Falling leaves are the cue to get moving on preparations for the coming cold snowy winter season.

Falling leaves are the cue to get moving on preparations for the coming cold snowy winter season.

Get busy, winter is coming

At this end of the seasonal spectrum, it’s all about harvesting, and planning for the next year if you can find the time.

Like its equinoctial bookend Spring, the fall is buzzing with the dirty business of the earth’s abundance. At this end of the seasonal spectrum, it’s all about harvesting, and planning for the next year if you can find the time.

Now is the time to race through the forests hunting the elusive fungi for mushroom buyers or your own frying pan. Now is also the time to pick fruit,  dig up buried potato treasures, split and stack firewood, discover the nth-possible use for zucchini, get livestock ready for winter, and find those winter tires.

Yes, it’s a busy time of year; there seems to be so much it’s hard to find room to store away what will be enjoyed during the severity of snow and cold. But what’s better than taking out dried mushrooms for a rich soup that will warm you to the core? Not much.

So, time to get out there hunting and collecting: Chanterelles, Pines, Lobsters, the occasional and odd Jelly. The best Easter egg hunt ever; because really, how many hard boiled eggs or jelly beans can one person eat anyway? Here kid, have a pine mushroom instead. And even if you don’t like the things, you can always try foisting them off on Dan and Jan in trade for cash. It’s all about the hunt, after all.

What? There are still blackberries and apples, grapes and plums to pick? Quick, man the dehydrators and unzip the freezer bags to catch the fruit cascade! Sweet.

Thank heavens for root vegetables that can stay in the ground a little bit longer while every other thing is chased down. Second only to mushrooms is the joy of discovering plump little potatoes nestled in the soil, just waiting for you to come find them. Scrubbed red beauties served with butter and chives or even a little mint, mmmm.

Is the freezer ready for deer? Or turkey? Or chicken? Or maybe a Legendary cow? It better be in a hurry.

What about bucking and splitting those windfalls in the back forty? Or buying a load of firewood with a few folks who will have hungry fires to feed in the cold of winter.

Yes, winter is coming, George R.R. Martin, and when it does we’ll get a chance to wade through your enormous stories of intrigue. Until then it’s hair straight back getting ready for the flying snow.

At this end of the seasonal spectrum, it’s all about harvesting, and planning for the next year if you can find the time.

Now is the time to race through the forests hunting the elusive fungi for mushroom buyers or your own frying pan. Now is also the time to pick fruit,  dig up buried potato treasures, split and stack firewood, discover the nth-possible use for zucchini, get livestock ready for winter, and find those winter tires.

Yes, it’s a busy time of year; there seems to be so much it’s hard to find room to store away what will be enjoyed during the severity of snow and cold. But what’s better than taking out dried mushrooms for a rich soup that will warm you to the core? Not much.

So, time to get out there hunting and collecting: Chanterelles, Pines, Lobsters, the occasional and odd Jelly. The best Easter egg hunt ever; because really, how many hard boiled eggs or jelly beans can one person eat anyway? Here kid, have a pine mushroom instead. And even if you don’t like the things, you can always try foisting them off on Dan and Jan in trade for cash. It’s all about the hunt, after all.

What? There are still blackberries and apples, grapes and plums to pick? Quick, man the dehydrators and unzip the freezer bags to catch the fruit cascade! Sweet.

Thank heavens for root vegetables that can stay in the ground a little bit longer while every other thing is chased down. Second only to mushrooms is the joy of discovering plump little potatoes nestled in the soil, just waiting for you to come find them. Scrubbed red beauties served with butter and chives or even a little mint, mmmm.

Is the freezer ready for deer? Or turkey? Or chicken? Or maybe a Legendary cow? It better be in a hurry.

What about bucking and splitting those windfalls in the back forty? Or buying a load of firewood with a few folks who will have hungry fires to feed in the cold of winter.

Yes, winter is coming, George R.R. Martin, and when it does we’ll get a chance to wade through your enormous stories of intrigue. Until then it’s hair straight back getting ready for the flying snow.

 

Arrow Lakes News