There is certainly a shift to the light lately, and of course, the astrological shift (we’re feeling that a lot) = the seasonal changes. The Ash trees have already let go of all their leaves (we have one in the drive and one by the sugar shack), and the Maples are changing, but the grapes and forsythia in the yard are still full and green. It is an off-year for us with the apples (just a few here and there), but our pears and peaches are plentiful. It’s good to have fruit that alternates years so we aren’t struggling to process everything simultaneously.
We like to learn at least one or two new things a year and put into practice. This year we were able to put up a couple of bottles of Itasca white grape wine. The ripe grapes were heavenly, just full and round — they are small but very delicious (the interwebs describe them as having ‘typical aromas and flavors including pear, quince, kiwi, starfruit, gooseberry, and honeydew melon,’ and we might agree with this tropical sort of sweet variety of flavors though maybe with the savory roundness of ground cherry. Though they do manage to have 3 grape nuts in every grape (nearly as much grape nut as grape) but the skins were not too bitter or tart. We’re hoping the wine will come out nicely. We squeezed the fresh grapes into a 3 Gallon Ohio Crock (it filled about halfway), added organic cane sugar for food and let them ferment for a couple of days. When they slowed down we bottled them and added brewer’s drops to each bottle and let them sit. We’re going to open one this week to test it and hopefully the others will age until Solstice. It seems like it will do best as a young wine so we hope it works out. As for growing them, they took a couple of years to take off (we had 3 years of drought, then 2 years of flood, so they took some time to acclimate, I think being in the ground starting as 2 foot canes for a couple of years, but then last year started to climb. This year they exploded so for next year we will have to train them along our fenceline (likely in some sort of Kniffen method). They are quite lovely and were not hit as hard as the Northern Concord with rust or even Japanese beetles.
We’re finishing off a batch of Carmelized Peach Butter with Honey & Vanilla this week from our peach which we think is a Lovell (we actually grew a different variety but it died and the Lovell rootstock took over). It grows lovely smaller and harder but no less delicious peaches (probably great for just canning straight-up peaches) than our Garnet Beauty. We got about 30lbs off each tree this year. We sliced and froze all the Garnets for crisps, oatmeal, pancakes, upside down cakes, etc all Winter. The plums took a hit in the Spring from a heavy wet snowstorm and though it is not dead, it needs some heavy pruning this year and then maybe it will bloom at the same time as the other plum (the other plum managed to have a couple of baby plums but ants took over — I’m not enjoying the plum trees as much as the peaches and pears, they seem too high maintenance). We’re still not sure when to pick our pears and might jump in this week as we have 2 (out of 6) that are heavy bearers though they don’t look like they were fully pollinated (they have lumpy little faces). We shall see.
And we had plenty of herbs, flowers, and Asian greens this Summer (we prefer Tatsoi and Purple Pac Choi — they are yummy even when they bolt and the deer don’t seem to know what to do with them so they leave them alone). We had volunteer Cherry Tomatoes (which I have never seen before!), early Snap Peas/Snow Peas, and Peppers. Most of the beans and the second round of peas were eaten by the deer (because we didn’t get new fencing put up this year, we were hoping for wattle but that got away from us).
We like to eat a lot of foraged greens too, especially in the Spring when they are young and the farm doesn’t have much yet, but we are grateful to have our CSA from Andrews Farm here in Gardiner. It keeps us very well fed, as does visiting the Farmer’s Market weekly. We’ve been roasting the heck out of gorgeous little striped Eggplants (from Dig Deep Farm), stirring Lacinato (Black Kale or Dinosaur Kale) into loose hot pans of beans or grains or soups, or eating up Micro Green Salads with Pumpkin Vine Valley Farm aged Feta (seriously, the best feta we’ve ever had), Snafu Acres Farm eggs, and homemade pizza (our Sourdough crust) with Wild Fruitings mushrooms. Now is the time for the Delicata to start making its way into our life (we love it simply roasted with fat garlic cloves, olive oil, and sage or rosemary and tossed onto salads, beans, or rice), and lots of Broccoli and Cauliflower (again, mostly roasted but also tucked into Cheddar Bread Pudding, made into soups, brushed with Miso and roasted or stir-fried atop rice — the kid loves broccoli), late season Peppers which we generally chop up and freeze (then they are easy to grab a handful and use during the Winter). Though we still have a couple of fat Zucchini left which we can stuff with Saffron Fregola and roast, or hold for one last Summerish fry (I kind of have a ridiculous weak spot for fried & battered seedy rounds of Zucchini — I’ve got the batter down to a mix of cornmeal, a little flour, baking powder, and salt/lemon pepper and just a light coating of egg in the middle of flouring, sauteed not deep-fried but I can still only have them once or twice a year — I can’t control myself).
We generally can’t wait for the deepening of Autumn, but the shift signals certain pleasures we are ready for (and then hopefully a little weather where we can get the woodstove going!). Happy Oktober.
Rock Bottom Homestead 