September 21, 2022
The headline yesterday on the weather
network’s online site read that this week, we are into the coolest stretch of
weather we’ve experienced since May. As long as these oncoming cool days are
not too wet, I will be content. Cool weather plus sun and even soft breezes
encourages me to open my windows and perhaps even the doors to bring that nice
fresh air inside. Sadly, adding rain to the mix only exacerbates my arthritis.
So I hope for the best, and if it’s the worst, I will find a good, challenging
acrostic puzzle to help me take my mind of the discomfort.
Our gardens continue to
provide some beans and tomatoes, and that’s good. Autumn officially begins tomorrow,
according to the calendar. The sky above has already morphed to that just slightly
paler blue of fall, as compared to the deep, rich blue of summer. It’s the
changing of the seasons, a part of the cycle of life. There’s comfort to be
found in traditions and in a certain degree of predictability.
We humans on average prefer to
have our routines, and guardrails—or so I have always believed.
I went to a local farm market
this past week and bought eight very good-sized acorn squash, intending to freeze
them for the coming winter.
I baked them, four at a time.
Some people will cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, and then add butter and
(gasp) brown sugar to bake these beauties. My method is a bit more basic than
that. I use a sharp knife and cut a “square” in the squash; I remove that square
and set it aside. I do stuff butter into it—not a lot, but perhaps a teaspoon
full.
Then I set that plug back in
gently (allowing steam to escape), set the squash on a tray and then bake for
about an hour for smaller ones, and longer for larger ones. Generally speaking,
when one can pierce the skin of the squash with a fork, the squash is done.
My eight squash are now 17 meals
of squash, each in a medium freezer bag in the freezer. We also have 5 meals of
mixed green and yellow beans as well as 22 meals of corn, also in bags, frozen
for the oncoming season of nature’s dormancy.
It’s my intention to get some green
veggies down, as well. If I can pick up a six-quart basket of green beans and
perhaps again as much broccoli, I will feel that I’ve done well to provide us
with veggies for the next half year, if not longer.
As usual practice, if we are
in the grocery store and meat on sale – beef, pork, chicken or even lamb, we
will purchase one or two and freeze them. We’ve also begun to pick up a few
extras when we shop. Rice and pasta have a long shelf life if kept dry. Canned
goods can have a long shelf life, too. I have some that are stamped with a use
by date of 2026. In reality, can goods do last longer than the stamps proclaim.
But one needs to be careful opening a can that is beyond the stated “expiry”
date.
With the news lately warning
about global food shortages due to droughts, fires, and floods, I believe we
all have a responsibility to do what we can to stock up, preserve, just
generally make ready for such a potentially difficult time ahead.
As I said, a changing of the
seasons. The cycle of life. The need to nest, to procure sustenance, these
deeply instinctive behaviors have ruled humans since we emerged from the caves
and dared to live out in the open on the land, and in societies. It’s only been
in the last couple of centuries—hardly any time at all, really—that we’ve dared
to separate ourselves from what is instinctive and innate and thought instead
to replace that with the modern so-called convenience of commerce to get what
we need, when we need it. Trusting that as the sun rises and sets, and the
world orbits the sun, that commerce, too, will always be there, functioning at
peak capacity.
We’ve had a warning, these
past two years, that we should heed. Supply chains get entangled; human industry
can fail. There wasn’t enough baby formula to go around, and if that doesn’t
shock to the bones, I don’t know what will.
So we have been warned. It
would be wise to take some time to evaluate one’s own level of preparedness.
In my own humble opinion, at
any rate.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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