Fall Foods

Winter squash from the home garden

Apple/carrot Salad

   roasted carrots

   diced Mutsu apple

   chopped parsley and raisins

   vinaigrette

Winter Squash Medley

   roasted winter squash

   pan roasted brussel sprouts

   sauteed onions and red bell pepper

   brown basmati rice

   drizzle of olive oil and salt

Hi Winnie and Steve,

It is starting to feel like Little House on the Prairie over here.  All these foods are being harvested, and it is more than we can eat at one time so something has to be done -- canning, roasting, etc.  I have been roasting Early Girl tomatoes from Blue House Farm.  They are sometimes called "Candied Tomatoes".  The tomatoes are put on a roasting pan -- drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and roasted slowly for 10 hours at low temperature.  They are put in jars and canned by the hot water bath method.  That's just the tip of the iceberg -- there's apples and pears and winter squash and carrots.  New dishes spring out of this abundance -- totally by accident. Pie Ranch grew the most gorgeous Mutsu apples this fall.  I got all I could until they ran out! 

While I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the amount of food on my kitchen counter to be dealt with, I also feel drawn to the basic and elemental nature of how many generations have saved food for winter eating.  The hours spent at times may feel impractical when you can purchase jam or applesauce more cheaply.  Yet, I am interested in these skills and efforts at this time in my life.  The global crises seem more in perspective when I can act on these basics of life -- it brings a sense of oasis to the home front.  Bill Coperthwaite says, "We started leaving the home to go to work in order to support the home."  I think that is why I was fascinated by the Nearings who were able to meld work and home into a unified whole.  I also see it in some of the folks in my community.

Thinking of you as always.  Love, Donna

Earthy beans

Kale and chard in the home garden

The bean bins at Phipps Ranch in Pescadero

African-style beans

   sauteed onions, dried apricots, raisins, red bell peppers

   olive oil and African curry

   tomato paste and water

   cooked pinto beans

   ribboned chard and kale

   salt

Hi Winnie and Steve,

I'm realizing that this Fall season has a bit more activity than previous years.  I was all set to sink down into my books, and tea and morning fires.  I have to say I do these things in the very early hours of the day, but since taking the Winter Vegetable Class I notice I am putting more effort into my garden this October than previous Octobers.  This is both different and satisfying.  Since there have been no rains yet (uh-oh), the coming of the rains will create a different pace also.  In an effort to get better germination for the winter vegetables, I have been covering the seedlings with something called Remay -- a very light cloth that keeps the seedlings a tad warmer, protects them from the birds, and helps the soil stay a bit moister for those directly sown seeds.  It may be too early to say how all the vegetables will fare, but my spinach crop is really wonderful. 

I still have kale and chard going which I use virtually every day in meals.  Sometimes when I am throwing a meal together and the cupboard is a bit bare, I come up with a dish we end up really liking and repeating.  While beginning a bean dish the other day, I was sauteeing the usual onions and wondering what else I might throw in before the cooked beans.  I reached for the dried apricots and raisins and tossed them in with the onions.  A lovely spice called Curry African Style made it earthy and sumptuous.  

Your style of life has always been very basic and admirable.  We saw a good article about being more self-reliant in these volatile economic times.  These are things I imagine the two of you have done most of your life.

Thinking of you.  Donna

Tomato Time

A platter of tomatoes -- mostly "Early Girl"

Roasted tomatoes with a few carrots and an onion

Roasted Tomato Bisque

     pureed roasted tomatoes (a few carrots and an onion)

     olive oil, salt and pepper during roasting

     water

     drizzled with olive oil and chopped parsley

Hi Winnie and Steve,

Wow, talk about tomato time.  It may seem late for many people to hear talk of tomatoes, but here on the coast the bounty is so great right now.  We hit our stride late in the season!  Our farmer friends, Ned and Ryan, down at Blue House Farm have such great tomatoes.  They raise one of their varieties called "Early Girl" by what they term "dry farmed" methods.  This means they only used a small amount of water to get the plant started, and then they do not water them any more -- thus the term "dry farmed."  I tell you, these tomatoes concentrate their flavor with such sweetness and richness.  I'm making all kinds of meals with tomatoes right now.  One of my favorites is a Roasted Tomato Bisque.

Well, I mention that a birthday just ticked by to put the following lines in some context.  I marvel at the energy and engagement with life the two of you possessed into your eighties.  I definitely see changes in energy.  Although, this has been such a very wonderful year of learning.  Bill Coperthwaite, who knew Scott and Helen Nearing, wrote of Scott, "When people are doing work they enjoy, retirement as we know it now will disappear.  In its place will be the gradual lessening of work as energy wanes.  To mind comes the picture of Scott Nearing in his late nineties, working each day in his garden, writing at the kitchen table, splitting wood, or collecting seaweed for compost . . . contrast this with watching the TV set and waiting for the end."

Thinking of you so often.  Love, Donna

Beginnings and Endings

Zucchini beginning in the garden

Walla Walla onions pulled to cure

Lentil stew

     small red lentils

     chopped sauteed onions

     fresh corn cut from the cob

     chopped zucchini

     chard

     olive oil, tomato paste, water, salt and pepper

Hi Winnie and Steve,

What a time of uncertainty!  Between the economy and politics who knows what the next year or decade will look like.  I would love to hear you utter one of your Zen philosophies right about now.  I'm fairly sure you would have words that contained something of the basic and simple elements of life.  I find myself thinking of these things also -- I think about my increasing desire to grow food, and I am so grateful for where I live that I could easily stay home and not go far -- a slowed down response to a frantic world I guess.

The garden is reminding me of the cycles of life.  Fall is definitely in the air.  So, one garden bed contained the beginning of a cycle -- a zucchini blossom.  Although I imagine this is my last zucchini.  And I finally pulled the last of the Walla Walla sweet onions out of a garden bed so they could cure a bit.  Both parts of the cycle look so beautiful.

Since I don't have your Zen saying, I'll pass this one on (cherry-picking my favorite phrases) from William Channing:

     To live content with small means

     to seek elegance rather than luxury

     and refinement rather than fashion

     To be worthy, not respectable

     and wealthy, not rich

     to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly

     Await occasions, hurry never, in a word

     to let the spiritual unbidden, grow up through the common

Lots of love to you both, Donna