Olympic Bouquets

Nancy Bond at Soliloquoy has a wonderful post about the Olympic bouquets that are given to each Olympic winner, gold, silver and bronze medal winners all.

It has been difficult to get a good look at the bouquets. They do not seem to be given or received with much ceremony, which is a shame because they are lovely.

Nancy tells the full story about constraints and requirements for designing these bouquets which is fascinating. It’s made me think about all the different ways flowers are used to celebrate or memorialize important occasions. You can expect to hear more about this as the year goes on.  Thank you Nancy for  a great post.

Winning Hamentaschen

Hamentaschen

I won a box of hamentaschen from Kosher.com.  I made a comment on one of my favorite blogs, Our Grandmother’s Kitchens, and this is my reward.

Hamentaschen are a treat served at the feast of Purim when the beautiful Queen Esther saved her Jewish people from the machinations of the wicken Hamen. I am ready to celebrate all holidays that are commemorated with sweet treats like this.

My Valentine

Some of my raw materials

As we prepared to leave the bookmaking workshop at The Art Garden, Jane Wegscheider, our teacher and muse, said those of us planning to attend the Valentine workshop should start collecting the memorabilia or photographs that we would need.

Hmmmm. This suggested that we would not be making traditional Valentines with lace and ribbon, or even clever and artistic Valentines like those Sandra Denis was selling down at the Arts Coop in Shelburne Falls. I was particularly taken with one that showed a candle with a shiny gold flame and a gorgeous moth singing ‘I’m attracted to you.’

But Henry and I have been married too long for mere attraction. How would I express that?  MAPS!  Henry loves maps and we have traveled many long roads together. I even have a photo that my  cousin took of our backs as we walked down a dirt road in Leyden with Kathy, my youngest in 1972. I always called that photo The Road to Pork Corners, the mythical rural place where we would finally settle down.

About ten years ago Henry went back to school at Umass and got a degree in Geography with a specialty in cartography, the making of maps. His skills helped Heath get their first official tax maps while he served as an assessor. Maps would be my theme.

More raw materials to be photocopied

I made copies of maps and photos of roads we had traveled from The Road to Pork Corners, across continents, and to The End of the Road.  Our life in eight pages.

The Road to Pork Corners 1972

When I began I expected to make a simple card, albeit with several pages, but it became something more, something unexpected, with layers, complexities and embellishments I never imagined.  Something like our life.

Layers upon layers, with embellishment

Wonderful Winterfares

Northampton Winterfare

In the February/March issue of Organic Gardening magazine, Gordon Hayward who gardens in Vermont, talks about our ‘food shed.’ I know about watersheds, that protect the quality of our water, and was amused when I heard people talk about their ‘view sheds’ the landscape view they enjoyed from their house, but I had never heard the term ‘food shed.”

However, aware as I am of the 100 mile diet, I should have realized the term put me on familiar ground. Hayward quotes Cornell University’s definition of food shed as “a geographic area that supplies a population with food.”

With all the recent talk about national security, especially airport security, there is not so much talk about ‘food security.’ Fortunately, because of our food shed, we in this region are enjoying substantial food security; we could feed ourselves very well indeed, even if there were some catastrophic event that kept the refrigerator trucks from California making it all the way to western Massachusetts.

This blessing of this security was brought home to me last year when I attended the Second Annual Winterfare  Farmer’s Market at Greenfield High School. It is one thing to have a garden and even know that the farmstands are full of wonderful fresh produce in the summer and fall, but I was amazed at how much fresh produce is available locally during deep mid-winter. Granted, many of the farmers were selling frozen meat, potatoes, squash and all manner or root crops like beets and carrots which can be harvested in fall and stored properly for use during the winter, but some farmers had beautiful lettuces and other greens that are such a luxury during the winter.

I could hardly carry away my share of the bounty which included not only vegetables like tender greens from Red Fire Farm, but Clarkdale apples and cider, Hillman Farm cheese, El Jardin bread,  Warm Colors Apiary raspberry honey, and Real Pickles. Our food shed is varied and delicious.

Seeing so many people giving of their time and energy to put on this terrific event made me determined to do my share this year. Whether you attend the Northampton Winterfare today from 10 AM to 2 PM at Smith Vocational School or the Greenfield Winterfare on Saturday, February 6 at Greenfield High School I will be on hand to demonstrate the growing of sprouts.

Sprouts are the most local of food crops. Mine grow on the counter next to the kitchen sink.  To increase my experience with sprouting  I sprouted wheat for the first time. When I visited Cliff Hatch, and his daughter Sorrel, at Upinngil during the summer I bought a couple of bags of wheat berries. They have been waiting patiently for me to learn to make wheatberry salad, and this workshop prompted me to try sprouting them. I even bought  a hemp and flax Sproutbag at Green Fields Market to expand my horizons further.

The information sheet that came with the Sproutbag said that it was better than a Mason jar for sprouting wheat and other grains as well as beans. And here I thought I was just doing my best for the consumer economy.

I will bring my sprouted wheat bread to Winterfare, along with salad sprouts in Mason jars in two different stages for those who may not be familiar with the process and not realize how easy it is.

The magical thing about sprouts is that in the process of sprouting the nutritional value of the seed shoots up, increasing the amount and number of vitamins A, B complex, C and E. The amount of protein and fiber also increase. What is not mysterious is that none of this nutritional value is lost because it develops on the kitchen counter and is eaten in that same kitchen. There is no nutritional loss as when vegetables are shipped from far away, and of course, no gas or oil are used for transportation.

My presentation is only one of several presentations being offered today. There will be information about canning, how to store root and other crops for winter use, how to make your own nut milk and how to make cheese.

Those who have a surfeit of jam or any kind of good produce can bring them along to the barter session.

CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture) is a sponsor of Winterfare. Logon to their website, www.buylocalfood.org or www.winterfare.org  for full details. I hope to see you there – or in Greenfield.

*************************

I heard from Daniel Botkin after my article about Laughing Dog Farm last week. I said that his goat bedding and manure could be used fresh on the garden and didn’t need to be composted like my chicken manure. Goat manure is not hot like chicken manure but he wanted to make this clarification:: “The goat manure, although it is more readily usable for organic gardening (because 1.) it is pelletized 2) it is pre-mixed with hay and 3) it breaks down much faster than most, more dense, anaerobic “slop” manures), it is still not safe around ripening food crops and never goes near any edible or soon to be edible plant parts when fresh. I do apply it fresh around trees, shrubs and as sheet mulch on fallow, non-edible landscapes.”

Thank you, Daniel.

Between the Rows   January9, 2009

Know Your Farmers

It was 10 degrees, but sunny, when I left Heath for the Valley yesterday, joining the crowds who attended Northampton’s First Annual Winterfare Farmer’s Market to get to know their farmers. CISA was one of the sponsors.

Tom Clark of Clarkdale Fruit Farm

Clarkdale in Deerfield had a table right near the entrance, so Winterfarers were greeted by the smiling faces of Tom, and his son Ben.  I think Ben makes the fifth generation of growing premium fruit on their magnificent farm. I always buy a bag of the Clarkdale apple pie mix. My friend and expert pie baker says the secret of a really good apple pie is a mixture of apples, and Clarkdale has put it all together for me.

Apex Orchards was on the other side of the room where the sun dazzled shoppers. I bought a bag of Thomas Jefferson’s favorite Spitzenberg apple. Apex also sells apple cider vinegar from their own apples, and honey from their own hives.

Warm Colors Apiary of Deerfield was offering test testing of the different flavors. I chose a darker fuller bodied wildflower honey. I’m going to be talking to Don Conlon in a few weeks to find out the latest challenges for bee keepers and how that will affect all of us honey lovers.

Paul and Amy of Sidehill Farm

Paul and Amy of Sidehill Farm brought lots of yogurt in various flavors for all of us yogurt lovers, and fortunately they had a little left by the time I made it to their table.  In season, they also sell gorgeous vegetables.

At the Barberic Farm booth you could buy frozen lamb, fleece, yarn, pickles – and book Eric Goodchild for a bagpiping gig. I settled for pickles this time.

Red Fire Farm greens

There was a long line at the Red Fire Farm operation. People were eager for the opportunity to buy fresh local greens (of many types) in January!

Ryan Voiland, the genius behind Red Fire Farm, was busy, along with staff members, keeping the bins stocked and the customers happy.  Ryan is in the process of moving the farm from Granby to Montague where he grew up. Closer to us!

Root Cellaring workshop

In addition to buying opportunities, there were learning opportunities with a range of workshops like this one about how to store garden crops through the winter – with demonstrations of what can go wrong.

Corn grinder

Some Winterfarers found more active learning opportunities like this boy who spent some time grinding corn into cornmeal.

Northampton’s First Winterfare was fun, delicious and a great success – a success that will be repeated at the Third Annual Winterfare in Greenfield on Saturday, Feb. 6 from 10 -2 pm at Greenfield High School. Hope to see you there.

Christmas Trees – of a sort

When we woke early on Christmas morning we immediately lit our Christmas tree, but we also admired the majestic yellow birch out in our field. This is the most notable tree in our landscape; it still shows the damage wrought by last year’s historic December ice storm.

It would be pressing a point to say that I did any gardening over the holiday weekend, but I did devote some time, energy and nerves to prepare another type of Christmas tree . . .

I began with a genoise jelly roll. It turned out beautifully, if I do say so.

Then I dusted  the jelly roll with confectioners sugar and rolled it up with waxed paper – while it was still warm. I got that tip from Martha Stewart last week.  While it cooled I made some chocolate butter cream and prepared three meringue mushrooms. The mushrooms were made in two pieces. The cap and stems were attached with the help of a little butter cream.  Making the butter cream look like tree bark is fun.

The finishing touch with spun sugar cobwebs. Caramelizing sugar so that it can be ’spun’ isn’t hard, but you have to keep a close watch on that very hot sugar.

The Christmas log is all done!  Christmas with three trees – one in the field, one laden with lights and ornaments, and one on the table. We are still celebrating.

Merry Christmas

“A star rose in the sky, and glory from on high
Did fill the night with splendor.
Came birds with joyful voice to carol and rejoice
With songs so sweet and tender.”
             The Carol of the Birds

Merry Christmas to all! We wish safe travelling to all those moving from here to there to celebrate with family and friends. May joy and laughter fill all your celebrations.

Solstice

All hail the Winter Solstice, December 21, the shortest day of the year. The sun will only appear in the sky for 9 hours and 4 minutes. Winter has arrived.  Snow covers the fields, and frigid winds blow.

Nowadays people grumble about the shortness of the days and complain about seasonal depression. Yet we are able to turn on the lights and heat, put on some music, and go to a well-stocked pantry to get ready for supper.

The weather man routinely makes predictions about sun or storm with reference to how inconvenient it will make our commute to work or other necessary activities of the day. How modern we are that ordinary bad weather has become an inconvenience, an irritation to be endured.

In ancient days the lengthening night was cause for fear. Would food stores last until planting season? Would the warming sun really return?

Newgrange

The winter solstice was anticipated and celebrated. Most of us are familiar with Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain in England. Recently I learned about Newgrange in Ireland. It is calculated that this megalithic structure was built 5,000 years ago, probably before Stonehenge and before the pyramids. It is hard to imagine that these ancient people, who I certainly never thought of as having sophisticated learning, not only noted with accuracy the movement of the sun, but were able to design and build, with great precision, a structure that would capture the winter solstice sunrise.

Did those ancients sit around in meetings to discuss the need for such a structure? Did they argue over their site? Were there specialists in their group who made calculations of the sun? Were there others who designed the structure? Who organized the workers to build this extraordinary building? Who was the boss? It is so hard to imagine how they worked without pencils or paper and with no meeting minutes.

Newgrange eventually disappeared into the mists of time. It was rediscovered in 1699 during road construction, but only since 1962 have there been major renovations that have resulted in its becoming a tourist destination with only a few people(because of space limitations) chosen by lottery allowed in to observe the solstice light.

The solstice has been important to many people in many cultures for centuries. Maeshowe in the Orkney Islands is similar in admitting the winter solstice setting sun. It is sometimes described as the greatest architectural achievements of the prehistoric peoples of Scotland. Recently an African ruin, Great Zimbabwe, that had been identified as an old royal castle that may have sheltered the legendary Queen of Sheba has been reconsidered as a solar observatory.

We don’t need to go any further than our own continent to find examples of ancient solstice markers. In North America, one of the most famous such sites is the Sun Dagger of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, built a thousand years ago by the Chacoans, ancestors of the Pueblo people.

Some cultures came to talk about the solstice as the dying and rebirth of a god. In Egypt Osirus died and was reborn as a baby. In the third century the roman Emperor Aurelian blended several solstice celebrations into what he called a celebration of the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. In Tibet there is a celebration of the dying year.

We have no local megaliths and the lengthening night is no longer fearful, but all around us at this season are the lights of celebration on the streets and in the shops.

Lights play an important part in the decorations of this holiday – Advent wreaths, Christmas tree lights, and the 9 candles on the Hanukkah menorah. These lights symbolize the coming of the Christ Child, and the victory of the Macabees when they rededicated the temple in Jersusalem in 165 BCE.

Most of us probably don’t think about symbols when we decorate our houses for the holidays and yet we are surrounded by elements that were important to people in ancient times. There are the evergreen trees that did not die in winter, and the yule log that is a reminder of the ever-turning wheel of time.

I am particularly fond of a story that is told about Martin Luther. Legend has it that Luther was wandering in the woods on a snowy evening working on his sermon. Finally the cold drove him out of his reverie, and he was struck by the beauty of God’s brilliant stars shining above forest of evergreens. When he arrived home he took the little evergreen tree which was ready to be hung upside down as was the custom, and set it firmly in a pot and decorated it with candles to echo the stars.

I don’t know whether it really was Luther who invented the lighted Christmas tree, but I do feel that the lights on my Christmas tree connect me not only with Luther, but with the ancients who feared the lengthening night and celebrated the coming light with hopefulness.

Between the Rows 2007

Refractions and Reflections

While reading and enjoying my morning coffee I looked up to see this flame reflected in the framed map on the wall opposite me. And opposite the south windows where I have hung chandelier crystals to catch the sun sending rainbows dancing across the room, for a little while every day. As we come closer to the Solstice we are all more aware of the sun, and the diminishing hours of light and warmth. But there was the flame. Precious and persistent.

This morning the temperature was 4 degrees at 7 am. The coldest morning yet. The sun was shining through frost flowers on the windows. They will not last. 

Twenty years ago, after my mother’s death, my brothers and I had to share out all her possessions. When we went through her condo we finally got to a big storage closet and way in the back, were boxes and boxes of old Christmas ornaments. Ornaments from the 40s and our childhood.  My mother was much given to buying new tree ornaments every year, but I never gave any thought to what happened to the previous year’s collection, much less the collection from decades before. But there they were, enough sparkly, shining ornaments for us each to take several boxes and extending our personal histories as reflected in our Christmas trees.

Our current tree reflects nearly 70 years of family history, my mother’s ornaments, Henry’s mother’s bead garlands, ornaments the children – and grandchildren – made in school, ornaments from the craft shop I once owned, and small sequined stars we  bought in Beijing and hung on the osmanthus that stood in as our Chrismas tree that year. There are ornaments we made for a Gourmet Club tree (with a large decorated angel cookie for a topper) at an Artspace Festival of Trees, as well as ornaments given as gifts, often with a strong barnyard theme, chickens and pigs. Each ornament reflects the family, our interests, and our friends and community over the years and decades of our fortunate life.

And Christmas Begins

When rose the eastern star, the birds came from a-far,
in that full might of glory.
With one melodious voice they sweetly did rejoice
and sang the wonderous story,
sang, praising God on high, enthroned above the sky,
and his fair mother Mary.

The eagle left his lair, came winging through the air,
his message loud arising.
And to his joyous cry the sparrow made reply,
his answer sweetly voicing.
“Overcome are death and strife, this night is born new life”,
the robin sang rejoicing.
When rose the eastern star, the birds came from a-far.
                                      The Carol of the Birds

Yesterday the thermometer made it up to 60 degrees, but I went out to bring in the greens and arrange my annual 12 foot ’swag’ above the big south windows in our living room.  One year I realized I had a number of Christmas tree bird ornaments – which deserved more attention. Some birds are feathered (and I use the word loosely) bought at Michael’s craft store, some are hand carved and painted by a man in our church and some are sparkly birds with brushy tails. Some are tiny, and some are quite large/life size. I’ve hung a few sparkly pine cones ornaments as well. Aside from our tree this constitutes the major part of our holiday decoration.

And so the Christmas preparations begin. I have an extra celebration on December 6, the Feast of St. Nicholas, when instead of cookies or a shoe full of coal some lucky gardener will win Nan Ondra’s new book, The Perennial Care Manual, and 2 dozen CowPots.  You still have a chance to leave a comment, and tell me about one of your favorite books, or seed starting tip.  Entries close at midnight tomorrow.