The Daily: 21 October 2024

We had our first frost on October 18th, which is the beginning of St Luke’s Little Summer, the traditional name for a warm string of days that usually fall around the Feast of St Luke (October 18th). This always has me asking: Do we get a St Luke’s Little Summer if we haven’t had winter yet? These days, first frost is usually at the tail end of October in my part of the world, given what is recorded in my weather journal. Last year, we had the first frost, the first hard freeze (ie the ground froze), and the first snow all on Hallowe’en. This year’s first frost is a bit early relative to the recent past, even though it’s nearly a month after the “average” date of September 24, that which you will find in every gardening almanac as the day the garden will likely die. Well, no longer. I’ve recorded temperatures in the upper 80s (°F) in late September. There’s been no freezing in September since I’ve lived here, nor any freezing in the first half of October either. And I’ve picked beans as late as Thanksgiving.

But it did freeze on the morning of St Luke’s Day this year, just to be contrary, I’d guess. It was warm later in the day, and over the weekend the temperature swung between freezing overnight and near 70°F in the afternoon. I’m not sure whether this counts as summer or winter or just confused. These sorts of large swings happen in the desert regularly, but it’s rare in humid climates — and it is definitely humid here. Every day begins in dense fog that doesn’t lift until late in the morning. There have been a few days with sun, but mostly the fog clears off to reveal high clouds. It has been clear at night though, so there is no insulating layer of moisture to hold in the heat once the sun goes down.

The lack of cloud-cover might have made for cold nights, but it meant good viewing for the Orionid meteor shower and the comet that is standing on its head low on the western horizon after sunset right now. On Saturday evening I finally saw the comet, and on Sunday morning I saw a bunch of meteors, a couple of which were fireballs. Venus and Jupiter are also both very bright right now. So there is much to see. You don’t even have to stay up too late or get up inordinately early because it’s dark by 6pm and stays dark until after 7am.

Which is the other thing that happened last week… On October 15th we passed the 11-hour-day mark. Moreover, the nights are lengthening so quickly still that November 5th, Bonfire Night, is the last day with more than 10 hours of sunlight. Then the day length changes start to slow down. It takes a month to lose another hour. December 6th is the final day with more than 9 hours of sunlight. That will be the beginning of the true dormant season, when there is too little light for most plants, even evergreens, to feed themselves. Plants get very sluggish in November around here, but there is no growth at all between early December and early February, no matter if you have a heated greenhouse.

Now, you could use grow lights to force photosynthesis, but that seems cruel. Let them rest. Besides, you need the rest also.

I need the rest!

---

Yesterday, I did not go see the Vermont Philharmonic playing opera as I had planned. I am very glad I did not buy advance tickets, though I have largely given up on buying advance tickets because every time I plan something, some other thing interferes with those plans. I’ve wasted quite a lot of money buying advance tickets to try and save a couple dollars off the door price. So I guess I should be glad I did not buy in advance. Because I did not go…

Because this time, I found mouse droppings in the cutlery drawer. Again.

When that happens, you will wash every last thing in the kitchen, even the stuff in drawers with no evidence of rodent presence because you are convinced that rodents are wily vectors of disease and death and are just hiding the evidence to entrap you. You will wash every last spoon and all the tools. You will spend some time wondering why you have so many tools and what some of these tools actually are for and whatever prompted you to allow said tools into your kitchen drawers. You suspect it has something to do with your sons who are tool fiends. You will clean all the drawers meticulously and while you are dirtying rags you will clean off all the other surfaces including the top of the trash bin, the slats on the pantry door and the ridiculous shelf of crap up near the ceiling that you rarely clean because that process involves ladders, though that is where your stock pot and the crock that keeps the yogurt warm while fermenting both live, so really you are up there kinda regularly and there’s actually no good excuse for the layer of dust. You will then get inspired to clean out the toaster because rodents are wily and even if there is now and never has been any evidence that they have been in that little nook you still believe that they might be because, after all, that is the only place in the entire kitchen where actual food scraps collect. Which maybe should tell you that rodents are not wily and you’re just being paranoid. Again. Because this is at least the third or fourth time that this has happened. Though, to be fair, you do spend a good deal of time cleaning up after other rodents in other parts of your property, so there is a history there, though nearly all outside and certainly not in the kitchen. And while you are thinking on that, you will go down and inspect the bins of potatoes, which again are actual food and fairly accessible for a rodent with initiative, but there is no gnawing on potatoes that you can see, and you couldn’t possibly tell if there is poop, which, there probably is, being that this is garden soil, just maybe not so much mouse poop. So you will sigh in relief for a minute. Then you will toss all the towels and washrags into the washing machine and put in two sheets of detergent and set it to the most comprehensive wash cycle in the machine’s capabilities. And then you will come upstairs and eat all the dried figs. Because you are depressed at having spent all the hot water in your capacious heater and over half of one of your two weekly days off cleaning up after creatures that have no business being in your kitchen. Again. Because it is now one o’clock and you’ve had nothing to eat and only one of your daily three cups of tea. And figs make you happy.

Or maybe that’s just me…

Not the figs part. Figs make everybody happy.

But anyway…

I had roasted another enormous Hubbard squash on Saturday — because I can’t seem to resist buying them and Burtt’s had a pile, still have a pile. If you live in Vermont, they are selling an entire Hubbard for $5 because they have too many. Isn’t that something! Too many squash! So here is my $5 Hubbard that I bought with the apples and Hallowe’en pumpkins. After roasting and peeling and removing the seed snot and puréeing the whole mess (which almost choked my poor immersion blender), I ended up with two gallons of squash. That is something like 36 loaves of bread. For me, it will become bread and savory pie and soup base and probably a few rounds of empanadas.

And that’s just one squash. I almost want to go buy one more. All I’d need to buy for the rest of the winter is flour and corn meal and dairy. Maybe eggs, because squash bread is much better with eggs, though I try to avoid eggs this time of year. It means the hens are sitting under sun lamps. Again… seems sort of cruel. Just let them rest. There are other ways to get structure in your quick breads.

I did, however, make a fantastic egg bread when I was off work for Indigenous Peoples’ Day last week. It was basically a combination of challah and sourdough, but with a couple teaspoons of cinnamon and 3/4 cup raw sugar. It was one of those doughs that seemed intent on taking over the world, and I was reminded of Ellen Meloy’s hilarious understatement “she put too much yeast in”. Sometimes it’s not the yeast… it’s the yeast food. But this gargantuan dough ball made a light and lovely loaf with just a hint of warm spice. It makes delicious toast, no need to spread anything on it. I’ve been eating it all week, and there is still about a third of the loaf left. Also… I’ve had it for a week now and it’s still fresh. Sugar is good for some things, I guess.

After the rodent debacle, I decided that I wasn’t going to be productive for the rest of the day, though I do have to use the sourdough starter at least once a week. So I mixed up a walnut-shallot loaf. Then I marched upstairs, and retrieved Hocus Pocus… I did get the ironing done while watching Bette Midler vamp through Salem. But that was it for responsibility this week…

Though the kitchen is über clean now…

---

©Elizabeth Anker 2024