The challenge of winter is to continue exercising at least half an hour each day regardless of weather. Taking a shovel to a couple inches of snow on the driveway is a natural, yet as warm as it’s been, isn’t a consistent source of exercise. Walking the trail is out, although some neighbors do it. I don’t enjoy the slippery surface the snow and ice mixture creates. A few days ago, I was getting a bit panicky as I hadn’t found anything to do.
I ended up searching the internet for ideas and came up with walking in place. I tried it a few days last week and based on how I felt after my half hour sessions, it is a better form of exercise than trail walking. Going forward, when I can get outside, I will. When I can’t, I’ll put on a CD and listen to music while stepping in place for a half hour. It’s something I can do until it’s time to begin working in the garden.
The message of this post is pretty simple. Unless we stick to the idea we need exercise in addition to what we get on an average day, our health will suffer for it. I’ve come to believe keeping at it — doing a set amount of daily exercise — is as important as the exercise we do. So, problem solved — for now.
Geese hanging around, waiting to fly south, Nov. 22, 2023.
Stars were bright at 4:45 a.m. despite a neighbor’s holiday lights interfering with the darkened sky. Orion and Ursa Major were easily evident, as were outdoors lights in the yards of distant neighbors. Points of light all jumbled together to create a personal galaxy. So began a day of cooking for us and countless others scattered across the landscape. It is American Thanksgiving and eating well is a main part of the holiday.
Shortly after Threads launched on July 5, 2023, I signed up for an account. I deactivated my Twitter account yesterday after giving Threads a thorough test drive, investigating the consequences of switching, and saying my goodbyes to those left on the decimated platform who still followed me. I’ll be fine. It was time to choose and I could not adapt to the social media platform Twitter became after its acquisition by Elon Musk.
I tried out all the social media groups to which I belong. Everything I don’t use is tucked in a bookmarks folder. Threads will be my main microblogging site. It’s different going from 1,348 followers to 100, yet I’m committed to change and already am getting to know people behind accounts on the new platform. Friends from other platforms are joining us.
This week, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and others in the administration joined Threads. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has been on the platform as long as I have. I suspect these new presences will release a number of people who have been holding back in making a change. News media and corporate accounts may be the last to arrive because they continue to prefer to present breaking news on X. They will come around, I predict, because the eyeballs will increasingly be on Threads.
So, that’s that. I’ll say no more about social media for a while.
Yesterday marked 60 years since the JFK assassination. I have living memory of that day, which means I see my former self in those moments related to the news spreading to Iowa. I am still standing with the crossing guard at Fillmore and Locust Streets when she tells me the news. I am still walking south on Fillmore toward the school. I am still sitting in the darkened classroom waiting for news as to whether the president would live. These memories seem likely to stick with me as long as I am sentient. They say the book Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK by Gerald Posner is the final word on who killed JFK. When I get time and resources to buy a copy, I will. I know how the book turns out.
I’m going outdoors to do some star gazing before heading to the kitchen. The world remains full of wonder and with our engagement, decisions can be made. We pick our battles, hopefully decide well, and move on.
The author’s first Thanksgiving in 1952 with Father and my maternal grandmother. Photo by Mother.
It would be great to write just one more post about Thanksgiving and be done with the holiday. Aside from the fact certain relatives get time off because of it, Turkey Day serves no useful purpose.
Politicians make hay over the cost of Thanksgiving dinner. The American Farm Bureau Association reported a 4.5 percent drop in price for the meal this year compared to last. The average cost of a dinner for ten people was $61.17, they said, although the longer term trend is an increase since 2019. Democrats focus on the price decrease, Republicans nit pick the data and find incremental increases, regardless of AFBA reporting. For example, the price of sauces and gravies is up 7.5 percent, reported my congresswoman. I think the purpose of the holiday is to be thankful for what we have and make sure everyone eats this day regardless of means. That gets lost in our politics.
There is social pressure to develop a narrative in response to the question, “How was your Thanksgiving?” Times I responded with “we didn’t do anything special,” killed the conversation. Years we prepared a special meal were at home, my spouse and myself. Because our child works in the entertainment industry, they usually had to work Thanksgiving. Who needs such social pressure? I’d rather discuss more important matters.
Thanksgiving is a boon to retailers and if one ventures out during the days before the holiday, a well-curated shopping list combined with excellent knowledge of store layouts is essential to maintaining good mental health. I went out on Monday and the stores were already crowded. Our specialty items for the big meal — sweet potatoes and wild rice — were already in the pantry so I stocked up with a 20-pound bag of organic rice, salt for the water softener, items for the freezer, and plant-based beverages. We were almost out of some items, otherwise I would have avoided shopping completely.
While growing up, Thanksgiving was a big deal and a living celebration. After Father died in 1969, the holidays weren’t as much fun any more. Eventually my side of the family just stopped celebrating Thanksgiving. In retrospect, my maternal grandmother was the person who held this tradition together. She died in 1991.
I no longer feel particularly alone on Thanksgiving, even if my spouse is away from home. With telephones and video conferencing, they day is highlighted by such contact and the opportunity to get caught up with each other. Anymore, contact doesn’t always happen on that Thursday, but during the days before and after.
Below is a Thanksgiving dinner we prepared for the two of us in 2013. We had leftovers for a week. We no longer prepare such massive feasts. Rice and beans makes a complete meal. Throw in a sweet potato and a relish tray and we are good to go.
Thanksgiving dinner in 2013.
I wish readers a happy holiday season. Hopefully we each have plenty for which to be thankful. Thanks for reading.
One last shot before the deciduous tree leaves have fallen. Oct. 27, 2023.
The first hard frost is a couple weeks late. The forecast is Sunday night with ambient temperatures in the 20s. I’m ready. Perishables are harvested from the garden, the garden hose rolled up in the garage. I plan to mow one more time. With any luck it will be before the Trick or Treaters come Tuesday evening.
Kale harvest before the first hard frost, Oct. 27, 2023.
The wheat straw covering my garlic patch sprouted. I assume frost will kill it. I’ve never had that much seed in my straw. Buying it from a different vendor makes a difference. If wheat survives the cold, I’ll have to turn the straw and kill it myself. I am reluctant to add the descriptor “wheat murderer” to my resume. Garlic takes precedence over making a few wheat biscuits.
Golf carts of Halloween.
Halloween trick or treat night is an occasion for parents of young children to get out the golf cart and run with their neighborhood peers. I get around the neighborhood by walking, but I’m old school.
Short post today. It’s turning out to be a busy Sunday. Thanks for reading.
The election is three weeks away and it will be anti-climactic in Big Grove Township. There are two candidates for two open school board seats and that’s it. The incumbents are competent people and they earned my support this election. We haven’t decided when and where we will vote, yet in all likelihood it will be at our regular polling place on election day.
Our household is following the news and we’re looking for some positive light. It has been in short supply. It seems the Middle East War will expand beyond Hamas and Israel despite President Joe Biden’s competent management of American support for Israel and the Palestinian people. Expansion of the conflict is not certain, yet there are so many players and so many years of hostilities and conflict, dodging a broader war seems impossible. It is not a good, short-term sign that Israelis are turning against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right wing divisiveness at this moment.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Republicans have yet to elect a speaker after removing Kevin McCarthy on Oct. 5. We have until Nov. 17 to pass a budget or the government will face another cliff and need to pass a second continuing resolution. I’m okay with the Republican plan to pass individual spending bills instead of an omnibus or minibus bill. The clock is running out on their ability to do so and gain U.S. Senate agreement.
Iowa is literally turning into a sick place to live. Our leading causes of death (2021 data) are heart disease and cancer. Iowa is ranked 16th among the states in deaths from heart disease and 24th from cancer. Since 2021, data from the Iowa Cancer Registry indicates Iowa has the second highest incidence rate of cancer in the country. With harvest in full swing, particulate matter in the air is at high levels, afflicting people with respiratory diseases. A report released yesterday indicated Iowans’ incidence of COPD is higher than the national average. Rates of chronic lower respiratory diseases in Iowa are the fifth leading cause of death.
It is important to keep hope alive, despite the challenges of doing so.
While in the kitchen making soup this week, Iowa Public Radio announced new weekend news programming. Someone had to be removed to make room in the lineup. It was sad when they announced it was Fiona Ritchie whose Thistle and Shamrock I’ve been following for many years. She has been a mainstay of my weekend radio listening. The only remaining folk music program will be The Folk Tree with local host Karen Impola who arrived in Iowa from the East Coast in 1990.
Since Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion transitioned and then ended, the statewide public radio station had been cutting purchases of outside programming for weekend listening. Today much of the afternoon lineup is locally produced. Some of the replacement programming is good, others not so much.
I could get my Fiona Ritchie fix by streaming her content, yet that’s not the same as live radio: turning on the radio and accepting what is programmed while preparing dinner or doing dishes. To make streaming work, I’d need a device that connects to the internet with me in the kitchen. We have Wi-Fi, yet I’m not ready to give up radio just yet. It means something for the broadcast to be received live while I’m working.
Most public radio news programs are intolerable. While they mastered a format, the content has been less than engaging. The reporters are too familiar with themselves and less focused on listeners. We did donate our last two used automobiles to Iowa Public Radio, so I feel a sense of investment in what they do. It has not been a happy experience of late.
I can live without Fiona Ritchie like I live without Keillor and the rest of the former weekend lineup. Living today isn’t what it was when we moved to Big Grove Township in 1993. It stabilized, yet I can’t say it’s better. Thistle and Shamrock is one more piece of a past life receding into memory. It’s the part of aging I don’t enjoy. Thanks for the time together, Fiona Ritchie. Best wishes for a bright future.
I’ve been sleeping in fits: lucky to get five straight hours, I’d rather have, and need seven or eight. This morning I woke after five, couldn’t sleep, read 50 pages of poetry, and still couldn’t get back to sleep. I got up and worked my daily routine, made breakfast, and laid down and slept for another two straight hours. It’s no way to live.
During those two hours I returned to a dream from another sleep. I dreamed I was in Germany with one of my farm buddies and other people who weren’t alive yet when I was last there. I returned for a lost item from the previous dream and found it. Then I returned it to my farm friend and woke up.
Details are already sketchy. In typical fashion, I’ll forget about it quickly. For a little while, I wondered what the hell that meant. Then I decided to accept it and get on with my day.
Today is about care packages. I will finish assembling the one to go to our child with garden produce. I’ll also make soup and chili to take to my spouse and her sister the next trip to the state capitol. I don’t know if I’m finished dreaming, yet I hope not.
My focus in the garden turned to apples. By weight, it is the biggest crop I grow. Doing something useful with them drives me to spend much kitchen time processing them. Zestar! and Earliblaze are finished with Red Delicious remaining to close out the garden season.
Of the four varieties I grow, Red Delicious hang the longest on the tree. When they produce, there are many, many of of them. Our needs for juice, applesauce, apple butter, dried apples, and fresh eating are modest compared to the quantity on the tree. I’m already looking for placement of most of them in a Community Supported Agriculture project.
Tomatoes are finishing and it has been a good season. Because of spring trouble getting seedlings to take, there weren’t as many, or as many different varieties, as I had hoped. The difference this year compared to last is that we used most garden tomatoes in our kitchen instead of giving them away. Tomatoes are a brief delight of summer. Once ours are gone, I expect to buy very few tomatoes at the grocer.
I took down the portable greenhouse and noticed a problem with the zipper at the access point. I don’t know if it will be usable next year but I folded it up and put away the frame. Replacing it will be a spring decision, although I likely will. The portable greenhouses are good for a couple of seasons.
I need to figure out fall garden plot preparation. Where will the burn pile be? Where will the garlic go next month? Where will tomatoes go next year?
The burn pile is important because I move it around to deposit minerals throughout the garden. Because we are in a drought I won’t actually burn anything until rain comes. There needs to be plenty of space to pile it high while we wait.
I plan to plant 100 garlic seeds and it will likely be in the plot where the garden composter currently lives. The pallets used to make the composter are getting old and deteriorated. I will likely move the composter to the west side of the garden. I hang my Practical Farmers of Iowa sign on it, so on that side, it may be more visible from the street.
Finally, there are tomatoes, likely the most important crop I grow. This year, deer were able to jump the fence and eat many small tomato plants. Next year I plan to return to a crowding method of tomato planting. By giving deer no place to land inside the fence, they can’t jump in, and the plants grow better. The issue is it crowds me as well. I liked having four-foot rows between the tomatoes this year. It made it easier for me to get among the plants to weed and harvest. It made it easier for the deer as well. I may have enough fencing to install eight-foot tall chicken wire around them next year. This may be the compromise I choose to keep four foot rows. Which plot will tomatoes go? I’m not sure yet, although I favor following the garlic.
As home life turns to apple processing, I enjoy the sense of closure it brings. In years when there are few apples, gardening doesn’t seem the same. In the coming days I’ll embrace the apple rush. Who knows how many more there will be?
A woman posted her hobbies on a community website to encourage people to contact her to be friends. She was new to the county seat and was having trouble getting to know people, the post said. To encourage people, she listed these hobbies: discovering places/things, thrift stores, garage sales, movies, going out to eat, and museums. I wish her well.
I don’t have consumer-oriented hobbies like shopping or attending events. I’m caught up in living and don’t have time for extras like a hobby. In any case, I view myself as a maker rather than a hobbyist and am consumed with figuring out my world and doing something positive in it. Producing a garden or shopping for books are not hobbies. They are just one more thing I do to keep the operation going.
There is a difference between a hobbyist and a crafter. For example, someone who builds and collects scale model replicas of aircraft spends a lot of time on a kit making it look as professional as possible.The finished product then goes with the rest of their collection. This is a hobbyist. A crafter, on the other hand, sews a shirt with the express purpose of wearing it, and then wearing it out. If I make something, I want to be able to use it and if I wear it out, I’ll make another.
When I attend political meetings, or when I served on a board at the university, invariably someone brought crocheting or knitting to keep their hands busy while the meeting continued. Whatever they were working on was a gift for someone or for some special event. They always found value in even the most tedious meetings. Maybe we all would have felt more productive if we had brought crocheting.
It is fair to redefine how we live our lives. If someone calls my gardening a hobby, that doesn’t bother me. It also doesn’t mean I have to call it one too. Maybe I just don’t want to relate to the person in a hobby-like manner. In fact, for me, it’s not about the craftsmanship that goes into a hobby. It’s the fact I can have a conversation with someone about it. That is more sustainable than building a shelf for the knickknacks collected from countless indistinguishable trips to thrift shops.
The idea that I could get together with strangers who share a hobby is off the charts bad. Why would I want to divert from said hobby unless I hoped to learn something to solve a specific problem? I wouldn’t. Life is short. We spend our time as productively as is possible. If it is hobby-like, well that’s not my concern.
This is one tart, tasty apple drink. I’m not sure what to call it.
When I make applesauce, I steam cored apples in enough water to cover the bottom of a pan. Additional moisture is released from the apples. Everything goes into a cone sieve strainer resting on a large Rubbermaid pitcher. Once the liquid filters out I move the strainer to a second identical pitcher and separate the applesauce from the peels. The liquid goes into jars which are stored in the refrigerator until used. I made about a gallon of it already.
Every kitchen has the potential for unique culinary items like this. With the thousands of cookbooks out there, someone is likely to have described this apple beverage previously. It is one more way to use produce in a kitchen garden.
Tomato peeling for canning whole.
I grow enough tomatoes to sort them by size and type. Medium-sized ones are to be canned whole and the process is much like what exists in other kitchens. I core them and put a small X in the bottom. Dip them in boiling water for a minute or two and then cool them in an ice water bath before peeling. Next, I cram them into a quart jar leaving about an inch of head space. Once filled, they go into a water bath canner for 40 minutes. This is a simple, reliable technique.
Some people add salt or a teaspoon of vinegar to the tomatoes before canning. I rarely have an issue with spoilage, so I leave it out. I can’t recall how many quart jars of whole tomatoes I put up in 2022 yet I have a half dozen left.
I make tomato sauce. Most of the crop of Amish Paste and San Marzano goes into sauce. Similar to making applesauce, I steam cook the tomatoes until the flesh gives with a spoon without adding any liquid to the pan. Into the cone sieve strainer the whole thing goes where they sit while the juice drains off. The juice is canned until I have enough quart jars to last at least a year. It is mostly for soup making. In the second pitcher, I separate the skins and seeds leaving a rich, thick tomato sauce. This goes into pint-sized jars. It’s enough to make a batch of pasta sauce for two people. The organic tomato sauce I buy at the wholesale club costs about $0.75 per 15-ounce can. It is good, yet I like using my own first. I’m at the point of summer when I’m running out of new canning lids. When I went to the home, farm and auto supply store to get more last week, they were out as well.
The dehydrator is running with Red Rocket variety hot chili peppers. When these dry, I’ll crush them and use for red pepper flakes, replacing the ones from last year. Since my spouse doesn’t like hot stuff, a little goes a long way.
I picked a half dozen Red Delicious apples and while crunchy and sweet, they are not at peak sweetness. I’ll wait a while before harvesting for the kitchen. Apples and pears have been so abundant this year, most of the crop will feed wild animals though the winter. I need about three more quarts of applesauce. Then I’ll pick the best to eat raw for refrigerator storage and juice the rest until all the half gallon jars are fermenting vinegar. It has been a great apple year.
A couple of bananas were getting overly ripe. I made banana bread for the first time since I can’t remember. I used the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion cookbook for the recipe. It came out quite good. The challenge for banana bread in our household is to reduce oil and take out the eggs and milk products. The egg replacements I used previously haven’t really worked. I use applesauce instead of eggs to make cornbread. Maybe I’ll try that next time. Once I try a recipe that works, and this one did, I then start to tweak it to make it low oil and vegan. Eggs are so much a part of American cooking it is difficult to give them up. We do like banana bread.
For supper I made a pizza with home made dough, my tomato sauce, and toppings of sliced onions, jalapeno peppers and tomatoes from the garden. Cheese was mozzarella and a sprinkle of Parmesan. There will be leftovers.
So that’s what went on in our kitchen today. Despite outdoors temperatures around 90 degrees all afternoon, I made the best of it inside. It felt like a productive day.
Journey Home 
You must be logged in to post a comment.