2nd week of September 2009
This season of harvest makes it feel like my life is consumed by food. It seems we are always either picking, preparing, preserving or eating something. This week we picked grapes to make grape cooler (a lacto fermented grape drink), filled the dehydrator several times with pears, made more tomato sauce, baked a Hubbard squash for freezing and more. After these tasks are done, there seems to always be a mountain of dishes to tackle before bed. We also have two September birthdays in our family which made for some fun food moments too. Our birthday "feasts" where the birthday child gets to choose his menu are greatly anticipated throughout the year. And of course, we always take advantage of any excuse to make homemade ice-cream! So birthday #1 was celebrated with a chicken dinner cooked over the campfire in a Dutch oven followed by chocolate zucchini cake and ice-cream. Birthday boy #2 requested rosemary chicken and mashed potatoes and wanted pear crisp with his homemade ice-cream. Oh what delicious evenings those were.
Since escaping for a week long excursion to the beach is not realistic for a farm family, we used "vacation money" to purchase our Dutch oven. The goal is to turn our backyard campfire ring into a quick retreat from our busy lives. So far it is working and we've had fun experimenting with different meals. Here is a stew that is ready to head to the fire. Olin enjoys relaxing while he tends the fire, the kids often play whiffle ball while they wait and I am thankful that everyone is amused by such simple pleasures in life. After supper we can get back to work pulling weeds.
A few veggies coming ripe now are ones that I remember my grandma growing and are very traditional to the Kidron area. Ground cherries are in the tomato family and I have never actually planted any seeds, they have just always come up volunteer in the garden. We pick up the small paper lantern encased fruits after they fall to the ground.
They have a sweet fruity taste and our children think they are a great "candy" that comes in it's own wrapper. One of my mother-in-laws specialties was ground cherry pie and we always remember her when we make one. Our Another traditional plant is the Queen Anne pocket melon or granatali (the Swiss pronunciation). This is a little orange fruit with a deliciously fragrant smell that grows on a cucumber like vine. My grandmother told the story that as girls they would wrap these "smelling apples" into hankies to take to church. They would pull them out of their pockets now and then to sniff the delightful fragrance. Although they are edible, supposedly they aren't great eating. They will keep for 2 or 3 weeks for smelling before developing white mold.
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