"It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." A.Holmes

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Pumpkin Time !

 " October is the jewel set in the hand of time."  Gladys Taber
 October finally brought in real autumn weather here in north-eastern Washington , here at our new home, in our fields, our forest, our gardens. I remember anew why autumn is my favorite season.
 Look at all the pumpkins and squashes we've harvested ! The pumpkins and squashes in the pictures are just a few of the pumpkins we harvested from our own vegetable garden.
 Here is the garden this month. The cornstalks are dry and ready for us to cut and use to decorate porch posts but before they dried up they produced a great amount of very sweet corn . The corn was truly the very best sweet corn I've ever eaten. Maybe it is true sweet corn fresh-picked from the garden and cooked right away IS the best .

You can see our fields and woods in the background. What you cannot see are the wild turkeys, pheasants, and deer we see in the fields every day from our windows. We have a hard time tearing ourselves away from the windows in the mornings as we sip our coffee while watching the wild life. We can also watch our sheep and chickens from the windows. And we watch the seasons change ...
 ...now turning green fields gold and brown, coloring the leaves bright orange , red, yellow, and brown before they're blown away making way for November's dark wet freezing ways. The pumpkins are frosted every morning and just a few days ago we had snow on the hills across our gravel road.
 I picked all our pumpkins and squashes last week to save them for our own use. We grew all our pumpkins and squashes from seed of the pumpkins and squashes we bought last year. I am particularly fond of the blue 'Meat Eater' squashes. They last for many months if stored in a cooler dry place and are quite tasty. ( I store them in the loft in my wool-working shed.)
 I decorated our front porch with a few pumpkins and squashes. During the afternoon hours our front porch is the warmest place around our home and our Viszla Hawk chooses to nap here. In the summer this porch is the perfect place for my husband and I to sip our morning coffee while watching my sheep and gazing at the hills and low mountains across the gravel road. ( The hills that had snow a few days ago.)
 " Pumpkins were a staple food for early Americans , who inherited the vegetable from the Indians, and learned many ways to cook it from the Indians , too. In those days pumpkin was cut in small pieces, strung on a cords and hung in front of the fireplace to dry, then stored for year-round use. Everything was made of pumpkin, from beverages to soup , from pie to bread, from custard to cake, and even a kind of flour. The pioneers tired of their diet of pumpkin, but they were saved from starvation in many a lean, cold winter."  from 'The New England Butt'ry Shelf Almanac by Mary Mason Campbell

My husband and I are especially thankful for our abundant pumpkin and squash harvest because not only do we love good baked squash smothered in butter and brown sugar, our chickens and sheep love the pumpkins and squashes cut up and raw. This helps us immensely with the feed bill and also provides them good nutrition to carry them through the cold winter months.

We are loving our new home and the very distinct seasons here and right now it is PUMPKIN TIME! 

" He causes the grass to grow for the cattle , and vegetation for the labor of man, so that He may bring forth from the earth , and wine which makes man's heart glad..." Psalm 104: 14,15

10 comments:

Karen @ Beatrice Euphemie said...

What a wonderful harvest grown in your beautiful garden! The blue squash are really pretty, too. Such a satisfying feeling to grow your own delicious food. I could sit on your lovely porch all day and gaze at all that beautiful scenery....Hard to believe this year is almost over already. Wishing you a lovely week's end. xo Karen

Leigh said...

Beautiful! I love pumpkins but find cushaws do better for us. But they look and taste like pumpkin!

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

What a wonderful harvest of lovely pumpkins. Grown from seed collected last year. Fantastic! I love reading about and seeing pics of your new farm. It sounds like you are really settling in.

Love, hugs & prayers ~ FlowerLady

A.K.W. said...

Beautiful pictures!

Amy

Texastracking said...

Y'all are truly enjoying the benefits of retirement - beautiful location, time to enjoy the beauty of nature as well as having family so close by. Hooray for Autumn and retirement!

Debbie - Mountain Mama said...

I absolutely love this post....and I love how much you are LOVING your new home and all the beauty that surrounds you! We had our first frost on Monday night, but no snow yet. Temps are weirdly warm, normally we would have seen more than one frost by now, and often some flurries. Oh well, I'll take it while I can, the winter will be long enough! ps there is a recipe on my blog for pumpkin lasagna, and it's amazing!
http://www.mountainmamaonline.net/2016/01/pumpkin-lasagna-no-really.html

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Pumpkins and squashes of all types are favorites of ours as well and how satisfying to know that the ones you are enjoying were also harvested from your own garden! When we lived in VA, we also grew pumpkins, but unfortunately they were planted too early in the season and I don'e recall whether or not we had any by late Oct. We just enjoyed store-bought acorn squash stuffed with wild rice, mushrooms and sausage for dinner last night.And we also enjoy them the way you mentioned with brown sugar and butter and some cinnamon and nutmeg too, so delicious!

Anonymous said...

I am so happy for you guys, Kathy. So thankful you are happy. I enjoyed seeing your pumpkins/squash. How grand it must be to enjoy the wildlife thru the window each morning while enjoying coffee. xo

Unknown said...

What a wonderful harvest of lovely pumpkins. Grown from seed collected last year. Fantastic! I love reading about and seeing pics of your new farm. It sounds like you are really settling in.

doctor strange (2016)

Lady Jane said...

I am glad you are content and happy in your new home. You have settled in and starting to enjoy the fruits of your labor. God is good. hugs, lj