Rowe
Winter Solstice and Gifting
This is my favorite day of the year. It’s the end of the seasons for me and the beginning of new. Today is the shortest day and the end of darkness with each day becoming a few minutes longer until June. It may not seem like minutes of daylight are increasing but I know that we are back on that swing and just knowing that makes the shorter days more tolerable.
Christmas is this week and I have 4 days to finish up all projects for the holiday. I think I made everyone’s gift this year except one. Most gifts will be delivered today maintaining the lifelong tradition of homemade goodies for neighbors and friends. The holiday wouldn’t be special for me if baking was taken out of the equation. The recipes are dusted off – these cookies are only made for the holidays. The smells and tastes bringing childhood back to me as they are molded and baked (and eaten with the numerous cups of coffee needed to pull this off). The last things made yesterday were the dog biscuits for Chester’s friends.
The gift giving for family has been dialed back. I’ve had to purchase some raw material but for the most part none of it remotely resembled the finished product. I’ve given each individual a lot of thought and put the spirit of that into each piece made. I’m hoping they feel the love because that’s was the gift is really all about, a token.
I’m fortunate to have the ability to do this. I sometimes think that everyone is capable of making their gifts. I honestly think they should try, the gift is so much more meaningful for the gifted and the giver. I also realize that telling my loved ones to make me something instead of buying it can put on a lot of pressure. For those that aren’t confident in their ability to create this can be a serious burden. I also think I say that to push them into the mindset of crafting and art. Doing so is a gift in itself – you will never know the satisfaction of creating something with your hands until you try.
I’m putting everyone on notice now for next year. Create your gifts, start thinking about them now. Do a little search on the internet, you can find a tutorial for everything. Learn a new skill, even if it’s just a new recipe. Cook a good meal, share with those you love. For me it’s never the finished product but what went into the creation of it. What did you learn? How peaceful did you become while doing it (that may take time). Put your love into the finished product and the recipient will see it – honest.
Today’s Culinary Experiment
There are things I have never done. Sometimes it takes being cooped up in the house for a couple of days to give me a little push. There actually were a number of factors that contributed to the butter experiment today.
A couple of days ago, with the impending bad weather, I decided to find Side Hill Farm in Hawley. It’s the closest dairy to me and they sell raw milk. I was thinking cheese but went to stock up for the inclement weather. This farm has a wonderful little store that is run on the honor system (something you don’t see much anymore). There are freezers full of pastured pork and beef as well as the cooler full of dairy. I got a half-gallon of milk and a half-gallon of cream (hey, it was cheap and I figured I’d just mix my own half and half).
This morning I mixed my half and half – the cream was as thick as sour cream, it was a feat getting it out of the bottle. I then had a quart and a half left along with a slip of paper with instructions to make butter that I picked up at the farm next to the cash box. I pulled out the food processor and the experiment began.
There’s something about the properties of milk. Every time I make cheese, yogurt, pretty much anything I feel like a scientist. Things all have to stay within certain parameters but it with any of these things the milk is transformed. Butter is no different and it’s amazing to watch. It churned for a good 3 to 4 minutes looking like cream whirling around in the bowl. Suddenly it turned into butter and whey. It was crazy to watch. I made it in two batches, washing one while the other churned. Once the whey was kneaded out I added salt and packed it into a container. It made a little over a pound.
Before putting this into the refrigerator I confess to slathering a good bit onto a piece of toast. Mmmmm, definitely worth the trouble. The bonus is how soft my hands were after playing with butter for a half an hour.
Ice, Ice Baby
So this is the view from upstairs this morning. It looks a little worse now. The weather predictions were right so far and I have done a little planning ahead. I’ve been watching the squirrels slide on the ice below the feeders and Sophie walked herself this morning (with difficulty) because I wasn’t going to venture past the shed door. I loaded up the chickens last night, bought some groceries in the afternoon ready to hunker down and stay put.
I absolutely LOVE these days, especially this close to Christmas. This year all of the gifts I give (well, most) will be handmade. My list is not long but as with everything else I wait until I’m under a lot of pressure before I do anything.
I’m still playing with chainmaille, it’s so calming to make and so beautiful when finished. I can do it while having my morning coffee or pick it up when I have a few minutes. It’s one of those things that is mindless, repetitive. Another form of meditation.
Then there is this stack of wool. I’ve been mulling this over for a couple of weeks now. I finally have the patterns I need and all of the material gathered in one place. I see sewing in my future.
Snow/ice days are such a blessing of time for me. They are extreme crafting sorts of days. It may be a throwback to childhood when you had the day off from school and had nothing but the day ahead of you to do whatever you wanted. There were games, books, the great outdoors. It seemed as if those days were gifts allowing big blocks of time for pastimes you only had minutes to usually do.
The other aspect is having blocks of time before the holidays. It’s a time when I do the most baking. Snow outdoors? Bake some cookies. Smells of cinnamon while warming the kitchen to a cozy temperature, something that’s more of a treat than the norm.
So I will be the ultimate multi-tasker today doing things that need to be done (laundry) interspersed with things I love to do. It makes me think the weather should last the rest of the week. Just think of what I could accomplish!
Thanksgiving Reflection
I woke up this morning to the silence of a house without power. It wasn’t unexpected. Around 5:00 I decided to get up and stoke the wood stove, try to get things together for coffee without a coffee maker. As I walked down the stairs the lights came on, the furnace fired up and within minutes coffee was hot in my cup. Ahh, little gifts.
The anticipation of this holiday always keeps me awake the night before. It’s a throwback from childhood when family gathered at the house for food, fun and the Macy’s parade. Most of these relatives I only saw once or twice a year. I loved being surrounded by people who loved me, what child doesn’t?
While lying awake I considered all that I was thankful for, an exercise that I do fairly often. It keeps things in perspective. Albert Einstein once said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” I try to look at everything as being a miracle.
The thing that continues to come into my head as both a miracle and something I am profoundly thankful for is my ongoing reunion with Scott. It’s been difficult to wrap my head around having a son that is back in my life. Left as an infant, returned as an adult. Bone of my bone flesh of my flesh. Someone who has been with me through most of my life’s journey in spirit yet I was the only one that knew it.
My daughters bringing him into the fold – slowly, cautiously at first then with open arms. They speak of him with love and amazement at the similarities only relatives have. My husband helping me work through the demons that have followed me from one lifetime to another. My friends that continually point out what an amazing story this all is. A miracle in many, many ways.
Look around you today, take notice of those miracles – those little gifts. The beauty of the snow, the birds that grace our feeders, the fox tracks through the yard. Look at the smiles on the faces of those you love. Treasure those messages from those unable to join you for the holiday. Remember those that have gone before you that made the traditions you celebrate now.
Everything is a miracle.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Birds and Snow
You can always tell when the weather will be bad by the number of birds on the feeders. The chickadees demanded I put them up about a week ago while I was doing a walk about. I relented figuring it was cold enough so the bears might have entered into hibernation.
Yesterday the activity stepped up and we all knew it was because a storm was coming. They are much better forecasters than any human being (that and the joints were screaming). This morning the snow started in earnest at about 9:00 and it went from nothing to blizzard almost instantly.
The birds continue to come, all varieties now, loading up. Their feast for the holiday.
We have people travelling from all over. Some are beginning to arrive, some I’m hoping will wait until tomorrow with the snow coming down the way it is now. They predict up to 12 inches and at the rate it’s falling now I wouldn’t be surprised.
Here’s hoping everyone stays safe this coming long weekend and enjoys time spent with friends and family. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Bread and Jelly
I finally broke open a jar of Elderberry Jelly yesterday. When I had made it I thought I was going to be stuck with jars of Elderberry syrup. I put the jars into the cupboard with hopes that given a little time it would set up. Turns out it’s perfect and delicious.
With cooler weather here and the wood stove going it’s also time to start making bread once again. I had high hopes of making it all of the time but found that I was throwing away a lot of it during the summer because it would mold before it was half gone. Another reason to love the cooler weather.
I also hear that eating Elderberry jelly or syrup daily helps ward off colds and flu. I’m feeling some sniffles coming on.
Fleeting Fall
I hear on the news just now that people should take their fill of the leaves this weekend (a long one here), they are at their peak. With all of the rain and wind the past few days the leaves here are on their way out. There are still enough to photograph but not in the wide panoramas that other years have offered.
This has to be one of my favorite spots in autumn. I love the color of the pears as well as the leaves. That chair is the perfect spot to overlook a large swath of the property, especially the parts newly cleared. The bonus is it faces west so you can sit there in the late afternoon and have the sun warm you, breathing in the smell of fall. Little gifts.
Reunion
We spent the greater part of yesterday at a high school reunion. This one was a little different, the first 10 classes of Mohawk Trail Regional High School gathered at the Charlemont Fairgrounds for a festival of sorts. It felt like a small fair with the food vendors and class tents. Bands played from the past all day long, whisking us back to youth with the power only music has on one’s memory. There were activities, group photos, reminiscing along with a table of yearbooks and photographs that did and didn’t make the cut back in the day (how those survived 35+ years is beyond me).
This is the kind of thing that reminds you how close our communities are. As I have said in the past, each town that sent kids to this regional school was a small town. My class from Rowe consisted of four people (including me). In school you make your lifetime friends I believe but for those of us that grew up in such small communities our town friends become our family. Having the reunion encompass so many years, with my class right in the middle allowed us to not only visit with our classmates but reconnect with people we wouldn’t have otherwise.
In this age of social media we are fortunate to be able to stay connected with some of our favorite people with a touch of a few buttons. It is an amazing world. When I arrived at the reunion it was good to see so many of the people I talk to so often, it felt comfortable. Then there were a few of those OMG moments. Those occurred when I recognized someone I never thought I would see at an event like this.
Good moments, moments of recognition, hugs, warmth, familiarity. These were moments spent with the people I have known since I was 5 years old. Moments talking about age, family, life. It was a time, however brief, when I felt like I was surrounded by the best parts of my family. These are the people who know you so very well. The interesting thing is that many of them I have not seen in a decade. It’s the situation you find yourself in where you just pick up where you left off.
I read somewhere a long time ago that people who know each other from their youth always see each other as they were when they were young. A trick of the mind. So all of that graying hair, weight gain or loss, baldness falls away as the conversation begins – you are really seeing their soul in some respect, their essence. You see them as you know them and always have.
For me, that’s the amazing thing about these reunions. While part of it always serves to remind me how quickly time passes I am quickly reminded that even with the passage of time we all are essentially still teenagers in our minds.
Preserving
Even though the garden is nowhere near what it should be right now I have spent the majority of the day putting up what has been taken out of it. I had a large basket of tomatoes ripen on the counter that I wanted taken care of before the fruit flies were out of control. I picked more to ripen this morning but have a feeling piccalilli is in my future (not that I mind, I haven’t made it in a few years).
I canned what few green beans I have harvested this year. The yellows should be coming in mid-week. They’re a month behind – mind you I had to plant them 3 times this year due to cold weather. You can’t always go by the calendar when it comes to gardening.
I also dug some potatoes and it would appear that this will be one of my best years ever for those.
With the spoils of the garden waiting on the counter I decided to make a five mile meal. Shepherd’s Pie made with fresh dug potatoes, newly pulled onions, fresh corn, newly cured garlic and beef grown in Heath by our good friend Russell. Now I know Shepherd’s Pie is sometimes considered a lowly meal but is a favorite of some of my family members and making it with ingredients this fresh takes it to heights never achieved with corn coming out of a can. It’s five miles to the corn stand, hence the name.
I also made backyard sauce and canned that as well. Everything grown here – even the herbs. Heaven.
There’s something about the feeling you get knowing you have grown everything you are eating. There’s a sense of pride and a feeling of security that grows a little each year. I can also send food home with family and friends and know they’ll eat and enjoy not only something good, healthy and local but also made with love.
Fort Pelham Farm 