Reflections On Autumn

The kids have been back in school for three weeks now, dance lessons have started and hockey evaluations start early Sunday morning. Sleeping in is a thing of the past. The first killing frost occurred last Friday, the geese have been flying over the house in flocks for weeks now, and the sandhill cranes are gathering in the farm fields. Dump trucks have been spotted on the highway mounded high with potatoes and the hills around the Valley are quickly becoming more red and orange than green. The Vernal Equinox occurred Tuesday evening and we have begun the three month descent in to darkness. 

Fall has officially arrived but we are still going strong. 

I've often felt sorry for those down South who don't get to experience the seasons the way we do. We all know what the seasons look like, but you have to be here to know what they smell, sound and feel like. The colours are spectacular, the earthy, sweet smell of decaying growth fills the air and the honking of the Flying V's can be heard repeatedly from day break to sun set. It's perfect. Each season has it's pros and cons, but I feel Autumn is perfect. There is absolutely nothing better than a cool, crisp sunny day...the kind of day where I need a sweater and the tip of my nose is cold, but my dark brown hair feels warm to the touch from the sun beating on it. The Farmer's Market tables are weighed down by all the heavy squashes, bags of potatoes, baskets of apples and bottles of cider. I want to make soups, and stews with the bounty from Dalew's and bake bread with the flours from The Flour Mill and Loonsong Farm. Rather than dreading the heat from the canner full of boiling water, I think of it as a good way to warm the kitchen, better than turning the furnace on. The freezer is full and the cupboard is loaded with jars filled with all colours of goodness. It would make absolutely no sense to stop eating locally now that the time frame we gave ourselves has come and gone. We are allowing ourselves to bring in some things we went without this summer, like rice and pre-made pasta, guilt free, and I'm sure more will trickle in as we use up our reserves. And that's fine. Above anything else, what I've learned in this project is that 90% of the stuff in the grocery store is convenience food, meant to be used in a pinch, not as staples. If we all took that approach, what a better world it would be.

Isn't this photograph absolutely stunning? It was published in our newspaper last night, taken by a local woman, Dianne Monette. 

It struck a chord with me.

In our family, Autumn also transforms us in to creatures most like our early ancestors.  We take on the role of Hunters not just Gatherers. We have already spent an afternoon making sausages of the geese and ducks Keith bagged on his first hunting trip of the year. Over the next month or so, we hope to be adding moose and grouse to our freezer....the ultimate in free-range, organic, pastured meat available. I will be joining the crew in the moose hunt this year, for the first time since Sydney was born. I'm not sure how I will feel about the whole experience as I have never been present for the kill of such a large animal, but I am fairly certain that if we are successful, it will bring deeper meaning to our project of examining where our food comes from. It has been suggested in several books and movies that I have taken in lately, that everyone should, at some point, participate in the death of an animal they are going to consume. It sounds brutal, but I can understand how seeing your steak as a majestic animal rather than just, well, a steak, will affect how you treat it and savour it. I foresee this being quite an emotional experience, you just have to look at that photograph to see why, but I understand the circle of life, and I trust in my hunting party's ethics of a clean kill, safety and honouring the animal, so I'm actually looking quite forward to being there. 

And even if we aren't successful, I will have had the opportunity to sit in a forest for three days, simply enjoying nature in all of Autumn's splendour. I just hope it doesn't snow! 

Shannon A.

FALL, now what?

    I should be at ELS watching Fresh tonight, but the stomach flu has gripped my family and it was meet the creature night at my school, so worn out by 7, I came home to rest up for tomorrow.  The Autumn Equinox was yesterday, our project has officially met its deadline. I am forlorn. I don't feel finished. Just today we pulled the last of the potatoes from our garden. With all of its obstacles, my garden gave plenty, a banner year for carrots, and I am so grateful.
   
   I am always surprised at how plentiful my garden is, despite infrequent watering and random weeding- somehow every fall, the garden leaves me with more than I expect. I hate to get all sloppy, but when I bring in food from the garden, or serve it at my table I feel compelled to say grace. 


   When I am planting I say the same fertility prayer I used when I was trying to conceive my kids. My children always feel like a miracle to me, because I know, in the way infertile mothers know, that they could have just as easily not been and my life would have been so different. After I tuck those two beauties in, I pray "thank you, God, for this beautiful child."  


  When I look out at my garden, frost bitten and half turned soil, I have a similar feeling. I have witnessed the miracle of seed to food in my own backyard, shared it with my family and dear friends. I have tended and fussed over it, I have ignored the negative behaviours and praised the positive. I've read blogs, books and brochures, trying to understand the soil, improve my technique. I've learned to cut myself some slack and just let my garden grow along the way. I am thankful for this beautiful food, this blog, and the friendships it has brought into my life.


   So what now?  I am inspired to do better next summer, and to keep track of how local I can keep things in the dark months ahead. I haven't canned any veggies, although I've frozen quite a bit. I want to track my needs so I'll plant more effectively next year and harvest better too. I need to hire a sitter for a week just to get enough strawberries. So for me at least, the blog carries on- with the same objective; to buy local whenever possible and be mindful of the food I'm putting on the plate. I'll be sharing the adventure along the way.


Shannon D.

Granola Bars in the lunchbox

    Fall officially begins this week, which means the end of this project is near. A few friends have already asked "are you still doing that?" and the answer is YES, oh YES! It stopped feeling like a project weeks ago, however with the return of work, school and all the kids programs it began to feel challenging again. There have been more slip ups this week, more than I'd care to mention- many due to my weekend away last weekend which threw off the groceries and routines at a critical time. Either way, I made it to the Eat Local Shop this week, stocked up on many essentials and am feeling renewed.


  J.'s lunch is not as dismal as I thought it would be, milk, jam sandwich (blueberry),  carrots and cucumber coins, homemade oatmeal cookies (local flour, local sugar, local oats), cheese and crackers, and other leftovers. I bought pepperettes this week at ELS but he won't try them, I'll put them in the lunch box and see what happens. I tried to explain what a pepperette is and J looked confused, then I said; "it's like a Hot Rod, like some kids have in their lunch" then he knew what I meant. But he still won't try it.


  This morning I made granola bars, I searched dozens of recipes online and then went my own way. I have a can of condensed milk leftover from last years christmas baking so I went with that over the corn syrup recipes;


EASY GRANOLA BARS


First, grease a 9x13 pan or use parchment- your choice, preheat oven to 350


Mix the following ingredients or be creative:


3 cups oats
1/2 cup bran buds
1 can condensed milk (I'll bet Shannon Allen knows how to do this with local milk)
2 tbsp butter
chocolate chips (dark)
dried cranberries


Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. After 5 minutes cut in to squares and cool completely before enjoying


Alternative additions that I saw but didn't try because they are not school friendly or not in the cupboard :
 coconut, almonds, wheat germ, peanuts, protein powder, flax seeds, marshmallows, raisins, sunflower seeds- really you name it.


I've misplaced my cameras- both of them- September chaos- I'll add photo's when it surfaces.


Shannon D.

Camera found- this inspires me to make them again!

I Have the Balls!

It's been forever since I last posted, and we are still doing really well as far as eating local, but I hit the "why am I doing this to myself? point this week. There is so much going on here lately...Birthday parties, hunting trips, shopping trips, back to school, registrations, cake making, etc., that trying to fit in things like canning and freezing the bounty and then trying to keep up with all the every day stuff like laundry, cooking, and just playing with the kids, have all become too much to juggle. The house is absolutely disgusting, there is stuff piled up every where, I'm in a constant battle with the fruit flies to get to the fruit first, and the laundry keeps growing. The weather changed over night from sweltering to really cold, which also means a change of sheets and clothing for everyone, further compounding the work load. The closets and laundry baskets are filled to capacity waiting for me to sort through the summer stuff and replace with the new winter stuff. I got a text from Keith telling me to be ready to make duck and goose sausages tomorrow. I'm playing chicken with Jack Frost...who's going to get to the tomatoes in the backyard first?


This is why frozen lasagnas, chicken nuggets and fries, and KD were invented. Not to mention Vlassic Pickles and Del Monte canned peaches! 


But I can't do it. And I don't mean I'm not allowed. I simply can't bring myself to buy so many things anymore. The transformation has occurred. 


I keep reminding myself that all the hard work and chaos right now will be appreciated and worth while come winter. I will feel so fantastic in January when I open up that jar of peaches, or pour the raspberry vinaigrette on my salad in February. Those pickles are going to be so crunchy, the salsa so yummy. The frozen green beans so handy. Our bodies and the environment are better for my dedication.


But right now, no visitors are allowed in my house!


I came across this really great article on Punk Domestics that I think I need to print out and post on the front door of my house....sort of a warning explaining why my house looks the way it does. "This is the way we do things around here. I have big balls and chose to focus on clean food instead of clean house." The world will not be a better place, my children will not be more healthy, nor do I want to be remembered when I'm gone, for having a neat and tidy house. 


I want my obituary to read:


"She cared deeply about her family and the world around her. She loved to cook, bake, can, garden and most of all, to eat really good food. Her house was a disaster, but it was full of love." 


Shannon A.

Back in the Saddle

       School's in, and despite all of my anxiety I managed to maintain a local core of foods. On Sunday, we had one of my sister's in law over for dinner. I asked her to bring a salad, and I served; local corn with local butter, local green beans, local chicken roasted, a not local mushroom risotto, and a halfway local Chocolate Zucchini Cake. I used local flour, backyard zucchini, local milk, and half of my sugar was pure granulated maple sugar from Sucrerie Seguin Sugarbush available at Eat Local Sudbury for, in my opinion, a fair price. The wine was from France, but make me a good Bordeaux and I'll gladly switch.
    
     We also had our dear friend Chuck who is brilliant and funny over earlier that day and I was able to crank out a delicious breakfast of eggs, dalew bacon, golden grain bread and homemade strawberry jam. The coffee tasted delicious sweetened with the maple sugar. I took so much pleasure in preparing and serving these dishes, all of which cooperated with me beautifully.  I was happy for the cool weather and a chance to hang around the kitchen table with people dear to my heart and see the empty plates in front of them.


 Making my son's lunch was also better than expected- cheese and crackers, carrots and cucumbers, strawberry jam sandwich, juice, and a slice of chocolate zucchini cake. We'll see what he comes home with in his lunch box


    Being back in the workplace brings its own challenges. People who I have not socialized with all summer but who were aware of my project consistently ask "Is that local?" when I have food in my hands. The answer isn't always yes. I usually reply "Not everything I eat is local, that was never the point. The point is to access as much local food as I could and..." they are no longer listening, and I feel as if I am cheating or something. I've been on enough diets, excuse me lifestyles, to know that food is a sensitive subject. The question "Should you be eating that?" is never welcome. Local food is no different, no different at all.


  The point is, I believe that industrial food and processed foods are having a negative impact on our environment and health. I believe that we live in relationship with our food. I want to know about my food and therefore, I eat local whenever I can. I am not a 100% locavore, but every new discovery brings me closer, every new challenge helps me to understand the food I am eating better and helps me to make an informed choice.  


Shannon D.

happiness is in the harvest

note the accurate date stamp!

     Earlier today my daughter and I went outside to get some air and check on my garden, which had been ignored all week because I had been overwhelmed with back to work angst. My tomato babies had exploded, so many were red and ready. The cold today had me worried about my green tomatoes. I am terrible for forgetting to cover the tomatoes, so I decided to bring them in where I could keep a close eye on them and protect them from the frost.

   You'll notice I did manage one zucchini, tiny carrots, lovely purple onions, four summer squash, two green peppers (a first) and a squat little cuke. A good day. Gardens are so forgiving, despite a few weeks of neglect the harvest is still abundant.

  I feel much better about the days ahead. At Eat Local Sudbury, I discovered Pure Maple Granulated Sugar- seriously, local sugar!! It was pricey for sure, but my coffee this morning was perfection. I am looking forward to trying it out in something for the kids lunches. 

  At ELS I found myself feeling lost again. All summer I have been enjoying smokies, salami, sausages, keilbasa, ground meats but I haven't made a roast in months. I had to ask where to find tenderloin and other roast meats. April at Eat Local is so patient with me, always helpful and willing to answer my ridiculous questions- thanks April. Next week, when I have more time to dig, I'll be cooking a Sunday roast in the slow cooker. 

  I am glad this project is extending into September- we live so differently, eat so differently, that local shopping has new challenges. Tonight it's grill cheese with Niagara peaches for dessert, my kitchen has been working all day to keep up with cleaning veggies and I cannot bear to mess it up further.

Feeling more positive today, Shannon D.

Priorities have shifted and we are getting a little weak.

I am up to my eyeballs in vegetables and in the middle of a pickling/canning marathon this week so I haven't had the chance to post about our meals. It's been so incredibly hot this week (killer when you are standing over pots of boiling liquids, and a hot water canner!) so I haven't wanted to cook, but like Shannon D. mentioned in her last post, because the fridge is full of local stuff, we are still  mostly on track with our project. But I definitely haven't been doing my best. :-( Last night was good. I found a couple cobs of corn that needed eating from last week's CSA box, and I figured "Hey, it's a billion degrees in here already, what's one more pot of  boiling water?", so we had corn and Burt Farms Cheddar Smokies (cooked on the BBQ) on a bun for dinner.


 Monday night was a fail because I decided that despite all the work that needed doing, we needed to go to the beach even more. I had book club that night, a sitter coming, and frankly PB & J sandwiches for the kids (out of local PB and only had store bought bread), and a 2 minutes in the microwave Biryani rice pouch I've had sitting in the basement since the spring, was all I have the time, desire and strength to make. Hanging my head in shame!  At book club however, our host Melanie, a board member of ELS, put out a beautiful spread of Thornloe cheese, Dalew Veggies and Hawberry Jelly from Manitoulin Island along with a few other treats. 


Sunday we ordered in pizza. 


I'm not sure what tonight has in order. It's icky hot again today, we have 2 different kinds of pickles to make and it's CSA pickup day, so we will have veggies to put away tonight. I think maybe we will just suck on ice cubes.


Shannon A.