now is a good time to plant garlic
These garlic stems were gifted to us from a local shop owner whose mom runs a prolific local farm called Two Pony Farm. It wasn’t until we got home that and looked up “deerfield purple” that I realized what a lovely gift this is. We’ll probably re-plant one bulb’s worth of cloves, and eat the other two. I am excited to try it. Isn’t hand-grown foodstuffs one of the best gifts ever? I used to like homemade meal gifts, but now I think I appreciate an exquisite raw ingredient gift even more. Maybe that makes me weird, or maybe, it just means I spent a lot of time living in France where perfect raw ingredients are as revered as the final dish or perhaps more.
deerfield purple garlic
* Deerfield Purple (also known as Vietnamese Purple) is a rare, high-performing purple stripe hardneck garlic variety. It is quite beautiful to look at. Milder than some when raw, it holds its flavor well when roasted. Double the number of cloves from any porcelain garlic at 8-12 cloves per head typically. This is a newer variety in the USA that comes originally from Vietnam via a USDA seed bank in eastern Washington and then via a farm in Oregon that named it after themselves since the seed bank only gave it a number.
little adults
I find it charming when little kids try to carry themselves with the same comport as the adults in their lives. I feel like these baby saplings––possibly still in their first year––are doing the same thing as precocious thee year olds: Copying the adults around them. We know better, however; that it is already there in their DNA, and they are simply being themselves. Not copying. Not trying to impress. Not pretending to be anything other than what they are–six month old maple trees.
baby maple trees in their first (?) November
PS Our resident sandhill crane family of four seems to have departed on Sunday (Nov. 8). They are most likely headed for the Gulf Coast–maybe Texas or Northern Mexico. If we are lucky, Mom and Dad will return next spring in March. Fingers crossed.
i think this is the last one?
Okay, okay, I know, I know. It’s been a lot of leaves. But they are beautiful, and ephemeral, and to be perfectly transparent, I am hosting a birthday party for 10 tonight. And since my Steve does not know the meaning of the expression “keep it simple”, I am buried in preparations. So, I love you all, and I will be back with you tomorrow.
staghorn sumac leaf in fall (Rhus typhina)
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I get it Mary Jo! I have a house load of guests arriving in ten days, one is lactose intolerant, one is gluten free and a third needs a low protein diet. Two are vegetarian. On the menu so far is popcorn. And I’m getting ready for an orchestra Christmas concert (I play the string bass and just picked it up last year!) and a tour in Germany in January (the orchestra is not my career; just an interest). And yesterday, I had plantar fasciitis! This morning I stood in the kitchen dazed and Gordon (my husband) asked what was wrong and I said, “I have to get to STILL.” He knew exactly what I meant. Another leaf. Yes. Another leaf. And it is beautiful! And my brain feels calm and I settle into your images and poetry and all the craziness becomes background noise and then…disappears. It is the best part of my day. It is the essential part of my day. Yesterday, some friends of mine said they were trying to be still for 3 minutes and found it impossible. What?!
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We will look for them at Bosque del Apache
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he loves me
He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me.
pressed Jerusalem artichoke sunflower (Helianthus tuberosus)
a few more before we go
I shared this image over on Instagram and forgot to share it here. So before we move on for good, I have just a couple more leaf photos to share with you from this extraordinary autumn we just had. I’s that mix of secondary and tertiary colors that made it so unique (and the duration). I have never experienced an autumn like it before. I am grateful I was here for it. And not just here, but fully open to receiving it. Thank you STILL.
staghorn sumac in unique autumn colors (Rhus typhina)
