Dinner Companions and other fall activities

Today was the first day that it was too cold to eat outside. Or even to drink outside. Plus, it was drizzling pretty much all day.

I keep forgetting to share an image of our fairly constant drinks/dinner companion for the summer. This is Charles, our resident ground hog. He is pretty fearless, and we have agreed to eat with him as long as he stays out of the edible garden. The basil had some damage earlier in the season, and Charles was our prime suspect. Our sonic device seems to have put an end to that. And I love having him close when we're on the patio. He has grown considerably over the summer, and I truly hope we don't have to relocate him sometime next year. He is really beautiful, with his badger-like face, and his very round luxuriously furred back end. 

He loves to graze in our "lawn". He is particularly found of the plantain, which he eats whole after delicately extracting it from the grass and clover plants. He does startle if we move, but we don't do a lot of that while eating. Like most critters, he can have both positive and negative effects, but for now, I just enjoy his almost regal cuteness. We have also been bat spotting off our bedroom deck at dusk. Not tonight. . . rainy cold weather does not encourage that behavior. But I'm happy to see that at least 2 bats still fly out at dusk. I'm hoping that they are destroying our mosquito population.

Concomitant to the fall garden activity has been my preparation for the Waterville Creates holiday sale. I have been surprised by how much participating in this sale has inspired me to do work that is easy for me, as opposed to my usual experimentation/failure mode of operation.

I have had some disappointments, though. I ordered a brown clay that I thought I had worked with, but it wasn't The One. The result is a bit dull and a depressing brown, rather than the speckled brown I love so much. 

Still. There have been some rather satisfying successes as well. I made a good number of tiles/coasters, that are fun to make and can be priced reasonably. Olives tile is to the right (about 4"x4"), and the porcelain Trees tile below. I inserted a hanging device on the back of each, centered, so that they can be hung as small works of art if desired. I thought it was a cool device, but we'll see if anyone else agrees!

Sales isn't my favorite thing, but it's nice to pass it off to the arts center and let them deal with the selling. It's worth the 40% that they take for the organization, freeing me up to only Make, photograph and inventory before passing it on for the details of selling. 

 

 

 

Tide turning

Here we are in mid-September, and I feel like the onset of Fall has taken me by surprise. I don't know if this is a result of a failing brain, or just this particular season. Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day all took me by surprise. "So soon?" But yes. I assume that linear time is still running as always, so the suspect variable is me. 

Today I harvested the last orange to red tomatoes, and pulled the plants. The lightest orange ones will likely be a bit mealy, but they'll be fine for canning; great in soup this winter. Regrettably, I had to compost a substantial number of Sweet100 cherry tomatoes. They were red, ripe and tasty, but split upon picking. I harvested a few that didn't split, but resigned myself to letting the turkeys, chipmunks and squirrels have the rest of them via our compost pile. 

I didn't lead with this image of the tomato plants, because they look so sad. It was time to remove them, in spite of the fact that the first frost is likely at least a month off. 

Removing the plants is a hard job. It is both physically trying and tedious. The tedious part comes from removing all of the string that that held up my lovely wall of fruit and leaves. Some of the string can be re-used, so I wind it into a ball, making me think of the world's largest ball of string tourist feature that is somewhere in the mid-west. I never have stopped to see it in our forays across the country.

The string that has gotten weakened by years of use and/or weather is tossed. Thrown away. Not my usual M.O. Good twine will last for years, though it gets a number of knots in it from the process of reclaiming it. My friend, the square knot, keeps it functioning just fine through the years, though.

The Joan J raspberries are really starting to come in. I am embarrassed by the state of the raspberry planting, though. Some frightened turkeys ran through it early in the summer, and the canes are disheveled and sad looking. Still. The little patch soldiers on, and I'll have plenty of fruit for jam. Apples should be in soon, and then the saucing of both apples and pears will begin. As always, a part of me is trying to savor this beautiful Fall as much as possible, but part of me will be glad to close up the garden for the season.
 

 

Breathless

Almost overwhelmed. Not quite. Tomatoes and peaches are charging in. The peaches were a disappointment. I withheld my usual (very limited) pesticide sprays and I paid for it with serious Tarnished Plant Bug (Stink bug relative) and aphid damage. Peaches are delicate things. In addition, the crows found them just before they were ripe, so a lot ended up on the ground with large pieces taken out of them. Another life lesson that I shouldn't have had to relearn. Still. I apparently thinned in a timely and appropriate way, because size and quality is fine. The tomatoes. Oh my. I planted twice as many of both cherry and regular sized tomatoes, and they are having their way with me. The season is just beginning, we are eating tomatoes and peaches at every meal . What worse fate?!? 

Tomorrow will be my biggest tomato harvest yet. I will not waste a single one. Sauce is already started, and I can dry whatever tomatoes I can't sauce. What bounty. Am I complaining? Maybe a little. I wouldn't want to ruin my reputation as a Difficult Woman. 

The weather, by the way, has been stunning. 70's during the day, 50's at night. We sit out on the patio lingering over dinner, and tonight, Peach Upside Down Cake. I tell us both to Take A Picture in Your Mind. 

Oh! And John made a new dish with my tomato sauce. Eggs in Purgatory. It sounds cooler in Italian: Uova al Purgatorio. Buon Appetito!

Something given, something grown

John's sister brought over some beautiful Georgia peaches. I resisted the impulse to take more, though she generously offered; deciding that my own tree will be ripe in 3-4 weeks, and I'll have a lot of work to do getting them jammed and stored. I'm trying to be more realistic about both what I can do, and how much we can eat or give away!

Meanwhile, the cherry tomatoes have gotten serious. . . a roasted cherry tomato something is not far off. A few raspberries continue to trickle in, though they won't get serious until about the time the peaches start coming in. Aha. Hence the origin of Peach Melba?

Meanwhile, silly as it sounds, we're getting a little tired of fresh blueberries. I've been harvesting 1-2 quarts every other day for over a week. They are slowing down, but we'll be in fresh blueberries for at least another week.

This reminds me of the days when I had over an acre of raspberries to harvest for my research at Penn State. It's not like a regular harvest. One has to get EVERY ripe berry (impossible, really, but that is the goal), and keep all of the berries from specific treatments separate. Weigh, count, then do something with quarts and quarts of raspberries. Early on the folks hired for harvesting take quite a few, but I would always end up with a ton of raspberries in the refrigerator. At one point, my fruit-loving oldest daughter asked me to stop bringing raspberries home. (!) Back then I had the energy to make All of The Raspberry Things, freeze the rest, and then come back to making Raspberry things when the harvest season was well done. Not so much these days. I am, however, grateful for the yard, the fruit, the sustenance, and the means to store food. A small bit of security in a changing world.
 

 

And the harvest is on. . .

We were in Duluth for a few days, and came back to a surprise and some serious blueberries. The surprise was in the form of these golden raspberries (and 1 red). I just planted the golden, 'Anne', this spring, and we had a talk about avoiding early reproduction. Did they listen? Well, mostly. So it was truly a wonderful surprise to find these goldens  ready to harvest. 

Most of the raspberries (old and new) are just starting to flower, and we won't begin a serious harvest for at least 3 weeks. Still. A small taste of what's to come is welcome.

The blueberries, however, are in full harvest mode. I wandered out in my robe to put some in my breakfast bowl today, and we each had a bowlful with lunch. I'm putting the berries that are accidentally picked a little green (green is red in this case) in the freezer for jam to be made later.

I also harvested a bunch of kale, basil, and mint for salad greens at some lunch or dinner in the near future. The zucchini continues to have problems with an end rot issue. It's been wet, so that may be the problem, but they are seriously crowding the kale and the eggplant, so we may have to concede defeat on them this year. A friend of mine used to say that in any given year, one plant gets a chance to shine. Her raspberries were queen that year. My zucchini, this year, are definitely not going to be queen.

 

Catching up. . maybe. .

 

Here's something my Grand Daughter made on a recent visit to my studio. I was actually trying to keep her busy and engaged when I was setting up for us to Make Something, and I gave her a piece of porcelain clay, and a wooden bowl and told her to press the clay into it, but not to pierce it with her fingers. It was an inspired idea, that has made me think that I want to make some more Very Thin Porcelain bowls. Said Grand Daughter was very specific about what colors she wanted, and how she wanted them, in the finished bowl. She left it to me, since she only had a short visit. A yellow sun with pink petals around it. Say what you want, but she knows what she wants.

It's true that I would have never chose the pink, but it really did turn out well. I left the outside of the bowl unglazed porcelain, which I hope she will like. It feels wonderful on the hands, and we agreed to leave the rough edge around the top. Very fun. And full of potential.

The bunny mug, that she requested be glazed turquoise, was another success, but honestly seems a bit contrived after the free-ness of the Sun Flower bowl. It's a great functional piece, and she chose the rabbit stamp, the dot (end of a dowel) between rabbits and the border. Note also, the "cotton tail" on the base of the handle. All Grand Daughter all the time. Yay.

 

 

I haven't been completely idle in the studio either. I've spent more time trying to create the Perfect Mug. It's just getting silly at this point. But this one is pretty sweet. Glazing continues to be my nemesis, but I like the way this one turned out. And I seem to have, at least temporarily, settled on a handle that seems right to me. Pulled handles are so Everyone-Does-Them, but this cut, smoothed and stacked handle feels very right to me; both in the process of making it, and in the hand after all is said and done. It is graceful, I think, and Grace is Beauty.

 

The hand-built mug to the left is not so much my favorite. I used the dark clay from New Mexico (Marilyn's Bod), glazed with a forest green transparent, with the lip dipped in Emeraude. The Emeraude is usually an iridescent green that drips enticingly down the body of the work, but in this case it flowed sort of a turquoise-y blue, and I'm not crazy about it. Lesson learned, I hope.

 

But not so much. I glazed this rhubarb impressed dish with the same combination. The dish is much better in person than in the image here. It's a full 12" long, and I finally got the stem right, attaching and pulling it so that looks like it belongs to the leaf, but isn't fragile. Love the form, not-so-much the glaze. Lesson learned? I hope so. I really need to take better notes, and then read them.

 

In closing, my first two cherry tomatoes will be harvested tomorrow. This is the beginning of great things for our household. The blueberries are getting into full swing now, the apples, peaches, and 2 plums (fruit, not trees) on their way to ripening, and the raspberries are flowering. Basil is crazy lush (first pesto already made), other herbs in full throat, and the kale is, perhaps unfortunately, unstoppable. Summer in Maine. Hard not to love.