Waiting for a freeze...

How about a little canning and wild crafting glam??

Fox grapes along the creek gathered while standing in a tractor front loader...

 

become an itsy weeny grape pie... 

Scrappy abandoned pears become... 

cinnamon pears for a winter's day salad....

and fall berries become a mantel centerpiece... 

Fall is here, although the calendar and the temperatures don't quite support that declaration... The leaves are dancing in the breeze and there is a certain crispness in the mornings that hints to the knowledgeable that sweaters will soon be the order of the morning. Dew hangs heavy on anything left out overnight and it is later and later in the morning before things dry out.

Hay is coming to the hay barn and, at last, the tomato vines have decided their work here is done. I have one or two more canners of tomatoes and we will be finished with them. Thank. Goodness.

Apples were not quite ready last week, so they are still on the horizon and the pigs, Hammie, Sausage, and Bacon, will be processed October 26. We treat them to all the leavings from canning and have started adding a little corn and higher protein food to help them put on a little fat layer. Yorkshires are quite trim, by nature, so any fat on them just adds to the flavor of the sausage.

Soon, we will watch the snow fly and wonder where the summer went. Until then, I sip my morning coffee on the porch as the sun comes up casting diamonds through the air and welcoming all creatures great and small to another beautiful day.