Webmaster’s note: The format of this column has changed a bit, with all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! This month’s column is written by Phil.
Could this be why?
Every year it happens. The cool starts to the days. The dark, dark early mornings. The hints of the colors to come as September advances.
It all invigorates me and adds a quickness to my step. I wonder if it is the cool, the beauty, the bounty, or…the foreshadowing. My northern brain, lacking long-term memory, has lulled me into a false sense of security. The cool starts prick the recesses of my mind, and lead me to inventory: time for the wood to be in the shed, time to harvest and preserve, time to start all the projects that had a vague end time of “before the snow flies.”
Perhaps this is why a strawberry tastes better warmed by the sun, and an apple tastes better cold and crisp off of the tree. One says, “kneel, stay awhile and linger with my taste in your mouth,”; the other says, “reach, stretch, climb and I will refresh you for your task.”
Perhaps this is the reason that the migratory birds scream, “suckers!”, as they bee-line it to where it is still strawberry season.
Perhaps this is the reason the ones that stay stop breeding for the year and concentrate on their own calories instead of their descendants’.
Perhaps this is the reason the trees hint at their imminent sleep with dazzling colors that leave them naked and free from the pursuits of the last year.
I wonder if they all feel it like I do. Do the trees feel the dark and the cool and think, “better start in on that”? Do the birds wonder what happened to the summer and why they didn’t start in on something sooner?
Every season has its cares, and I am so grateful that fall’s cares, while as urgent as the rest of the seasons, can be accomplished in the comfort of crisp autumn air.
Every season also comes with its own flavors, and fall offers the bounty of the land: slow-cooked veal stew simmered with garlic, onions, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, greens, leeks; veal cutlets in a simple sauce of fresh tomatoes, capers, garlic, and lemon; veal short ribs in homemade barbecue sauce. BLTs! Crock pot pork loin roast with freshly dug potatoes, crispy kale, and sweet corn if you’re lucky. Add fresh tomatoes with queso fresco and basil for the simplest and happiest-making salad. Fresh pears and cottage cheese for a light lunch?
Food from our farm and farming neighbors can make warm days and cool evenings sparkle.
Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Heather is Vice President of Halcyon Grange #345 and writes a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and has generously permitted us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.