lots of *green* tomatoes in my garden (where they didn’t get enough sun/heat this year). Hopefully we’ll have enough heat to get them started so that I can ripen them inside and get a couple more quarts of diced tomatoes from them.
I’d like to get some largish quantity of apples this year, too, and make applesauce or butter, and just have them on hand. We need a cold/cool room, though. I’m eyeing a corner of our basement.
So, not so much compared to many of you, but SCADS more than I have done in previous years. And we did a major grocery stock-up run last Friday, too. And my DH didn’t laugh when I told him I wanted the pantry *stocked* just in case there were weird quarantine issues this year. Even *I* think that’s being slightly paranoid, but then again, they evacuated the 4-H building at our State Fair this year due to reported cases of the H1N1 flu, so…. I figured better paranoid than hungry.
Happy Autumn!
Plant Something—Red Onions (I plan to use them as scallions more than bulb onions). I bought a few daffodil bulbs to plant later in the season. I tried to find some seeds, but I haven’t found any yet. I was disappointed that I had not bought enough lettuce, spinach, and turnip green seeds this year.
Harvest Something—Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, green beans, Muscatine grapes, shitake mushrooms (we have a mushroom log), okra, bell peppers, jalapeños, our potato harvest, and a few shelling beans. Flowers, berries, and herbs for flower arrangements.
Preserve—Dehydrated pears (I’m very happy I finished preserving the last of the pears!!), butternut squash soup for the freezer, put the potatoes out on the counter to finish drying and will store in baskets once that is complete, saved marigold and butternut squash seeds. I thought I was worn out with food preservation this year, but the preparation for the class tonight has reenergized me a bit.
Prep/Storage—Added some heat wraps and cheese to storage. “Bought” a few activity books for Halloween prizes, free after coupons. We took down the potato boxes and will store them for the winter. They were a breeding ground for ants, and we put some diatomaceous earth around the area to prevent ants getting into the house.
Reduce Waste—We continue our energy conservation and compost, recycle and use a rain barrel. My cousin brought over a large box of puzzles, books, ballet outfits, clothes, and toys for our daughter. She has been enjoying exploring the new treasures more than she ever would have a new toy. There is something so special about it coming from her cousins. We made a few more donations to the church rummage sale. I shared some old books and magazines with a friend who is a counselor. She will use them both for her office and for making therapeutic collages with the clients. Bartered jewelry repair for banana bread with a church member and brought her the bread yesterday morning. Since I won’t be seeing our egg farmer again until November, I’m passing the egg cartons I forgot to give her on to a friend who has chickens.
Building Community Food Systems—The canning class takes place this evening, and I’ve been busy getting ready for it. I have approval from the church to host a mozzarella/yogurt making class in early October and a couponing class later in the year. I ordered a local lamb to split with a friend. I made up a few more boxes for easy distribution at the food pantry, and I’m planning some fundraisers for the pantry later this year.
Eat the food—The shitake mushrooms were probably the highlight of the food this week for me. I sautéed them in a little olive oil and Worcestershire sauce to go along with a salad we had prepared. Our daughter was delighted to arrive home from school and see the Honey Whole Wheat Cookies cooling on racks. “Yummy, Momma!”
I have not posted to Independence Days this summer, but I read everyone’s contribution and was inspired. I rarely cover all the bases, but we ate about75% from our garden and chickens this summer and put away a lot of veggies and some potatoes for the winter. The firewood is in and the winter kale is trying to survive the tunnelings of chipmunks and the chewing of unidentified insects, or maybe slugs. Anyway, I think we will have some for the winter.
I am still harvesting okra, but the sudden turn to cold weather will probably put an end to that.
I built a potato storage bin out of a crate and hardwatre cloth that should survive the basement mice.
We have what I believe to be a couple months supply of food, including for the dog and chickens.
It was a good year, and I thank everyone for the inspiration.
Sharon, darling, I was so inspired by your last couple posts that I got off my haunches and got my garlic in.
Planted: garlic, scallions, winter lettuce, fall spinach, radishes, mesclun
Harvested: Tomatoes, kale, basil, cabbage, blueberries, carrots
Preserved: Nothing in the last few weeks, but I bought a pressure canner! I so excited!
Waste Not: Cut up an old flannel crib sheet to make a ton more cloth wipes.
Gabrielle - those honey whole wheat cookies sound good. What recipe do you use?
Well, obviously the weather gods heard me complaining about having to water the garden so early in spring here, because it has been raining for most of a week. Which is what we needed, but it means I’m not getting any planting done, and the chickens are getting muddy and grumpy
Planted: In a brief interlude between showers, I got some sprouting brocolli planted, and moved some self-sown dill seedlings. And that was it.
Harvested: Still eating the parsnips, kale, some spring onions, parsley, lettuce, chard, eggs. Picked the first two spears of asparagus with great ceremony and added them to a quiche. Not much else, it’s that hungry gap time in the garden now. I think there will be a major gap between the last of the root vegetables and the first broad beans.
Preserved: Froze pea and ham soup, and beef stew. This will feed us for Friday night dinners when I just can’t be bothered (and can no longer afford takeout).
Eat the food: Homemade pizza is becoming a regular event, and seems to satisfy that fast food craving.
http://couponingincriticaltimes.blogspot.com/2009/09/honey-whole-wheat-cookies.html
Click on the link above (I hope it auto-links, at least) and it should take you straight to the recipe and a photo. They are pretty yummy, if I do say so myself. Keep in mind that they are not ultra-sweet like conventional cookies are, but if you are interested in moving towards alternative sweeteners then these are perfect.
Let me know what you think.
Gabrielle
Last week was the mid week between two vacations, so I got a lot of harvesting/preserving done (while fighting off a minor sinus infections with echinacea and vitamin C). A high light of the week was getting our plumbing renovation done so that we no longer have any galvanized pipe and no more dripping join between galvanized and newer plumbing.
Details of the week here: http://smallvictoriesgreen.wetpaint.com/page/Sept+28+09
We’ve had a frost warning, but I left my basil uncovered and it escaped unscathed. This week everything that can’t stand a frost (which will probably come while we’re away the next two weeks) is being brought in.
Harvested -I grew amaranth, flax and quinoa for the first time this year - and now am trying to figure out the best way to harvest (so far I am either putting them in a pillow case and stomping on them, or using my hands to separate the grains). Any advice would be appreciated ! Also harvesting tomatoes, peppers, herbs - in general the last of the summer crops since fall is now arriving in portland (oregon).
Preserve - drying pears, tomatoes, canning ketchup (thanks sharon for the inspiration),freezing roasted tomatoes
Waste not - when I roast tomatoes I remove the liquid about halfway thru - and I used that liquid (instead of water) to make bread. Added some basil too - and it was a lovely tomato/basil flavor. I also found 2 bookshelves at a goodwill so I have more storage room.
Building community food systems - continue to let neighbors know I will take their extra harvest (I even offer to do the harvest) to the local food pantry. After trying different communication methods it pretty much takes me seeing that there is extra, then asking them at that moment if I can take it. I ended up with 4 boxes of pears this way, which was excellent.
Hi Sharon et al,
I love these beautiful fall days. The sky is so blue and the air is crisp. The humidity is low today. It was a day to be outside so I planted spinach and mesclun salad in the cold frame. Also planted a few carrot seeds. Not sure how the carrots will fare, but we’ll see.
Harvest something: Tomatoes, okra, bell peppers, apples, green beans, 5 gallons of muscadine grapes from Uncle Ed’s vines (we’ll be working on jelly tonight), 9 quarts of honey.
Preserve something: Froze peppers and canned apples.
Waste Not: The usual recycling and composting. Used odd jars that I can’t use for canning to bottle the honey. We aren’t selling it, just sharing with friends and family.
Want Not: Nothing this week.
Eat the Food: Our favorite this week was beef stew and fried apples.
Build Community Food Systems: Took a meal to our neighbor. Her Dad is in the hospital. Bought canned hams, peanut butter, canned fruit on sale to donate to the food bank next week.
Summer is coming here. We’ve had crazy dust storms, which are (sadly) made up of the topsoil from two states away.
Plant something: baked bread, pampered existing plants through the wind & dust.
Harvest something: lettuce, LOTS of endive, corn salad, tuscan kale, silverbeet, surprise berries, lemons, mint, coriander.
Preserve Something: homemade vanilla extract, using pods I won at a food co-op fundraiser.
Prep & Storage: ordered pomegranate tree for potting up, purchased a portable gas barbeque (we now have two alternative cooking methods beyond the centralised supply).
Build Community Food Systems: not this week.
Reduce Waste: composting, recycling as usual.
Eat the Food: Lots of eating! We’ve made penne melanzane; 2 kinds of veggie wraps (one with oven roasted veggies & greens, the other with burrito-style bean filling);home-made bread with almond butter & homemade strawberry jam; middle-eastern style eggplant, tomato & lentil stew with greens; barbequed soy sausages with homemade onion jam, grilled veggies, potato salad & sprouts; veg curry, chickpea dahl and rice with home-made chutney; spring veggie risotto.
In Virginia, it’s starting to get cooler and the leaversare just beginning to change here and there. Clear blue skies and white puffy clouds. Plus rain at last.
Planted: 2 more collard plants. I am hoping to plant cover crops soon!
Harvested: yellow pear tomatoes (pretty productive for this time of year), mexican midget cherry tomatoes (pretty tiny - pretty tasty), nardello peppers, miniature yellow bell peppers, basil, okra, sweet meat winter squash, lots of asian greens, sunflowers, marigold seed, scarlet runner bean seed. I am hoping to dig peanuts, potatoes and sweet potatoes next week.
Preserved: dried okra, sauerkraut with asian greens and red and yellow peppers, seed saving, froze tomatoes.
Waste Not: composted, took home some leftover food from retreat center.
Want Not: Ordered herbs from Frontier. bought local sweet potatoes (25 cents a pound for the smaller ones.) Began reorganizing food storage. cleaned root cellar.
Eat the Food: mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, greens, fried okra,
Build Community Food Systems: helped in kitchen at local retreat center.
Interesting article
Did The Great Depression Have A Silver Lining? Life Expectancy Increased By 6.2 Years
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090928172530.htm
Shane
The Week In Review: planted nada. I was mostly in Florida visiting my mom and dad; I suppose I could have planted an orange tree, but I’ve missed that chance yet again.
Harvested grapes, sweet corn, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, kale, yellow zucchini, beets, green zucchini, chard, bell peppers, chicken eggs, duck eggs.
Canned 14 more quarts tomato puree.
Converting garden waste into chicken, duck, and goose smiles.
Sold chicken eggs and gave away yet more veggies.
100 foot diet: from frozen: chicken broth and blackberries and nuts. From home canned: blackberry jam. From the land: apples, duck and chicken eggs, turnip greens, zucchini, elephant garlic, onions, basil, chives, cucumbers, eggplant. 100 mile diet: wheat, oats, rye, spelt. 1000+ mile diet: you should just try eating sustainably by flying 6000 miles round trip and hanging out in in my folk’s sausage-and-bacon-and-canned-biscuits kitchen! HAH!!!!! One step forward, one zillion steps back. But, hey, they needed to see me and I them.
Wonderful evocative prose, Sharon. Always a pleasure to read.
Autumn is drawing in here too, but thankfully no early frosts this year. The tomatoes are finished with loads (not enough) preserved for the winter. Lots of different varieties of paprika - some pickled, some dried. Well, there would have to be paprika, it being Hungary! Many different fruit preserves made. Potatoes to dig and store in the cellar and carrots to pull and store in dry sand. etc., etc.
Still to come is the grape harvest, in about a week. Last years wine is long gone, so I look forward to the first sampling of this years. It is not a wine for storing but to be drunk.
As an experiment this year some winter spelt to plant, and I have found a local source of barley - mmmm - home brew.
The point about a winter’s rest seems so natural to classic folklore and one knows that for a farmer like you who works hard during the hotter months it must be wonderful to have a rest during the winter when it is too cold to grow.
It is strange how farmers here in Australia are preparing for the harvest in October or November, and still have to work on fallows during increasingly hot weather in the summer and wait longer and longer for rain during the autumn. So we have a situation where farmers on both sides of the equator stop work at the same time!
I love that word “nanofarm”. That’s the perfect description. It produces a surplus of vegetables, herbs, seeds, and starts.
Down on the nanofarm, otherwise known as a modest city lot, I’m racing the weather and my day job to get the harvest in. There are still green tomatoes to pack in shallow boxes and few squashes to glean. My late planted corn is almost ready to harvest. The fennel seed is still ripening, but I have most of the dill harvested.
I have one bed cleared out and put to sleep for the winter with a cover crop, the rest to do still. And the Indian summer is coming to a close.
Apple juice and tomato sauce put up, more to go also, and most of the apples off the tree. I put up the green ones in boxes. They are only fair keepers, and what I really need is someone with a cider press.
The seed harvest is good this year: kale, bok choi, beets, chard, various herbs and flowers, giant winter radishes, heirloom lettuces. I still have paper bags of drying seed in my living room, but it’s getting there.
I wouldn’t call it anything so organized as “building community”, but I’ve been the family gardener this year, sharing vegetables with my laid-off friends and relatives. A steady trickle of folks have shown up for tea and sympathy, first aid and bags of beans.
Shira in Bellingham, WA
I love your recent posts. They make me feel so rich. Same with everyone’s comments. Keep doing what you are doing. You are inspiring the best of all of us.
I love all seasons but after a busy planting and harvesting season, I’m ready for winter.
About a week ago, my upstairs neighbor and I were out in the yard cleaning up the plant pots and hoses, when he said that he really didn’t like winter. When queried, he said that summer just wasn’t long enough. I told him how winter was a blessing; a time of rest after the harvest and before spring planting. He didn’t look too convinced.
Last night as we’re out working on harvesting the rest of the onions and setting them out to cure for a few days, he admits to having changed his mind about winter. “Yes,” he said “I see your point. It will be nice not to have to go out and work on this crap every day.” I had to laugh!
Little does he know how much he’ll come to love winter. I put him in charge of the gardens next year!
Kerri in AK
Spent the day making sauce from the last of my tomatoes. And thought about you and all that you do.
Next up: applesauce and pumpkins