Just a Little More.....

Here is another fall arrangement in my house that I wasn't able to add to yesterday's post, because I had forgotten to put the photo in the computer.

Beautiful hand-thrown pottery pitcher from Flat Creek Pottery with silk dogwood leaves, a copper tray from the auction (I left it unpolished for now) and a bird and leaf dish from Home Goods.   I love to decorate for fall, and do more at this time of year than I do for Christmas.  

Gleaning

End of harvest clean-up, or whatever you want to call it.  I went over the pots on the deck and the mini-garden, to see if there is anything left that can be of some use.  I came in with some salad tomatoes, rose hips for tea **, flower heads for saving seed (marigold, mini snapdragon, and my favorite blue salvia), and I put the red pelargonium in a pot to see if I can overwinter it inside.

**For tea, Rose Hips  may be used fresh or dried:

• For fresh brewing - steep a tablespoon or two of clean hips in a cup of boiling water for about 10 minutes. Sweeten with honey and enjoy.
• When using dried hips, use only two teaspoons to one cup of boiling water and steep for 10 to 15 minutes.

The monster tomato plants at the corner of the deck were showing no ill effects from either the drought or the chilly nights we've had lately.  They are 7-8 feet tall and just as wide.  They didn't seem to produce much, though.  All foliage and little fruit.  I cut them back by about half and threw the cuttings on the compost heap.  I don't know why I didn't just cut them down.  Lo and behold I found several pounds of green tomatoes,  medium and large.  I have ripened a few inside already, and will do the same with these.  I like fried green tomatoes, but juicy red ones beat that for me.

I have seed beans saved from the pole beans and I put some herbs I have dried in jars and labeled them - Dill (weed and seed), oregano, peppermint, lemon verbena and basil.  I still have some marjoram to do.   There are still chard, lettuce and turnips growing, and I'm hoping the seed on the basil will develop and begin to dry before frost.

 I'm doing a little gleaning inside, too.  I pulled out a couple of boxes and started looking around the house with an eye toward what to get rid of - some to Goodwill, and some I want to take to the auction to sell, and see if I can recoup a few of the dollars I have spent there.  It is usually a buyers market at the auction I go to, so if they sell, I don't expect to make much.  It's better than messing around with selling on-line though and it feels good to have some of the clutter going out of the house for a change. 

This week - be still my heart - I bought a partial set of old (Enoch Woods Woodsware) cranberry red transferware dishes, for a price that I have seen one or two pieces go for in on-line auctions.  22 pieces in all.   I was so convinced I didn't have a chance at them, I was shocked when I had the winning bid.   They are in pretty good shape for being old (1900-1940).  No crazing in the glaze,  and only 3 pieces had chips.  My favorites are a small platter and vegetable bowl.  The pattern is "English Scenery" and each type of piece has a different scene.  The serving pieces had a man and boy herding sheep (no wonder I like them best) and the man has stopped to talk to a woman in a cottage.  The boy has his arms up and hands on his head, and even on such a tiny decorative element, the body language screams "I'm bored.  Let's go..." 

I would like to find a few more pieces of brown transferware, then I'll quit.  Like the silver spoons  I collected, my view is there can be too much of a good thing, where decor is concerned.  I like the charm of old transferware, and have several pieces of blue, and now the red/pink.  I only have 1 piece of brown , and those are the only colors I like.  When I get enough, it's easy for me to stop.  (She says.....am I in denial?)

Now, with books, or animals for that matter, it's a bit harder.....

The Lovely Month of.......October?

I'm probably going to take some flack for this one, but I hate Halloween.  I always have, even as a child.   Sure there are the treats, and I think dressing up is a fun as a the next person does, but.......


I have borrowed this quote, because the writer expressed so well the way I feel about this too.  It is from a now-defunct blog called "Appalachian Dream."  Since it is no longer in existence, I don't think I'm too out of line for borrowing it:

"I'm one of those who is glad when Halloween passes.  October is one of my favorite autumnal months, and I...well...I truly detest turning around in stores all month, and seeing big spiders and melting rubber faces, and hearing ghastly recorded moans.  Being creative, I guess I hate destruction.  Loving life, I hate death culture."

October is one of my favorite months as well, (the other being May) and I really resent it being interupted, and sometimes ruined by constant ads for horror movies, creepy decor everywhere, and the month-long emphasis on a hideous, pagan celebration that disturbs me.  I don't see autumn as 'death,' but dormancy - with a promise of life to come again. 


In Jan Karon's books, Father Tim would frequently ask his wife Cynthia for a list of things she loved or hated. She was always ready with an answer, and very definite about her likes and dislikes.  In October, I love: 

• Breezes that are cool, then nippy, then frosty by turns. 
• The slowing down from the frantic pace of summer, to the cozy, stay-at-home with hand-work of winter. 
• Settling back into the couch with a throw, a cup of something hot, a cat on my lap, and a good book.
• The riotous color of foliage, the quieter yellows of the underbrush, the deepening color of streams and ponds, and the changing light as the angle of the sun drops lower.  
• The change in the kitchen, from light, quick meals, to substantial comfort food.  Soup - especially chili - and good crusty bread.     

What are YOUR favorite things about October?  If you say "Halloween," that's OK too.  To each his own . 

What I did on vacation

As a person of (ahem) 'modest means,' I don't take vacations. This one started out to be semi-business for me, and when that fell through, the friend who agreed to go with me and I decided to go anyway. Destination....Amish country in northern Ohio. I am from Ohio originally, but farther south than where we were headed. We both wanted to get away and think about something besides work for a while.

After stowing our stuff in a motel in the nearest town of any size, we took off. First stop - Lehmans in Kidron OH.

Lehmans is famous among homesteaders, folks off-the-grid, and those with an admiration for old-fashioned ways and things. I've purchased several items out of their catalog over the years and have always wanted to go there. I must admit, it was a little different than I expected. Since they have been in business for many years, catering to a largely Amish clientelle, I thought it would be kind of an old, dusty, giant hardware store. It is anything but. It is huge, but newish, and geared to the 'visitor.' It was FULL of tourists at 10 a.m. on a weekday morning. It may not have been exactly as expected, but we still managed to spend a couple of hours there, and still didn't see everything! I bought a burner and lamp chimney to convert a canning jar into an oil lamp, some wicks for the oil lamps I already have, and some wooden spoons.

By then we were starving, so we headed up the road to Mt. Hope, to 'Mrs. Yoder's Country Kitchen.' (of COURSE it would be Mrs. YODER) The weather was dark, gray, rainy and COLD the whole time we were there, but the fall color was gorgeous. We so enjoyed the drive through rolling hills with tidy, neat, beautiful farms. Not many cars, but lots of Amish folks in their buggies - some also going to Mrs. Yoders for lunch, as it turned out. When we got to the restaurant, it was packed. We had to wait 20 minutes or more for a table, with at least 50 other people. It was worth it though. The food was plain and simple (of course) but wonderful. I asked our server and found out no, the business is not Amish-owned, but they employ large numbers of Amish people - about half the staff. All the food is LOCAL - the chickens (some of the best chicken I've ever had!) and the fruits and vegetables come from a local co-op of farmers, in season - like now. Mt. Hope seemed to be just an intersection with a few houses and businesses. This feed store was right across the street, and seemed to speak to me of the real spirit of the area, we tourists notwithstanding.

Following suggestions from a fellow blogger who lives in the area, we went on from there to Berlin, only slightly larger than Mt. Hope, but with quite a few shops - and traffic jams! The traffic was backed up a long way in either direction of the (only?) street light. We had already figured out the pattern - wide open spaces with beautiful scenery, and then - boom! Literally HUNDREDS of people all trying to park and cram into whatever site or shop we were also there to see.

On the way to Berlin we stopped at Heini's Cheese and candy store (Heini's - I'm not kidding) and discovered .....bulk spices! We didn't get all that excited about the cheese or the candy, but when we discovered the spices.....! Large quantities of about anything you could think of, with prices lower than I could imagine. A cup-sized container of cinnamon - $1. A fist full of bay leaves - $1.20. Wow!

We stopped at the Country Primitive Store in Berlin, and also several other stores. Intimidating crowds (it WAS 'peak color' weekend) and a looming time crunch (everything in the area closes at 5!) sent us on down the road. We went to the last stop on our journey of recommendations - Walnut Creek Foods. Why drive 5 or 6 hours to go to a grocery store? Wonderful stuff and incredible prices! I bought half a cart full for $22 - including more spices: Cilantro, cinnamon sticks, cream of tartar (for home-made baking powder) sure-jell (for canning a recipe I found for apple pie filling), etc, Amish noodles in several sizes, locally grown potatoes...it was great.

Exhausted but satisfied with a wonderful day, we drove back to the hotel and crashed. The next say we headed back to a different world. It was a great time. With only a 3 days, including drive time, we only stopped at a few places, but saw a lot more we will put on the list for next time.

Harvest Time

I'm all about "urban farming." Since I can't live in the country, I do what I can in to live "rurally" in town. I live in a townhouse. I have a deck, and a small patch of yard in the back. Ten years ago when I moved here, I created a big flower garden, and I have always had lots of pots of flowers on the deck. Years later, the flower bed has been reduced to a more manageble size, most of the English roses and other perrenials I planted have died, and I have started filling in the bare spots and the deck pots with can't-fail herbs.

Last Spring, with the economic climate what it was (and largely still is) I tried to plant more edible things in the deck pots and garden. Overall, my deck and garden are more of a 'potager' now.

A 14"pot of green beans on the deck produced enough single servings over the growing season for at least 6 meals and a growth spurt last week allowed me to freeze a quart! The foliage is dying now so I took the last beans off today - make that 7 servings.

Another big pot gave me 2 eggplants (I had lots of blossoms but they did not set fruit-despite the bees and my attemps to hand-pollinate).

Although it is still warm here, we could have our first frost any time, so today I pulled up the basil plants - an armload - that I will make pesto from. I also harvested sage, rosemary and thyme, (no parsley, sorry) and oregano to dry. I already have LOTS of basil I dried throughout the summer. I still have carrots that I will pull after first frost (I'm told they are sweeter that way?) and I noticed some rose hips I will harvest later for tea. I cut and dried peppermint earlier for tea also.

I have Swiss Chard I planted in the spring that is taking off now that Autumn is upon us. I will plant some garlic later today, if it doesn't rain.

If I got serious about making every square inch and surface productive, I could do a lot more, but I also have the dreaded "townhome association" to deal with. Arrrrrgggh! I would love to have a few laying hens in a coop under the deck (it is supposedly legal in my town) but association rules trump city ordinances here, so I'm assuming it is out of the question.

There is something really primal about planting and harvesting, "putting things up" for the coming winter. I don't think I've done too badly, and it really feels good.