Garden Guilt

I have discovered another wonderful thing about bees: a lessening of garden guilt. Every year I plant broccoli. We eat a lot of it- it is Thomas' favorite vegetable but try as I might, I cannot ever keep up with it and some stalks end up with those pretty little flowers. Now usually this is just one more thing to feel guilty about- I should have picked it more often and put it in the freezer. Now I don't need to feel guilty anymore because I am feeding my bees with broccoli flower pollen, Here it is Oct. 29- almost Halloween and I am providing fresh food for the girls.

Slip Sliding Away

There's nothing like a nippy October Day (the forecast was snow which luckily didn't occur) to make me appreciate what is still cheerfully blooming in the garden, I have barely paid attention to those nasturtiums this summer but I am not looking forward to the first frost and their demise.Shades of "Big Yellow Taxi" here. This is a dreary looking fall-the sugar and red maples have brown spots instead of vibrant color so the patches of color in the garden really make a difference.
The wool and sheep festival was cold!!! but the yarns were fabulous and we hunted down great bargains and gorgeous wools. I had a thought that it would be great to decorate a room with skeins of yarn hanging from the walls. A brilliant palette of color and I'm sure some added warmth to the room.

Preparing for Winter

I don't know where September went. It seems like it was Labor Day Weekend with glorious warm weather and then it was the end of the month. Poof. Now it's October and downright nippy out and I'm thinking about cutting more firewood and grape jam. I'm sure my ancestors would laugh at my efforts to prepare for winter. After all most of what I do has to do with dessert, not real meals but the freezer full of blueberries, strawberries and this year wineberries and a closet full of homemade jams makes me feel warm inside. Anyway half the fun of it is in the making of it. There is nothing so sensuous as making Concord Jam. You have to take the skins off and cook the pulp to get the seeds out. The pulp is a bilious green and would make a very unappetizing looking jam but then you put all the skins in the blender and puree them into the most gorgeous looking purple froth. When you add that to the pulp (minus the seeds) and cook it up for about ten minutes, it is a color I could liVe in. Picture deep purple velvet in liquid form. Of course there is also the aroma of jam cooking filling the kitchen. Now you have a perfect fall afternoon.