A Brief note and an image

John turned 65 this past week, and we hiked close to Harpswell and had a picnic on Sunday. Maine skies.

Autumn progresses, with the Ashes and the Maples showing their colors. Kale is still abundant, raspberries hanging in, and carrots patiently waiting for the threat of the first freeze. Everything else is also suspended in the beautiful weather. Winter is coming.
 

Autumn progresses. . .

Fall in the woods

The weather has been perfect, but Autumn is definitely here, and planning for winter looms large in our household.

The image to the left was taken by John. I was going to start by talking about the apples, but he always gets these fantastic shots, and they deserve airing!

He really does take some wonderful images. The one below is actually the lake through the trees, but it's hard to tell where the reflection and reality begin and end.

These are, of course, THE LARGE .
 

Fall reflections

Some of his smaller images are equally engaging. Here are a couple take on a foggy hike with Jasper.

Dewey silk

Yellow with embellishments

Meanwhile, back in the garden, the apples have just been harvested. All of them. I borrowed a Foley food mill from a neighbor (one of the items I may regret selling in the great estate sale), and canned 17 pints of McIntosh apple sauce and a pie. I'm pretty sure it's the best pie I've ever made. And such food security!

Next came our bigger apples, which the nursery who planted them thought were Macoun. Very large apples, and the tree is defoliating sooner than I would like. Still, the flavor was unbelievable. I'm drying most of those. Another item that I had sold was my apple corer/peeler. It's a very ingenious little crank device. When we sold all of our stuff, I thought I was done with canning and large acreages and all of that stuff. Clearly I was wrong. A couple of missteps are ok, though. Now I know that growing food and saving it are part of my DNA. . .what a friend used to call my "core self". Good to know.

Food for friends

Half-harvested

The first batch of sauce

While the focus is certainly on apples, for the sheer amount of work they require, I also continue to have an abundance of kale. And carrots are still in the ground, growing growing, hoping that we'll rescue them before they freeze. No worries. 

Giving away fresh food is always a great option, too, so hiking friends took away bags of kale and apples this week.

Food for friends

I've often wondered if I'm not so intent on my no-waste policy, and preserving food because I starved in a previous life. It doesn't take a lot of reflection to realize that if we do live many lives, that most of us probably starved in some past life, since food has always been a security issue. I can't imagine having to plan and pray to whatever God, and worry about whether there would be food in the next season. The next day, the next week, the next month. Summer must have been a terrific relief for earlier peoples. I do wonder, though, if we won't face food shortages everywhere with the coming climate-related disasters that folks are facing all over the world. We have them periodically here, too, but we have so much abundance and redundant systems, that it will be a while before we face that. I think. 

Last minute effort. Thank you!

One last image. Remember the eggplant bushes that are so large and beautiful? Well. Look who we spotted the other day. She may we provide us with a bit of food after all. Next year, the plants will be started inside.