Storing Nuts for Winter
This is one of my favorite times of year (yours too, I see!). I love the nostalgia of it, the melancholy of it, the fresh-start of it. I love the switch from white wine to red. I love that I want to run out and buy notebooks and mechanical pencils even though I don’t have 10 pages on the symbolism in A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man due anytime soon. I love that my desire to wear plaid is unshakable, and that on the way to the grocery store yesterday, I caught sight of a tree already turning red at its edges. I like the pumpkins outside people’s houses, the flurry of wholesome activities each weekend (corn maze, anyone?), and the way you can feel one sunny, summer activity-driven life slipping away and something else, something utterly unknown settling in.
But one of the things that I love most of all about this very moment in time is the bounty of summer produce running headlong into the gourds, plums, and squash. Nestled next to the acorn squash, with which you will make soup, is a flat of heirloom tomatoes and thick branches of basil. In terms of produce, I can’t imagine a more bountiful time of year.
There is a mad dash, of course, one that started in late August and finds itself winding down in these next couple of weeks, to put everything up — to preserve, to can, to freeze. I hadn’t felt quite so comforted and cared for as when my mom recently sent me home with five containers of “hell,” (a spicy tomato and vegetable mixture for kicky winter soups), two coffee cans full of homemade granola, and a jar of pesto. It wasn’t just the idea that I had the start to some great meals that was so comforting. It was the way I had watched her bustle around the kitchen making everything, and then packed it up in matching containers, and wedging it all into an insulated bag for me to take back home. I was nursing some kind of existential heartache, and this care package was my bandage.
And maybe that’s getting to the heart of another thing I love about this time of year — whatever hurts we have tend to rear their heads as the light and the air shift into something cooler and less severe. But so too does our desire to be coddled a bit. I blame the weather for it all — the weepiness, the wistfulness, the desire to swaddle ourselves in wool blankets, to have our hands held, our hair stroked. So even if all our vulnerabilities bubble right to surface, at least our allowance to be cared for is not far behind.
Amy C: This might sound a bit crazy, but I think it’s the trees. There’s something about them in the autumn – stripping away their layers to bare sticks – that reflects in my own mood, too. At the same time I put on more layers of clothes, I feel like the inner part of me pares down to its essence. I always find myself more spiritually connected, more vulnerable in the autumn. I think that’s because nature allows us by becoming bare and vulnerable, too.2 years ago
Christine S.: So very true! All of it…I’m excited about the prospect of butternut squash/white bean soup this weekend!
And, I so fervently remember the care packages from my parents when I was away at school – homemade Italian wedding soup was a true one as well as homemade biscotti to share with my roomies. That was many, many moons ago, though.
Even though a relationship doesn’t exist right now for me nor does it seem that the prospects are around the bend, this is such a romantic time of year where our souls, along with our bodies and minds, crave nourishment and nurturing.
Plaid and school supplies, though, I have to smile!:) So many kindred spirits viewing this site and making comments. I love it!2 years ago
Margaret: Existential heartache, agreed! It’s been at me for a few weeks, and I can’t yet put my finger on its source, but I am trying to cope, with neither hair-stroker nor mother-cook present. This involves: decluttering, in an effort to have my apt match the mood outside (like the trees mentioned above), tenaciously clinging to dates with girlfriends to cheer my heart, and going to the gym and getting to dance in the studio at least once a week, to let my soul out for a walk, or a dance, as it were!2 years ago
Lisa (dinner party): Sob! This post makes me really miss my mom. What a thoughtful (and useful!) care package.2 years ago
fefe: yum-cannot wait to see all of the recipes you concoct with your goodies. do you have the spicy tomato recipe base on here? if not, is this something you would be willing to post? PLEASE
thanks!2 years ago
Catherine: Sara, the photography on your blog is always so lovely, what kind of camera do you use?2 years ago
ann: Oooh I hope you’ll share “hell” with us soon – I’ve got a handful of CSA squash that I just don’t know what to do with!2 years ago
Amy C, I love that observation!
Christine, I so enjoy the kindred spirit comments, too. It brings this site such an amazing, warm sense of community that I think you don’t often find on the internet…at least I don’t. It’s like Cheers, but on your computer!
Margaret, I’m feeling that decluttering bug, too. And I don’t dance (I mean, not in a fancy way, only in a in-the-living-room and at-parties way), but I love going to step aerobics for a similar reason. It feels so freeing to fling your body around and move it in ways that don’t involve sit-stand-type-walk. I think arabesques are good for the soul.
Lisa, Do you want me to make you a care package and send you home with granola? Cause I would do that for you.
fefe, You know, my mom always does it, so I’ll have to see if she’ll share how she does it. More on that soon!
Catherine, So funny that you say that on this post because I was thinking this photo was kind of an eyesore.
My camera is a Nikon D70s and I love it, even though I don’t totally understand it.
Ann, Tell me about it, re: squash. We’ll see what my mom says about Hell when she gets back from the trip she’s on.2 years ago
Margaret: What if we just gave ourselves an assignment of a 10-pager on symbolism in Fill-In-The-Blank classic novel? That might actually be kinda fun… okay, my out-of-school-for-over-a-year roots are showing, I know!2 years ago
Evon T.: The crisp air of Fall feels as though it cleanses my soul. And a Fall kiss between a girl and her suitor at the end of a date is forever imprinted on her heart.2 years ago