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Change of Seasons

fall leaves

This is the first year in a long time that I’ve been eager for autumn to arrive.

Usually, I lament its arrival – the air cools down and the leaves fall, alerting me to the impending Dreaded Winter.  I am forced to change over my wardrobe to longer sleeved tops and pants, heavier clothing in general, and am always a little sad to put my shorts away.  However – and I wrote about this often – this summer was a scorcher, so cooler weather is truly welcome.  I actually feel a bit cheated out of my summer because on many days the only option was to stay inside with the air conditioner on.  As someone who likes to be outside, this was a disappointment.

Our ConEd bill will also decrease, which will be a relief.

Along with my welcoming of the cool, crisp fall air this year, I also welcome back a number of foods I set aside while it was hot and I didn’t want to turn on the oven: I’m cooking more whole grains, including steel cut oats for breakfast; granola and bread baking are in my plans for next weekend; and roasting winter squash!  This might be my favorite cooking technique in the cooler seasons.

We’ve been getting these hard squashes in our CSA shares for a few weeks, and they have been fantastic.  The other day I cut an acorn squash in half, scooped out the seeds, then cut each half into three pieces.  Then I roasted them with olive oil, salt, and cumin. They were amazing!

Sauerkraut season is around the corner, too, which is very exciting.  This should herald the arrival of a Harsch crock to our home.  I’d also like to make some kimchi this fall, too.  All lacto-fermented, of course.

I’m back to drinking raw milk, too – I was eating raw yogurt but not straight milk for a couple of months. I have a lot of milk in the freezer right now!  Not sure why I stopped for a little while, but my guess was that it had something to do with the warm weather, and my not eating cereal (homemade granola or porridge – I don’t eat commercial cold cereal) for breakfast.  Most of my milk intake happens at breakfast.

My running should also click back into gear – due to a couple a colds and simply overly hot and humid weather, my running suffered in August and September.  Running keeps me centered and healthy, both physically and mentally; the cooler temperatures can only facilitate getting back into a regular routine.  Truth be told, my favorite running weather is sunny with temperatures in the mid-50s.

And with a new season, comes a few changes to the blog.  I’ve cut things down to two columns, giving the content area more space.  Images can be bigger this way, too.  I’ve also added a polling feature, so I’ll showcase polls from time to time.  I’ll also be doing some more fiddling around, so you should see minor changes come and go for a little while longer.

I’m excited by this new season – it feels like a kind of restart, or at least a return to a more varied life.   Fall, I’m happy to see you!

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The End of Summer

Although it’s still warm here in NYC, since Labor Day it’s really felt like summer has ended. Once the temperatures become more moderate, it will really feel like fall.  I am of mixed feelings about this – normally I don’t care much about or for fall, in my mind it’s just the transition season to The Dreaded Winter.  I am not big on the frigid weather of the Northeast.  However, this year’s summer was so terribly scorching hot, with multiple 90+ degree temperature days in a row, cooler weather can’t come soon enough.  I am eager for fall.

First tipoff to the transition out of summer – I received an acorn squash in my CSA share this past week.  I’ll save it for a cooler day, though – I absolutely love winter squash of all kinds, so this is an awesome score!

I expect I’ll have some green tomatoes to fry later in the season.  To my surprise, my paste and Prudens Purple tomatoes are still producing!  I really thought the Prudens Purple tomato was on its way out for sure, but there are a few little tomatoes on the plant, and none have blossom end rot so far.

I think the BER problem really was with me – I don’t believe I watered the tomatoes nearly enough this year, which would explain how nutrients couldn’t get to the fruit.  I’ve been watering more intensely this past few weeks, and all the tomatoes are doing much, much better.  I have close to a dozen little paste tomatoes hanging on, too!

The mystery plant – the one that looked like a cucumber plant – is not a cucumber at all.  I think it might be a melon or a winter squash – the fruit is small and hard, about the size of a large fig.  I have no idea where it came from, but I’m enjoying watching it grow and do its thing.

In general, the garden is looking quite rag-tag. The lemon cucumbers are at their end; the tomatillos did not fruit one whit; the tomato plants are looking scraggly.  It’s a little scary looking out there right now.

I’ll be in Portland OR for a few days and hope to enjoy some of the delicious food in the Pacific Northwest.  I’ll bring my camera and take pictures and share some of them here after I return.