Quote of the Day: Crescendo of Plentitude
To those who have a garden, and care about the table, each season offers it’s own causes for celebration, its own little festivals; but in autumn they become concentrated, each day it presenting it’s own ripeness. By late autumn, the whole year has reached a crescendo of plentitude.
Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd in Living Seasonally: The Kitchen Garden and the Table at North Hill
I’m certainly enjoying the flavors of autumn. Our table has been bountiful with roasted root vegetables, tender venison, slow roasted tomatoes, hearty cabbage, spicy pumpkin, sweet apple cider and so much more. Learning to eat seasonally has truly been a joy!
What flavors are you enjoying this season?
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More @ChiotsRun @EthelGloves
I started this blog many years ago to help me keep track of my garden, kind of like a garden notebook or journal of sorts. Now three years later it’s something completely different. I still chronicle what’s going on in the garden on these pages, but there’s a lot of my life thrown in as well. It’s now more of a journal of my journey towards a more simple life and it’s more for you, my readers, than for myself. Almost all of my spare time is spent documenting my life for these pages. I certainly appreciate all of you stopping by every day and commenting, it keeps me posting. Although I sometimes wonder if Mr Chiots, along with my family and friends, get sick of seeing me like this:
I’ve kept my blog ad free, because I don’t want to sell you out and I personally hate annoying ads on websites, that being said, the expenses for a blog do add up. Thanks to those of you who click through my Amazon and Mt Rose Herbs links, I make a few dollars each month to help cover some of those expenses.
You probably know that I was hired earlier this spring to blog a few times a month for Ethel Gloves and I mentioned last week that Ethel had hired me for a new job. I’m now the Social Media Strategist for Ethel Gloves. That means that you’ll find me tweeting, facebooking, pinning, and blogging for Ethel Gloves. I’ll be blogging two-four days a week over at Your Day, make sure you add it to your RSS reader or like Ethel on Facebook and follow along there.
So faithful followers of Chiot’s Run, to celebrate this new job I’m giving away a pair of Ethel Gloves. All you have to do to enter is to comment on this post to win. For an extra chance to win: tweet this post using the icon below with the hashtag #ChiotsRun or share this post from my facebook page.
We have a winner, congrats to Rick from Our Stoney Acre (Rick if you didn’t get my e-mail make sure you contact me through the link in the sidebar)!
How long have you been following along here at Chiot’s Run?
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The Algonquin Mill Festival in Carrollton, OH
Mr Chiots and I have a fall tradition; to kick off the fall season, we always attend the Algonquin Mill Festival with some friends. It’s an old timey festival featuring lots of steam engines, the main one being a big grain mill which grinds flour that you can buy at the festival. They also use this flour in the pancakes that a local club makes and sells. We always kick off our time with a big plate of hotcakes, which we smother in homemade maple syrup that we take in a jar.
After a hearty breakfast we spend taking in all the sights: the old saw mill cutting logs, antique farm and garden equipment, local artisans are doing everything from chair caning to wool rug hooking. I set up a slide show so you could see all the sights. To view in full screen click on the icon in the top left hand corner, click the same icon to exit full screen mode.
[flashgallery folder=”Algonquin_Mill_Festival”]
Do you have any great fall festivals in your area? or any thing you do to kick off the season?
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Quote of the Day: Indian Summer
Generally, the first frosts will be followed by fine, bright, warm days, the glorious suspension of what is certain to come, that perfection of weather is called “Indian Summer”.
Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd in Living Seasonally: The Kitchen Garden and the Table at North Hill
Technically, we haven’t had our first frost here at Chiot’s Run, but we’ve had temperatures in the 30’s already. The tropical plants in the garden are showing their discomfort, brown crispy edges on their leaves, some have died back completely.
For the past few days and most of the coming week, we’re having temperatures in the 80’s during the day. It still gets down into the 50’s at night, so as not to fully fool you into thinking it’ll stick around. I do love Indian Summer, it’s kind of like the last piece of cake, always make sure you savor it because when it’s gone you know there’s no more. This is something Lucy, the resident chiots, is very good at this.
For the last couple days and the days to come, you’ll find me out in the garden, planting cover crops, weeding, mulching, raking, emptying pots and all those things you do to put the garden to bed. There are always so many chores in the fall, but I’m glad they always come during that perfect weather.
It won’t be all work and no play, I try take some time to simply sit and enjoy the weather. My favorite way to enjoy a little down time in the this time of year is to simply sit on the front porch watching the breeze blow through the colorful leaves.
Do you have an Indian Summer in your climate? What’s your favorite way to take advantage of a nice day?
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Hoping for Some Down Time
The other evening, Mr Chiots and I were out walking the resident Chiots at dusk, talking about the year so far, our feeling about it and looking forward to the winter. Usually I’m bemoaning the fact that I won’t be able to garden, but this year I’m ready for a break. We’ve had a really busy year, both in our business and in the garden. I’m looking forward to being able to spend some more time reading all the books on my winter reading list. I want to snuggle up in my favorite reading chair with a cup of homemade hot chocolate and a few great books. (BTW Tender is a fantastic cookbook/gardening book hybrid, Toast is good too, but not for the uber conservative)
I’m also looking forward to planning my 2012 garden (which may be even bigger than ever if everything falls into place, more on that later when we hear final work). This winter I plan on spending a lot of time researching cover crops and coming up with a three year garden plan with crop rotation and cover crops worked in to maximize my growing space and increase soil fertility.
Are you ready for winter or your next season? What are you looking forward to most about the change?
