It has gotten cold here. Not as cold as some places but colder than others. Cold enough to cause some urgency in the winter preparations. The apples have been moved off of the porch as it is just to close to freezing even with the dehydrator out there running 24/7. Inside the house, heat is turned on and spaces are rearranged for winter once again.
The nesting instinct comes over me in these early winter days. Wash the bedding, clean the corners, spin, knit, crochet. coddle the houseplants and tender herbs brought inside. Winter clothes and coats are shaken out once again and summers fleeting fashions are carefully put away for another year. It is the time of settling in and getting cozy.
Fall causes me to want to bring in the harvest in a most unbecoming squirrel-like manner. I honestly get disturbed when I drive by homes with unpicked apple trees or green tomatoes left to freeze on the vines. I want to gather it all in and transform it into something that will keep. This causes many long days in the kitchen canning apples or pears or pumpkins originally sold with jack-o-lantern intent. I slave away, trying to get as much out of the apples or pears or pumpkins as I can until all that is left are some peels and cores that have been boiled for juice that get fed to the cattle along with their silage.
But the first days of truly cold weather, of winter? They are different indeed. My focus turns away from food preservation to the inside, to the home.
Stay warm everyone.
Sarah Jane Humke 