So many berries - and I haven't tried any of them! (I read Huckleberry Finn in secondary school and never thought about the berry itself.)
"Do we all have our seasons?" This makes me think of Scottish author Ali Smith's series of novels (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) which capture both the seasonality of an entire life - through youth and old age - and a kind of political season, a mood (Smith is a politically engaged writer, with an interest in social justice).
My life has a new rhythm since I started working in the British parliament. I would like to be more connected to nature seasons than I currently am, though I did pick a tub of blackberries from brambles in my London park yesterday. Like crops, around new years, I reflect back and think about my life as a drought year, a bumper year as well.
I hadn't heard of Ali Smith -- those books sound lovely! And I like including the political engagement. That's so important.
My mother-in-law in Nottingham taught me how to pick blackberries. That is, she stopped me from grazing on the ones that, as she said, were just the right height for dogs to have peed on!
I like that, the thought of our own life-seasons as having drought and bumper years. Very true.
Oh my yes to all of this. In my yard, the gooseberries are for birds (this year I did make a little jam, because they were so big and so lovely). This year I've been working a lot, so the veg garden is mostly herbs and flowers, but I spent today untangling the tomatoes, and stringing them up so they'll get some air, and perhaps ripen before the frost that feels closer than usual this year. Good to know you're up there on the opposite corner, doing the same things I'm doing ... feels like a web.
Gooseberries! I have two bushes that a friend gave me from starts he'd made, and I am hoping that next year there *might* be enough berries for both my spouse and my dad to have enough to share.
Nia this is so beautiful, full and abundant in the beauty of what you describe and in how to witness the bounty of a season. It instantly made me want to go foraging, to spend time on honoring what the lands offer us, marvel in how beautiful berries, in particular are. Indeed, what a tremendous gift, and what a marvel, truly. So loved reading this.
Thank you so much, Freya! I imagine you have all sorts of different and delicious foraging abundance in Alaska. I went chokecherry-picking today and did indeed feel active gratitude to every tree branch, every strand of berries. 🍒
Eep, thank you for this. It always brings a reality check to read Kimmerer, and particularly that essay. I was offered a peach today and I barely knew the person and it just felt so delightful.
Tuning in to the seasons was a silver lining for me during the deepest parts of the pandemic; what else was there to do (in my situation then, at least) than watch the garden changing each day, notice the trees suddenly leaf out and then bloom? This year I feel like I haven't paid as much attention to some parts of the year (our "spring" rains lasted remarkably long, so my concept of seasonality is skewed; also I barely caught the main bird migration) while other parts (especially the life cycle of grasses and fruiting forbs) have been catching my eye more than ever. And I'm really feeling the days shorten now, for better or for worse. I get a little greedy with this time of year, wanting both a little more summer, and also getting excited for autumn. Good thing I live in a state with about 12 seasons; it's so generous to give us multiple chances to experience the same weather before it's done for a long while!
I have a whole story about my love for fresh peaches. Being given one by someone you barely know feels like the epitome of generosity. 🍑
"A state with 12 seasons" 😂 I know the feeling. Like season 7: that one day in February the sun comes out.
For many people who were at home during Covid, and who had some access to nature, I think the seasons were something of a lifeline. At least, some of the people I've talked with who had seasons. Even friends in big cities like New York hung onto the way the light changed as the planet's rotation shifted around the sun.
Last year we had a couple inches snow on June 14th followed (and preceded) by weeks of heavy rain. It flooded and it wasn't until about July that summer felt like it was starting. This year was completely different. It really throws you off when things change like that, doesn't it?
I'm glad you liked the Kimmerer essay! It's personally very centering for me, even though Charles Eisenstein went so far off the conspiracy deep end right at the start of Covid it pains me to read him. But I've quoted some of those same passages from his book about gift economies myself and they still have resonance.
I lol’d at “borscht isn’t food” - my husband won’t touch beets and I will eat them in any mouth-watering form!!
I wish I felt more confident in my preserving skills, but alas. I dried some white clover this week and immediately made it into sun tea because dry herbs usually just get dusty at my house. And I also tried pickled watermelon rind and it was delicious! I’ll keep it in the fridge for a few weeks. I think it’s nearly tomato season here (Ohio) and I can’t wait to eat tomato toast until I’m completely sick of tomato toast!
These husbands! Silly beet-averse people. Cold summer borscht makes me so happy. Every time I think, "I'm hungry," and then remember I can have borscht, it's ☺️
I've only had pickled watermelon rind once, but have never tried to make it. Weirdly, it sounds daunting to me but agreed, it's delicious. One of the first things I ever preserved was green tomato marmalade, which my spouse also didn't like but which I really enjoyed mixing into plain yogurt.
It's Wednesday, which means my sister and her family come over for leftovers dinner, and like you we've about hit the time when we have tomatoes coming out of our ears and we'll end up eating bruschetta for every single leftovers dinner until I get tired of it! I'm always the first one to get sick of it, for some reason.
Clover sun tea sounds delicious. The only herb I personally dry is mint, in large quantities because everyone uses it for mint tea all year round. I've tried freezing basil and chives and things but they don't seem to keep their flavor. I did do chamomile for a few years, but haven't grown it in a long time. It's a tiny bit more bitter than store-bought chamomile; I think they must add some kind of mild sweetening, or maybe I didn't do it quite right.
Thank you! Wish I could share huckleberry pancakes with everyone. 🧡
I've also tried freezing basil (the easy way, just chopping it and pouring boiling water over it in muffin tins and freezing those), and wasn't that happy with the results. Now I make it straight into pesto and freeze that; seems to keep its flavor better that way.
I did it a similar way, in ice cube trays. Didn't seem to keep any flavor. But pesto does work. One of my teenage jobs was prep cook at a local restaurant, and I had to make all of their pesto for winter, gallons of it but it had to be done in small batches. I can still smell it now, and it did keep its flavor through the winter. Basil's a tricky herb. You'd think it would keep its flavor easily but even cooking it fresh you're meant to add it toward the end of the process.
Also, dumb question, can you use any variety of green tomato? I’ve never used green tomatoes if any kind, but I think I’m going to have lots of cherry this year.
That's not a dumb question at all. I would think the answer is yes. I mean, for canning, varieties of tomato with more substance and less water tend to work better (plum tomatoes over those delicious heirloom beefsteak kinds, for example), but I can't imagine it makes much of a difference for this. I only made it that one time and can't remember but you might scoop out most of the watery parts anyway. With cherry tomatoes that probably wouldn't be necessary. I think the recipe might have been in the Ball jar canning book? The ones online look a touch fancier. This one has ginger in it: https://www.sbcanning.com/2011/11/green-tomato-marmalade-last-of-green.html
Do you have a favorite borscht recipe? And the watermelon rinds were not complicated at all! Especially if you cut them up as you’re prepping the melon. I just put the fruit in one bowl and the rind in the other. I used the recipe from mountain rose herbal. 🍉
I do! It's the New York Times Clear Summer Borscht recipe: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016107-clear-summer-borscht (it seems to be paywalled now, or at least subscriber-only; if you can't get to it, email me and I'll send you a scanned copy). I skip the sugar because I don't like the way it tastes in it, and add a lot more salt and lemon than called for.
My dad and stepmom both make different kinds of borscht, both cold for summer and hot (with meat) for winter. Happy to share any and all borscht variations :) Watermelon season is just coming on us now, so maybe it'll be a good time to try making that at least once, thank you.
Mountain Rose Herbal is such a great resource. That's where I get all my beeswax pellets for lotion. And a lot of tea!
Great writing!! So many amazing things to ponder. Thank you so much for sharing the excerpt from “The Serviceberry”. I will definitely be reading that for an article that I am hoping to write.
Thank you so much! And yes, I think you might find it useful and inspiring. Kimmerer is such a generous writer. You can feel her spirit through everything she puts out into the world.
This is beautiful! I have a wealth of Transparent apples. I would love to share the bounty if you want some????
It reminds me of a joke my grandmother used to say. " They only time we lock our cars around here is Zucchini Season! If you dont lock your door your cat will be filled with zucchinis.
Oooh! I will absolutely take you up on that! One of the other things I was doing was scouting apple trees for a friend who makes cider every fall (probably a family you know of, if not know personally). My tree is on an off year and I'm not sure how well it's doing anyway. Trade you some chokecherry jelly or whatever else ends up coming out of my kitchen?
😂 so true. We had three families eating zucchini from only three plants last year and couldn't keep up.
Simply gorgeous. Thank you for writing. I can't match your words but want to share a bit of my own bounty and think about spices and the new year, which I always associate with September and a back-to-school atmosphere even though I'm long past school and so are my grown children.
A few days ago I made a jar of pickled tomatillos, the first to be processed from what looks to be an absolute onslaught of tomatillos coming my way from one of our raised beds that looks like the set of Little Shop of Horrors. Yay for future salsa verde! The free sweet red bell pepper plants I got from someone via Buy Nothing are covered in peppers, as are other varieties I got at the farmers' market, so I'll be freezing and drying peppers and making pickled pepperoncini and hot sauce. The tomatoes aren't quite as precocious but I have hopes. Our raspberries are almost done producing, ditto the tayberries, but now the wild blackberries that grow invasively absolutely everywhere in western Washington are ripening and I'll pick along the road, then make a batch of seedless jam (extra work, but worth it). The yellow summer squash I planted somewhat late has nonetheless started to produce so I'd better start eating that, and the two raised bins of greens that I didn't pick before a few days of travel are busting out all over so I picked a giant bowl this morning. It's salad days. Herbs are on the racks in the dehydrator drying with simple air circulation, no electricity needed.
I think about cinnamon quite often--that, and other spices that I cook with thanks to a global system I know was rooted in terribly exploitive practices and colonialism, and which all carry a carbon footprint to reach me. I half-joke that if I have to live off things I grow, everything will taste like mint (another item on the list for harvest). The flavors I eat have been so enriched by systems that carry oppression with them, and also by people seeking hope and bringing their foodways with them. I can't quite reconcile all of that in my head. The other night watching an episode of the Great British Baking Show, some of the contestants didn't know what tacos were and I felt so sorry for them. The judges were challenged by some of the flavor combinations selected by someone drawing on the foods that represented comfort and love to her because they were unfamiliar. (To their credit, that didn't mean she got booted early--no spoilers I hope.)
I'm growing some of the things I use most often, but others simply won't grow here and I don't have space for a greenhouse to try to create a tropical environment. Besides all of the huge impacts of climate change, imagining that spices can't grow or I can't afford them or shipping is disrupted so they can't even get to me breaks my heart a little more. A world without snickerdoodles? (which are the best, as long as you make them a little bit bendy in the middle and not too hard and crunchy)
Salad days! I love them and they're so short. We have a few heads that haven't bolted yet, which is surprising in all this heat and my neglect of them.
The snickerdoodles were definitely a little bendy in the middle. :) The first batch was too crunchy, so I kept them for kids and nieces, and made the rest the right way. If you're cleaning up asphalt droppings on a river for 15 hours a day you deserve cookies done right!
My mouth started watering reading this, no joke. Pickled pepperoncini are something I've never made but loved as a treat when I was a kid. And tomatillos! I didn't know until a couple of years ago that tomatillos make much better salsa than tomatoes. You get the tang without the acid. I haven't tried growing them yet but keep intending to. And ... no tacos? Tacos are the perfect food, I think. One of my favorite things. I still daydream of a world with taco trucks on every corner sometimes. (Don't worry about spoilers, my TV watching is limited to science fiction, fantasy, and Grey's Anatomy.)
I think about all of that a lot, too, the supply chains and commodification and climate change and colonialism. Amitav Ghosh's "The Nutmeg's Curse" of course laid it out all clearly if one were previously unaware. Every now and then I look around my spices and things and mentally list all that wouldn't be there, and might not in the future. Nutmeg and cinnamon, of course. The things that I would really, really miss, keenly, are salt, lemons, and coffee, in that order. But I think we could source salt more locally, if by locally I mean closer to where you are. Lemons are something I indulge in way too much of and would have to live without because, yes, trying to manufacture an environment where they would grow just isn't sustainable, even just in my time.
Trade you seedless raspberry for seedless blackberry! That's another thing I didn't make until a couple of years ago. A friend said she only liked seedless raspberry jam, so I made it and agreed it's far better, if a complete pain in the ass. Chokecherry jelly is, too, though, even if it is my favorite.
We need to figure out some kind of home preserve exchange club. My mom used to make seedless raspberry jam because my dad had such tightly set teeth, and I remember it as the absolute best.
Putting The Nutmeg's Curse on my library list now, along with The Great Derangement.
I'm going to check on whether I can grow sumac. I just made these (not with my own red onions but those are coming along) and they are amazing. Thank goodness they use mint and parsley, which we can grow in our respective regions. https://www.themediterraneandish.com/pickled-red-onions/
That would be fun! And yeah -- my friend said she doesn't like getting the raspberry seeds in her teeth. I'd never thought about it much but it makes a lot of sense, and the flavor seems somehow more concentrated and amazing.
I liked The Great Derangement a little better, which I didn't expect. Nutmeg's Curse felt like an extension of the themes he'd started in Derangement.
I was thinking about sumac! Would love to know if that works. You know, not the poisonous kind. 🙃
Mouth watering again. My brother-in-law made pickled red onions last year, just a fridge batch, and they were delicious. (Also, I completely forgot to order onion starts this year and have regretted it every moment they're not in there ready to be harvested ...)
One more thought on jam: I'm going to a U-pick blueberry farm sometime soon with a friend, which made me think about make a mixed berry jam. Started looking up recipes and discovered "Black and Blueberry Jam" (points for clever naming), and then "Bumbleberry Jam", which is apparently a name for a jam involving at least 3 types of berries. The elderberry bush I planted a couple of years ago has some clusters of berries on it right now so I'm going to try a black/blue/elderberry bumble. Since I bruise easily and often bumble into things, more as I get older, this seems like a very appropriate combo.
This will be delicious! I’m just going to make that sweeping statement. My mother-in-law in England introduced me to this concept and the name bumbleberry jam and it worked out really well nearly every time. I don’t bruise easily but am very clumsy so it feels fitting to me, too!
I love the seasons. I love bending and shaping my daily habits with the ebbing and flowing of nature. It frees me from the thicket of ego, from the thicket of self, and allows me to feel part of something much bigger. Something timeless. Something sacred.
Listening to the recording of your pancake breakfast was pure joy. I love that you share these snippets from your wanderings and your personal life. They add warmth and charm.
Thank you for the links, Antonia. And thank you especially for the Robin Wall Kimmerer link. I will listen to her reading of the essay. I love the sound of her voice. It is calming and soothing. Wouldn't it be wonderful to share a campfire with her?
It would be so wonderful! I think of her almost every day, in fact, because one of my little rituals is to walk outside barefoot and pour the first of the coffee on the ground, in all seasons, which if I remember she described her parents doing in Braiding Sweetgrass and I started it after reading that section.
I'm glad you liked the recording. :) I was worried that the spatula scrape on the skillet needed a decibel warning, but even for me it was fun to relive that morning for a few minutes. I forgot there were so many birds singing.
It's so much about that thicket of ego-self, you're right. It's easier to let go of control and power-over thoughts when you're watching the chokecherries ripen when they will and not according to your convenience.
I listened to Kimmerer read her essay, An Economy of Abundance, tonight. It is so full of beauty and truth and hope that it made me weep. What more can I possibly say?
This essay was exactly what I needed (and didn't know I needed). Thank you, Antonia! I crave seasonal rituals that carry me from one to the next, and have been feeling disconnected from them lately. My wife and I are considering leaving NYC and part of that discussion is a desire to be more connected to land than feels doable where we currently live.
That's really nice to hear! I feel that way about Kimmerer -- the serviceberry essay in particular.
I'm excited to hear about where your family journey takes you. Although I grew up like this, I didn't start doing it myself until I was living in a rural area of barely upstate New York (a little south of Newburgh if you know that area). We started with canning tomatoes and making jam and it grew from there. Jam in particular is pretty easy -- and delightful -- once you've done it a few times. (I use a low-sugar pectin, which takes a little more getting used to, but I like that it doesn't drown the fruit taste in sugar as much.)
That's so good to hear! My wife grew up with some of this (their Oma was always in the garden and canning things), but I definitely didn't and as much as I want to do it, I get overwhelmed with it. It's good to know that jam is easy :) I think the biggest trick for us is wanting to stay in a city (on the water, at that) AND wanting to be more connected to land. I know there's an answer out there somewhere, just feels like an impossible balancing act at the moment.
I'm very surprised to find that the website I used when I first started doing this stuff--about 15 years ago--is still up and running! I don't know if the person who ran it is still around but he'd always answer my emails when I had questions or worried I messed up: https://pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm
That is a tricky one. A lot of the friends we made where we lived actually lived in NYC and had weekend cabins (non-winterized, usually). We all tended to congregate at an organic farm nearby on Saturdays. (The place and prepared food options look fancier than they used to on this website but I imagine the produce is the same. https://www.bloominghill.farm) I would have a very hard time letting go of living on water if I had access to that!
I tend to find all these preserving things intimidating at first, but then figure the worst I can do is probably get some boiling substance all over the kitchen. Maybe shatter a jar? But Mason jars are pretty resilient. My spouse didn't grow up doing any of this--he's from a big city in England--but got into it pretty quickly. And out of it just as quickly. 😂
It would be a big cross-country transition, but I'll offer up Olympia, WA for your consideration. Small town, not a city-city, with lots of great gardening and on Puget Sound. You wouldn't have all the theater and arts that you have in NYC but Amtrak Cascades can take you north to Seattle or south to Portland for a fix and we do have performing arts, as well as Evergreen State College and the community college offering up events. Our farmers' market is a happening event year round with locally grown items and fruits brought in from the agricultural lands in central Washington. Community-supported agriculture boxes are widely available, we have a great food co-op, I'll be going to pick blueberries with a friend at an organic farm a short bike ride away from my house, quite a few good restaurants. It's the state capital and you can walk to the capitol campus from downtown (or ride our fare-free transit system, or ride your bike), and the downtown has zero franchise businesses, meaning *no Starbucks*, only locally owned coffee shops and other businesses.
I could go on. After living in north Idaho, Spokane, and a few different neighborhoods in Seattle, I'm loving it here. First house I ever moved into that had neighbors knocking on my door within a day to introduce themselves and welcome us.
I don't work for the Chamber of Commerce, by the way.
This sounds like such a dream! A downtown with no franchise businesses? FARE-FREE TRANSIT SYSTEM?! I'm already halfway in love with Olympia from your description alone. Unfortunately, my wife and I don't want to be too far from some of our loved ones who are very settled on the east coast, so Washington (and the west coast in general) isn't a great option for us. I wish it was! Olympia is definitely high up on my visiting wish list now, though!
I smiled when I read the line about Eastern European fatalism, thinking of the entire genre of humor that has come out of that. Silver linings.
Everything is ripening here a little early. We'll be picking up blueberries from the local farm this week and stocking the freezer with those. In a couple of weeks, we'll be adding freezing pounds of blackberries from the vacant lot next door - permaculture zone 5! I'm still enjoying last year's berries on my overnight oats each morning. Our neighbor is from Wenatchee and picks up boxes of freestone peaches for us when he visits his brother. If the timing's right, we'll get some of his brother's apricots too.
I'm enjoying the cooler mornings. I like that it's still dark when I get up. At sunrise, it's just me and a rather loud osprey.
My year has always begun in September, between back to school or college, and my birthday at the end of the month. It was always a little bittersweet. The beginning of the month is now marked by Labor Day, when the summer people leave, and we get our island back. Now it's just sweet.
This year we're leaving towards the end of August for Finland and England, returning in mid-September. I have a feeling my year's going to start the moment we get back. We'll squeeze in a few mountain hikes before the snows come. It will soon be time to put away the deck furniture and check the generator ahead of the wind and rainstorms.
I listened to the recording of you reading your "SOBs" essay and would just like to say that you are a fine writer and you have an excellent podcast voice. Keep it up.
There is an entire genre of humor! Russia’s difficult right now because propaganda has taken over so many minds. But the times I have spent an evening in people’s tiny apartments NOT being overfed and full of laughter and music by the end is pretty much zero.
Wenatchee is where the peaches here come from! Predictably, I suppose. They’re so good. I ended up freezing two boxes last year. When we lived in New York, I picked and froze about 30 pounds of blueberries every summer. Huckleberries are something I love so much more, but it takes a lot more work to get enough of them to freeze for the year.
What a beautiful trip that sounds like. I’m a little envious—haven’t been to Finland since I was a teenager! It’s probably a great time to be there. It feels like a good start to a year, and the new season.
Yes, I had several eastern European friends when I lived in Holland and later in New Jersey, particularly from Poland.
My wife qualified for Ironman 70.3 worlds in Lahti. We'll send some time in Helsinki, Tallinn too, at least for a day ferry trip, and the islands. I'll wave at Russia for you!
Please do, I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back. Your wife sounds pretty amazing!
My mom lived in Helsinki when my older sister was a baby. They'd take the train to Leningrad at the weekends to see my dad, before they were allowed to get married.
It seems a wonder that you’re there, writing such balm for the soul. Thank you.
A wonder any of us are here, I guess. 💚 I’d love to send you some of this year’s jam!
So many berries - and I haven't tried any of them! (I read Huckleberry Finn in secondary school and never thought about the berry itself.)
"Do we all have our seasons?" This makes me think of Scottish author Ali Smith's series of novels (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) which capture both the seasonality of an entire life - through youth and old age - and a kind of political season, a mood (Smith is a politically engaged writer, with an interest in social justice).
My life has a new rhythm since I started working in the British parliament. I would like to be more connected to nature seasons than I currently am, though I did pick a tub of blackberries from brambles in my London park yesterday. Like crops, around new years, I reflect back and think about my life as a drought year, a bumper year as well.
I hadn't heard of Ali Smith -- those books sound lovely! And I like including the political engagement. That's so important.
My mother-in-law in Nottingham taught me how to pick blackberries. That is, she stopped me from grazing on the ones that, as she said, were just the right height for dogs to have peed on!
I like that, the thought of our own life-seasons as having drought and bumper years. Very true.
Haha yes, avoid the ones at dog pee height! Fortunately I am like a berry loving giraffe, very tall!
Oh my yes to all of this. In my yard, the gooseberries are for birds (this year I did make a little jam, because they were so big and so lovely). This year I've been working a lot, so the veg garden is mostly herbs and flowers, but I spent today untangling the tomatoes, and stringing them up so they'll get some air, and perhaps ripen before the frost that feels closer than usual this year. Good to know you're up there on the opposite corner, doing the same things I'm doing ... feels like a web.
Gooseberries! I have two bushes that a friend gave me from starts he'd made, and I am hoping that next year there *might* be enough berries for both my spouse and my dad to have enough to share.
It does feel like a web, doesn't it? I like that?
You're up on the rainy side, so you might have nice berries. A lot of years mine are teensy ... but this year they were so pretty!
All of us in our web ... wish you were close enough for the annual Christmas exchange-of-jars!
We’ll see — this year they were pretty small but I guess it depends. Also I think they’re getting eaten before they’re always fully ripe.
And why not? Livingston’s not *that* far!
Nia this is so beautiful, full and abundant in the beauty of what you describe and in how to witness the bounty of a season. It instantly made me want to go foraging, to spend time on honoring what the lands offer us, marvel in how beautiful berries, in particular are. Indeed, what a tremendous gift, and what a marvel, truly. So loved reading this.
Thank you so much, Freya! I imagine you have all sorts of different and delicious foraging abundance in Alaska. I went chokecherry-picking today and did indeed feel active gratitude to every tree branch, every strand of berries. 🍒
Eep, thank you for this. It always brings a reality check to read Kimmerer, and particularly that essay. I was offered a peach today and I barely knew the person and it just felt so delightful.
Tuning in to the seasons was a silver lining for me during the deepest parts of the pandemic; what else was there to do (in my situation then, at least) than watch the garden changing each day, notice the trees suddenly leaf out and then bloom? This year I feel like I haven't paid as much attention to some parts of the year (our "spring" rains lasted remarkably long, so my concept of seasonality is skewed; also I barely caught the main bird migration) while other parts (especially the life cycle of grasses and fruiting forbs) have been catching my eye more than ever. And I'm really feeling the days shorten now, for better or for worse. I get a little greedy with this time of year, wanting both a little more summer, and also getting excited for autumn. Good thing I live in a state with about 12 seasons; it's so generous to give us multiple chances to experience the same weather before it's done for a long while!
I have a whole story about my love for fresh peaches. Being given one by someone you barely know feels like the epitome of generosity. 🍑
"A state with 12 seasons" 😂 I know the feeling. Like season 7: that one day in February the sun comes out.
For many people who were at home during Covid, and who had some access to nature, I think the seasons were something of a lifeline. At least, some of the people I've talked with who had seasons. Even friends in big cities like New York hung onto the way the light changed as the planet's rotation shifted around the sun.
Last year we had a couple inches snow on June 14th followed (and preceded) by weeks of heavy rain. It flooded and it wasn't until about July that summer felt like it was starting. This year was completely different. It really throws you off when things change like that, doesn't it?
I'm glad you liked the Kimmerer essay! It's personally very centering for me, even though Charles Eisenstein went so far off the conspiracy deep end right at the start of Covid it pains me to read him. But I've quoted some of those same passages from his book about gift economies myself and they still have resonance.
Beautiful, as usual.
I lol’d at “borscht isn’t food” - my husband won’t touch beets and I will eat them in any mouth-watering form!!
I wish I felt more confident in my preserving skills, but alas. I dried some white clover this week and immediately made it into sun tea because dry herbs usually just get dusty at my house. And I also tried pickled watermelon rind and it was delicious! I’ll keep it in the fridge for a few weeks. I think it’s nearly tomato season here (Ohio) and I can’t wait to eat tomato toast until I’m completely sick of tomato toast!
Love your recordings too! 🩷
These husbands! Silly beet-averse people. Cold summer borscht makes me so happy. Every time I think, "I'm hungry," and then remember I can have borscht, it's ☺️
I've only had pickled watermelon rind once, but have never tried to make it. Weirdly, it sounds daunting to me but agreed, it's delicious. One of the first things I ever preserved was green tomato marmalade, which my spouse also didn't like but which I really enjoyed mixing into plain yogurt.
It's Wednesday, which means my sister and her family come over for leftovers dinner, and like you we've about hit the time when we have tomatoes coming out of our ears and we'll end up eating bruschetta for every single leftovers dinner until I get tired of it! I'm always the first one to get sick of it, for some reason.
Clover sun tea sounds delicious. The only herb I personally dry is mint, in large quantities because everyone uses it for mint tea all year round. I've tried freezing basil and chives and things but they don't seem to keep their flavor. I did do chamomile for a few years, but haven't grown it in a long time. It's a tiny bit more bitter than store-bought chamomile; I think they must add some kind of mild sweetening, or maybe I didn't do it quite right.
Thank you! Wish I could share huckleberry pancakes with everyone. 🧡
I've also tried freezing basil (the easy way, just chopping it and pouring boiling water over it in muffin tins and freezing those), and wasn't that happy with the results. Now I make it straight into pesto and freeze that; seems to keep its flavor better that way.
I did it a similar way, in ice cube trays. Didn't seem to keep any flavor. But pesto does work. One of my teenage jobs was prep cook at a local restaurant, and I had to make all of their pesto for winter, gallons of it but it had to be done in small batches. I can still smell it now, and it did keep its flavor through the winter. Basil's a tricky herb. You'd think it would keep its flavor easily but even cooking it fresh you're meant to add it toward the end of the process.
Also, dumb question, can you use any variety of green tomato? I’ve never used green tomatoes if any kind, but I think I’m going to have lots of cherry this year.
That's not a dumb question at all. I would think the answer is yes. I mean, for canning, varieties of tomato with more substance and less water tend to work better (plum tomatoes over those delicious heirloom beefsteak kinds, for example), but I can't imagine it makes much of a difference for this. I only made it that one time and can't remember but you might scoop out most of the watery parts anyway. With cherry tomatoes that probably wouldn't be necessary. I think the recipe might have been in the Ball jar canning book? The ones online look a touch fancier. This one has ginger in it: https://www.sbcanning.com/2011/11/green-tomato-marmalade-last-of-green.html
I can’t wait to try these & I think my spouse has a NYT subscription! Yay thanks!!
Hope it turns out well!
Do you have a favorite borscht recipe? And the watermelon rinds were not complicated at all! Especially if you cut them up as you’re prepping the melon. I just put the fruit in one bowl and the rind in the other. I used the recipe from mountain rose herbal. 🍉
I do! It's the New York Times Clear Summer Borscht recipe: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016107-clear-summer-borscht (it seems to be paywalled now, or at least subscriber-only; if you can't get to it, email me and I'll send you a scanned copy). I skip the sugar because I don't like the way it tastes in it, and add a lot more salt and lemon than called for.
My dad and stepmom both make different kinds of borscht, both cold for summer and hot (with meat) for winter. Happy to share any and all borscht variations :) Watermelon season is just coming on us now, so maybe it'll be a good time to try making that at least once, thank you.
Mountain Rose Herbal is such a great resource. That's where I get all my beeswax pellets for lotion. And a lot of tea!
Great writing!! So many amazing things to ponder. Thank you so much for sharing the excerpt from “The Serviceberry”. I will definitely be reading that for an article that I am hoping to write.
Thank you so much! And yes, I think you might find it useful and inspiring. Kimmerer is such a generous writer. You can feel her spirit through everything she puts out into the world.
This is beautiful! I have a wealth of Transparent apples. I would love to share the bounty if you want some????
It reminds me of a joke my grandmother used to say. " They only time we lock our cars around here is Zucchini Season! If you dont lock your door your cat will be filled with zucchinis.
Oooh! I will absolutely take you up on that! One of the other things I was doing was scouting apple trees for a friend who makes cider every fall (probably a family you know of, if not know personally). My tree is on an off year and I'm not sure how well it's doing anyway. Trade you some chokecherry jelly or whatever else ends up coming out of my kitchen?
😂 so true. We had three families eating zucchini from only three plants last year and couldn't keep up.
Awesome. I just emailed you my Contact info.
Simply gorgeous. Thank you for writing. I can't match your words but want to share a bit of my own bounty and think about spices and the new year, which I always associate with September and a back-to-school atmosphere even though I'm long past school and so are my grown children.
A few days ago I made a jar of pickled tomatillos, the first to be processed from what looks to be an absolute onslaught of tomatillos coming my way from one of our raised beds that looks like the set of Little Shop of Horrors. Yay for future salsa verde! The free sweet red bell pepper plants I got from someone via Buy Nothing are covered in peppers, as are other varieties I got at the farmers' market, so I'll be freezing and drying peppers and making pickled pepperoncini and hot sauce. The tomatoes aren't quite as precocious but I have hopes. Our raspberries are almost done producing, ditto the tayberries, but now the wild blackberries that grow invasively absolutely everywhere in western Washington are ripening and I'll pick along the road, then make a batch of seedless jam (extra work, but worth it). The yellow summer squash I planted somewhat late has nonetheless started to produce so I'd better start eating that, and the two raised bins of greens that I didn't pick before a few days of travel are busting out all over so I picked a giant bowl this morning. It's salad days. Herbs are on the racks in the dehydrator drying with simple air circulation, no electricity needed.
I think about cinnamon quite often--that, and other spices that I cook with thanks to a global system I know was rooted in terribly exploitive practices and colonialism, and which all carry a carbon footprint to reach me. I half-joke that if I have to live off things I grow, everything will taste like mint (another item on the list for harvest). The flavors I eat have been so enriched by systems that carry oppression with them, and also by people seeking hope and bringing their foodways with them. I can't quite reconcile all of that in my head. The other night watching an episode of the Great British Baking Show, some of the contestants didn't know what tacos were and I felt so sorry for them. The judges were challenged by some of the flavor combinations selected by someone drawing on the foods that represented comfort and love to her because they were unfamiliar. (To their credit, that didn't mean she got booted early--no spoilers I hope.)
I'm growing some of the things I use most often, but others simply won't grow here and I don't have space for a greenhouse to try to create a tropical environment. Besides all of the huge impacts of climate change, imagining that spices can't grow or I can't afford them or shipping is disrupted so they can't even get to me breaks my heart a little more. A world without snickerdoodles? (which are the best, as long as you make them a little bit bendy in the middle and not too hard and crunchy)
Salad days! I love them and they're so short. We have a few heads that haven't bolted yet, which is surprising in all this heat and my neglect of them.
The snickerdoodles were definitely a little bendy in the middle. :) The first batch was too crunchy, so I kept them for kids and nieces, and made the rest the right way. If you're cleaning up asphalt droppings on a river for 15 hours a day you deserve cookies done right!
My mouth started watering reading this, no joke. Pickled pepperoncini are something I've never made but loved as a treat when I was a kid. And tomatillos! I didn't know until a couple of years ago that tomatillos make much better salsa than tomatoes. You get the tang without the acid. I haven't tried growing them yet but keep intending to. And ... no tacos? Tacos are the perfect food, I think. One of my favorite things. I still daydream of a world with taco trucks on every corner sometimes. (Don't worry about spoilers, my TV watching is limited to science fiction, fantasy, and Grey's Anatomy.)
I think about all of that a lot, too, the supply chains and commodification and climate change and colonialism. Amitav Ghosh's "The Nutmeg's Curse" of course laid it out all clearly if one were previously unaware. Every now and then I look around my spices and things and mentally list all that wouldn't be there, and might not in the future. Nutmeg and cinnamon, of course. The things that I would really, really miss, keenly, are salt, lemons, and coffee, in that order. But I think we could source salt more locally, if by locally I mean closer to where you are. Lemons are something I indulge in way too much of and would have to live without because, yes, trying to manufacture an environment where they would grow just isn't sustainable, even just in my time.
Trade you seedless raspberry for seedless blackberry! That's another thing I didn't make until a couple of years ago. A friend said she only liked seedless raspberry jam, so I made it and agreed it's far better, if a complete pain in the ass. Chokecherry jelly is, too, though, even if it is my favorite.
We need to figure out some kind of home preserve exchange club. My mom used to make seedless raspberry jam because my dad had such tightly set teeth, and I remember it as the absolute best.
Putting The Nutmeg's Curse on my library list now, along with The Great Derangement.
I'm going to check on whether I can grow sumac. I just made these (not with my own red onions but those are coming along) and they are amazing. Thank goodness they use mint and parsley, which we can grow in our respective regions. https://www.themediterraneandish.com/pickled-red-onions/
That would be fun! And yeah -- my friend said she doesn't like getting the raspberry seeds in her teeth. I'd never thought about it much but it makes a lot of sense, and the flavor seems somehow more concentrated and amazing.
I liked The Great Derangement a little better, which I didn't expect. Nutmeg's Curse felt like an extension of the themes he'd started in Derangement.
I was thinking about sumac! Would love to know if that works. You know, not the poisonous kind. 🙃
Mouth watering again. My brother-in-law made pickled red onions last year, just a fridge batch, and they were delicious. (Also, I completely forgot to order onion starts this year and have regretted it every moment they're not in there ready to be harvested ...)
One more thought on jam: I'm going to a U-pick blueberry farm sometime soon with a friend, which made me think about make a mixed berry jam. Started looking up recipes and discovered "Black and Blueberry Jam" (points for clever naming), and then "Bumbleberry Jam", which is apparently a name for a jam involving at least 3 types of berries. The elderberry bush I planted a couple of years ago has some clusters of berries on it right now so I'm going to try a black/blue/elderberry bumble. Since I bruise easily and often bumble into things, more as I get older, this seems like a very appropriate combo.
This will be delicious! I’m just going to make that sweeping statement. My mother-in-law in England introduced me to this concept and the name bumbleberry jam and it worked out really well nearly every time. I don’t bruise easily but am very clumsy so it feels fitting to me, too!
Happy New Year Nia and continued bright walking within the moment by moment.
Hey, thank you, Harry!
This post is particularly beautiful.
I love the seasons. I love bending and shaping my daily habits with the ebbing and flowing of nature. It frees me from the thicket of ego, from the thicket of self, and allows me to feel part of something much bigger. Something timeless. Something sacred.
Listening to the recording of your pancake breakfast was pure joy. I love that you share these snippets from your wanderings and your personal life. They add warmth and charm.
Thank you for the links, Antonia. And thank you especially for the Robin Wall Kimmerer link. I will listen to her reading of the essay. I love the sound of her voice. It is calming and soothing. Wouldn't it be wonderful to share a campfire with her?
It would be so wonderful! I think of her almost every day, in fact, because one of my little rituals is to walk outside barefoot and pour the first of the coffee on the ground, in all seasons, which if I remember she described her parents doing in Braiding Sweetgrass and I started it after reading that section.
I'm glad you liked the recording. :) I was worried that the spatula scrape on the skillet needed a decibel warning, but even for me it was fun to relive that morning for a few minutes. I forgot there were so many birds singing.
It's so much about that thicket of ego-self, you're right. It's easier to let go of control and power-over thoughts when you're watching the chokecherries ripen when they will and not according to your convenience.
I listened to Kimmerer read her essay, An Economy of Abundance, tonight. It is so full of beauty and truth and hope that it made me weep. What more can I possibly say?
I will return to this essay many times.
Me too! Me too. 💚
This essay was exactly what I needed (and didn't know I needed). Thank you, Antonia! I crave seasonal rituals that carry me from one to the next, and have been feeling disconnected from them lately. My wife and I are considering leaving NYC and part of that discussion is a desire to be more connected to land than feels doable where we currently live.
That's really nice to hear! I feel that way about Kimmerer -- the serviceberry essay in particular.
I'm excited to hear about where your family journey takes you. Although I grew up like this, I didn't start doing it myself until I was living in a rural area of barely upstate New York (a little south of Newburgh if you know that area). We started with canning tomatoes and making jam and it grew from there. Jam in particular is pretty easy -- and delightful -- once you've done it a few times. (I use a low-sugar pectin, which takes a little more getting used to, but I like that it doesn't drown the fruit taste in sugar as much.)
That's so good to hear! My wife grew up with some of this (their Oma was always in the garden and canning things), but I definitely didn't and as much as I want to do it, I get overwhelmed with it. It's good to know that jam is easy :) I think the biggest trick for us is wanting to stay in a city (on the water, at that) AND wanting to be more connected to land. I know there's an answer out there somewhere, just feels like an impossible balancing act at the moment.
I'm very surprised to find that the website I used when I first started doing this stuff--about 15 years ago--is still up and running! I don't know if the person who ran it is still around but he'd always answer my emails when I had questions or worried I messed up: https://pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm
This looks so helpful, thank you so much, Antonia!
Good luck! Feel free to email me with questions anytime! Not that I'm an expert, just really enjoy doing some of the stuff.
That is a tricky one. A lot of the friends we made where we lived actually lived in NYC and had weekend cabins (non-winterized, usually). We all tended to congregate at an organic farm nearby on Saturdays. (The place and prepared food options look fancier than they used to on this website but I imagine the produce is the same. https://www.bloominghill.farm) I would have a very hard time letting go of living on water if I had access to that!
I tend to find all these preserving things intimidating at first, but then figure the worst I can do is probably get some boiling substance all over the kitchen. Maybe shatter a jar? But Mason jars are pretty resilient. My spouse didn't grow up doing any of this--he's from a big city in England--but got into it pretty quickly. And out of it just as quickly. 😂
It would be a big cross-country transition, but I'll offer up Olympia, WA for your consideration. Small town, not a city-city, with lots of great gardening and on Puget Sound. You wouldn't have all the theater and arts that you have in NYC but Amtrak Cascades can take you north to Seattle or south to Portland for a fix and we do have performing arts, as well as Evergreen State College and the community college offering up events. Our farmers' market is a happening event year round with locally grown items and fruits brought in from the agricultural lands in central Washington. Community-supported agriculture boxes are widely available, we have a great food co-op, I'll be going to pick blueberries with a friend at an organic farm a short bike ride away from my house, quite a few good restaurants. It's the state capital and you can walk to the capitol campus from downtown (or ride our fare-free transit system, or ride your bike), and the downtown has zero franchise businesses, meaning *no Starbucks*, only locally owned coffee shops and other businesses.
I could go on. After living in north Idaho, Spokane, and a few different neighborhoods in Seattle, I'm loving it here. First house I ever moved into that had neighbors knocking on my door within a day to introduce themselves and welcome us.
I don't work for the Chamber of Commerce, by the way.
This sounds like such a dream! A downtown with no franchise businesses? FARE-FREE TRANSIT SYSTEM?! I'm already halfway in love with Olympia from your description alone. Unfortunately, my wife and I don't want to be too far from some of our loved ones who are very settled on the east coast, so Washington (and the west coast in general) isn't a great option for us. I wish it was! Olympia is definitely high up on my visiting wish list now, though!
If I weren't rooted to where I am, I'd be in line for this! Most people talk up Port Townsend, but Olympia sounds at least as nice if not more so.
I smiled when I read the line about Eastern European fatalism, thinking of the entire genre of humor that has come out of that. Silver linings.
Everything is ripening here a little early. We'll be picking up blueberries from the local farm this week and stocking the freezer with those. In a couple of weeks, we'll be adding freezing pounds of blackberries from the vacant lot next door - permaculture zone 5! I'm still enjoying last year's berries on my overnight oats each morning. Our neighbor is from Wenatchee and picks up boxes of freestone peaches for us when he visits his brother. If the timing's right, we'll get some of his brother's apricots too.
I'm enjoying the cooler mornings. I like that it's still dark when I get up. At sunrise, it's just me and a rather loud osprey.
My year has always begun in September, between back to school or college, and my birthday at the end of the month. It was always a little bittersweet. The beginning of the month is now marked by Labor Day, when the summer people leave, and we get our island back. Now it's just sweet.
This year we're leaving towards the end of August for Finland and England, returning in mid-September. I have a feeling my year's going to start the moment we get back. We'll squeeze in a few mountain hikes before the snows come. It will soon be time to put away the deck furniture and check the generator ahead of the wind and rainstorms.
I love seasons.
Hello John,
I listened to the recording of you reading your "SOBs" essay and would just like to say that you are a fine writer and you have an excellent podcast voice. Keep it up.
Well, thank you Kenneth! That is most kind.
Love seeing this connection between you two!
There is an entire genre of humor! Russia’s difficult right now because propaganda has taken over so many minds. But the times I have spent an evening in people’s tiny apartments NOT being overfed and full of laughter and music by the end is pretty much zero.
Wenatchee is where the peaches here come from! Predictably, I suppose. They’re so good. I ended up freezing two boxes last year. When we lived in New York, I picked and froze about 30 pounds of blueberries every summer. Huckleberries are something I love so much more, but it takes a lot more work to get enough of them to freeze for the year.
What a beautiful trip that sounds like. I’m a little envious—haven’t been to Finland since I was a teenager! It’s probably a great time to be there. It feels like a good start to a year, and the new season.
Yes, I had several eastern European friends when I lived in Holland and later in New Jersey, particularly from Poland.
My wife qualified for Ironman 70.3 worlds in Lahti. We'll send some time in Helsinki, Tallinn too, at least for a day ferry trip, and the islands. I'll wave at Russia for you!
Please do, I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back. Your wife sounds pretty amazing!
My mom lived in Helsinki when my older sister was a baby. They'd take the train to Leningrad at the weekends to see my dad, before they were allowed to get married.
"Feminazgûl" is the band name to end all tedious band name discussions.
Isn’t it? It just shuts it DOWN.