The Day Has Arrived

Wednesday was the day to start hitting the canned and frozen garden harvest!  Hard to believe I  hold off until it looks like winter has set in but the day has arrived.  We did have green beans, tomatoes, pickled beets and spaghetti sauce left from 2013 harvest.  Now that is gone and 2014 is a go.  Thursday night we had asparagus from the freezer. Very tasty, just not the fresh snappy way we prefer.  Last night was Rainbow Swiss Chard also from the freezer.  That was delicious and the same tenderness when we fix fresh picked.  This is the first year we had planted it and it will be at the top of our seed list come February.  I will be honest, I love all four seasons, even the cold snowy winter.  The cold crisp days with blue sky or even the days with heavy clouds and beautiful snow falling down, they all make for our favorite walk into Kirk's Valley.  Seeing what animals have been out and about or hearing the quiet of the woods all makes for a peaceful enjoyable touch with nature and its beauty.  We are anxiously waiting to hit the trails.  My X-Country skis need repaired, although I have a feeling it might be buy a new pair.  Ours are 27 years old and paid $100. for them, poles and boots.  I guess we got our $ worth. It will be interesting to see what they cost now.  There I go, off my topic, that's me, a wandering bundle of thoughts!   Back to the garden food.  Bringing out all the good fruits and veggies had us start chatting about where to plant what and what seeds to buy.  All part of the winter break for resting and forgetting how tired we get during garden time.  Like women giving birth to a child, pain is quickly forgotten.  Odd way to compare but most moms will know what I'm getting at.

The hard part of the cold winter days is lunch.  Not working outside tends to haunt us that we can not eat as much.  I guess the tall skinny guy doesn't have to worry, it's the short not skinny gal that needs to worry!   Last week while shopping at Wegmans we bought specialty meats, cheeses and an assortment of olives from the Olive Bar.  Dick had made leek spread last spring using York Cheese, Cream Cheese and some top secret ingredients.  He is in charge of his own creation and it is good! We pulled it from the freezer, with Italian Sopressata, Genoa Salami, Swiss Cheese, Smoked Gouda, crackers and hot pepper jelly I made last September.   A slice of meat, cheese on top of a cracker spread with the hot pepper jelly, that was a delicious light lunch.  We had a couple Clementines to end the meal, they are little balls of orange sugar.  I always think of my mom when I eat a Clementine.  She loved tangerines and starting around Christmas she made sure we had plenty.  I traded my love for tangerines in when the Clementine became available, no seeds and so much sweeter.

The first day of deer season is the day I take down the fall decorations and haul out the winter ones.  This year has been a "lighten the load" at least that was my plan and by gosh I stuck to it.  I really like the small white strings of lights so I put garlands strung with lights on my large pieces and up the stairs.  One little rustic artificial Christmas tree with white lights in the front window.  A quick painted snowman board with an old bucket filled with pine bows and bare branches sprayed silver, strung with........yes white lights and that is on the front porch.  Everything will stay until the first of March and then bring on spring!

From the front porch looking in ♥

Tomorrow is blackberry and raspberry jam and jelly day.  It took me until the age of 63 (2 yrs ago) to realize....freeze the berries after a long hot summer day of picking and pull them from the freezer on a cold winter day to use.  Nothing better than smelling berries simmering, it is so much more enjoyable.  "Almost" doesn't seem like work.

It's that time of the year to think of giving, be it as simple as homemade what ever or a talent you have to teach another.......just do it......Pass It On ♥♥♥