The Autumn Leaves

 The fall colors are stunning this year.  I think I appreciate them even more after last year's dull season.  Mother Nature sent an early October cold snap that killed all the leaves and turned them a dead brown.  No color was left in any of them.  But, this year She is making up for it.  Everywhere I look there are gorgeous reds, oranges, yellows and greens. And they are hanging on the trees late into the season.  That may be good or bad for us.  We have several trees and many, many, many leaves.  I have been tempted to go out and start raking; however, Paul is of the 

 philosophy that one should wait until they've all come down and do that raking job just one time.  He's probably right.  When we do start raking, it's an all day job.  We rake the piles of leaves onto a tarp and drag them over to the compost and garden.  We cram as many as we can into the compost bins and the rest make winter blankets on the raised beds.  And, often, there are still leaves left over.  They get scattered out into the prairie and we let the wind take care of them.  

But as I look out at all the beautiful colors now, I don't really think about all the work they will become.  I just thank Mother Nature for the amazing show.  

Fall Food

Even though I seem to go kicking and screaming from summer, I really do like fall.  Especially fall food....like these luscious looking chanterelles.  I remember the first time I ate chanterelles, sautéed in a bit of butter.  They were like eating something golden and I was hooked.   Every fall I begin to look for chanterelles at the Co-op.  I was so pleased this week when they were there in the produce section beckoning me.  They ended up being roasted with shallots and fresh thyme and added to a lovely risotto for dinner last night.  

Another fall food I always look forward to is pomegranates.  This one fell into my cart at Safeway, of all places.  Isn't it gorgeous?  Some people don't like to deal with seeding a pomegranate but I rather enjoy it.  I just push up my sleeves and hold it down in the sink to catch any errant splatters.  I like how it feels to tickle those gelatinous little seeds from the pulp.  We ate some on a fresh spinach salad along with the risotto.  Delicious!  With a freshly baked apple pie for dessert, it was a perfect fall food meal. 

The "F" Word

No, it's not what you think. Well, it could be but it's not.  Around here, at this time of year, the "f" word is "freeze."  Our first freeze of the year was just a few days ago.  As you can see, some of the garden looks a bit worse for it.   The average first freeze in this part of the country is September 23!  Luckily for us it was later than usual and we got a couple more weeks of growing season to make up for the short summer this year.  But the first freeze means the end of the real growing season.  The only tomatoes that will ripen now are the orange ones we picked and brought inside.  No more fresh basil or squash or cucumbers.  The root vegetables and parsley and other herbs carry on like the hearty troopers they are but everything else is winding down.  It's always a bit sad, I think.  At least I'm not saying the other "f" word!

The Bird is the Word

This is what we had for dinner.  It may look like any old roasted chicken but it's not.  This chicken is from Mary and Duncan MacDonald at Turnbow Flat Farms just outside of Palouse.  Mary and Duncan started Turnbow Flat Farms because they are "dedicated to providing superior quality food using practices that heal the land, respect animal welfare, and strengthen the local community."  Lucky for us that they are.  We got our first chicken from them in July.  It was amazingly delicious.  When we picked up this one yesterday, they said it would taste even better. It was also amazing.  This chicken tastes more chickeny than most chicken, if that makes any sense.  I have pretty high expectations for the turkey we ordered from them for Thanksgiving!  It is encouraging that there are more and more people like the MacDonalds in the world, people who care about the land and animals and what we eat.  We are more than happy to support them and eat their great chicken!  Next year we're ordering six!  Yum!  By the way, all those lovely potatoes, parsnips, and carrots are from our very own garden.  A truly "local" meal.

They Might Be Giants

This is the tallest sunflower we have ever had. It is nearly nine and a half feet tall! We didn't even plant sunflowers this year but, thanks to a pair of chipmunks, sunflowers came up in odd and sundry places all over the property. This one is growing right next to one of the compost beds, which may account for its size. In fact, it is so big it shades some of the tomatoes. Since they are still struggling to ripen, Paul is threatening to take down the sunflower so the tomatoes have a better chance. I keep holding him off but it may not work much longer. So, I thought I'd share it with you before it's gone. Isn't it amazing?

Oh My, Berry Pie

I know, I know...I've been posting a lot about food lately. But it is harvest time around here and that's the most exciting thing I have to talk about for now. Here is the latest....the blackberries. Blackberries and I go way back. Blackberries grow all over the place in the Willamette Valley, were I grew up. In fact, they are sometimes called the kudzu of the Northwest. When I was a kid, I would pick them off the vines, wherever I happened to find them, and pop them in my mouth. They were so sweet and luscious. And blackberry pie has always been my favorite of all fruit pies. When I went out to pick our blackberries this week I expected the usual 3-4 pints. Was I in for a surprise. I ended up with over 2 gallons of berries! I put enough in the freezer for 4 pies, gave some to a neighbor and baked a fresh blackberry pie for us. But that first berry eaten off the vine was so sweet and delicious, I was immediately transported back to the Willamette Valley and my childhood. I love how tastes and smells can do that. I felt like a little girl again picking those blackberries.


And this blackberry pie tastes amazing (if I do say so myself). I think I'm having some for breakfast tomorrow!

Spud Surprise

This year we decided to try growing potatoes. We dug up a space on the edge of the "transition area" between the vegetable garden and the prairie. We planted half of it with black beans and half with potatoes with the idea we would trade places each year for some crop rotation. We planted two 12 foot rows with three kinds of potatoes; Yukon Golds, Red Thumb fingerlings, and Red Pontiacs. We wanted to see if we could dry land farm them, meaning grow them without irrigation. We'd been told that they would keep better if grown that way. So we dug our trenches, faithfully hilled them every couple weeks, and kept our fingers crossed. All went well until about a month ago when Paul started to see vole holes around the potato patch. (Remember those nasty voles? see earlier post) My heart sunk. I didn't even want to go out there and look. But, today was the day to harvest the spuds so I had to go see if there were even any potatoes left. When I saw the holes in the potato patch itself, I wasn't too hopeful. I started with the fingerlings. There were many, many half-eaten small red potatoes coming up in my shovel. I was getting more depressed. However, I began to find more and more uneaten ones so I kept digging. The Yukon Golds were nearly untouched. The Red Pontiacs were in pretty good shape, too, although there were more of them with little tooth marks and parts gone. When all was said and done, we ended up with about 40 pounds of whole, lovely potatoes! They are now stored in the dark, cool basement waiting to be eaten...this time by us!