Social Distancing- Nervous Critters take this to Heart

Even critters seem to be taking the mandate seriously. 

At least our noses are six feet apart.

Is this far enough?

We're trying

You can't get it from a tree, can you? 

Calm Again

"With the coming of spring, I am calm again." Gustav Mahler

Residual Snow?!

During my daily solitary walks with Cam(era), the song, How can I keep from Singing, pumps through my brightening heart, charging and re-balancing my being as I notice passing markers of spring, sometimes subtle, sometimes bedazzling. These intentional strolls have become my daily meditation, as well as my excuse to get fresh air and a fresh perspective.

Cattails reappear

If  I had waders, I would harvest some shoots.

The onslaught of global and local concerns fades away, and my mind rests as I am reassured that Nature does not slow down during a pandemic, at least not in April.

While I amble through local woods and parks, I notice daily change. If I were to lollygag long enough, I suspect I might even see difference occur even more quickly as Mother Earth’s time lapse happens on her own schedule, and it sure is rocket jet fast these days.

I am excited to hear familiar plant friends call our. What about me? Take my picture!  Some of the colors are not even on my tie dye charts....

Spring has not Been Canceled

“The deep roots never doubt spring will come.” Marty Rubin

                     

        

Waiting….

Patiently…..

              

 Wondering…

What actions can I undertake that might get me out of my all too lovely, but often seemingly confining home, into the fresh air?

How I can I pro-actively change my attitude about the current state of pandemic affairs and my ensuing mental state as a person who lives alone, and is already tired of loneliness?

What might bring joy into my life which has been reduced to self-entertainment?

How can I summon up energy to exercise, when I can barely face the sink full of dirty pots and pans?

Would walking slow me down amply to notice greening and growth amidst last fall’s earth toned decaying detritus.

Can I generate excitement and enthusiasm, maybe even gratitude for an opportunity to walk regularly, even on a gray and showery day, with Cam(era), my new, extremely quiet, but accommodating and willing buddy.

What might I do to help reassure us all, that at the very least, spring has not been canceled.

I recently read that instead of marking four seasons, ancient Japanese expressed the passing of the calendar year as 72 micro-seasons, drawing from subtle shifts of the natural world.

I know and appreciate how quickly the landscape changes now that days are longer and warmer. I also recognize that staying inside is a good way to miss Gaia’s attention to detail during this process.

This all said, I will go on focused, mindful walks with Cam, photographing spring’s gradual evolution, and post my photos on this site, calling the upcoming series Breath of Spring During a Pandemic.

It brings me joy this Grass Sprouts and Trees Bud week to share with you signs of spring, in hopes of making your day just a little bit sweeter.

Of course, feel free to peruse my older posts from 2019 when I did a six month food buying  moratorium- empty my larder experiment and blogged about it

He's so cute when he is not eating edamame from my garden!  

Spirits of Spring Soar over Mt. Hope Cemetery 

This might inspire a new hair doo!      

 At Peace

Happily cloaked for chilly March eves

.   

                    Pussy willows in full cat stage          

Enough

“You can never have enough,” Grandma Klee would advise.

Take care opening her closet doors, cupboards brimful of reassurance; can after can of button mushrooms and baby onions, along with infinite other treats, definite signs of culinary security, might jump off the laden shelves.

Apparently, my affinity for having a full larder has ancestral roots which have sustained me throughout my life, and has been fed by others as well. I was impressed and excited to tour our neighbors’ cozy bomb shelter, stocked with enough food to last forever, or so it seemed to a seven year old.

At eleven, Sue Smith and I equipped our under porch “sleepover fort” with ample penny candies to get us through the night.

As a young adult, when our New Mexican neighbor showed us his garage, filled floor to ceiling with large jars and bulk bins of grains, awe overtook me.

Now that I have gone six months with nary a trip to the grocery store, I realize what values my Mormon neighbor and I share— prudence, self-sufficiency, and forethought for times when illness or catastrophe might intervene.

While Apocalyptic fervor doesn’t dictate my life, and while I don’t have 720 Freeze Dried Emergency pouches of delectables to get me through a year, I even have something in common with Survivalists and Preppers. Oh my Gosh! Y2K was not even on my radar, but food security obviously is inherent.

Tis more the foraging squirrel or the busy bee in me, preparing for a long winter in the Northeast, that guides my food prep choices. Tis my love of gardening and eating locally that determines how I spend my summers. Tis my frugality and aversion to shopping that spurs me to forage for wild edibles, and to stock up on sale items, big time. Tis a pinch of persistent determination that gets me through long hot fall evenings making and canning gallons of applesauce from drops which nobody else seems to have nimbleness or desire to gather off the ground.

Flexibility and cooking creativity rule my kitchen and have gotten me through this food buying moratorium experiment with fun, enjoyment, curiosity, and an insights into my choices and values around food.

Throw in a pinch of challenging discouragement over the past month when no chocolate was to be found in my house.

Enough of this experiment. I am done.

I shall now move onto another project, likely scraping and painting the deck, or filling cracks in my driveway with hands dirty from gooey melted chocolate….after I go food shopping.

Where ARE all my reusable grocery bags?!






Off to a good start for next winter...

Pesto Chango!

An interview with Deborah by her Fairy Godmother,

after six months of a food buying moratorium and pantry emptying experience

FG Now that you are nearing the homestretch of your Food BuyingMoratorium, how has your life changed?

D I have gone from daily emptying food contents from glass jars and freezer bags, to filling them with home-grown fresh veggies and gallons of strawberries for the upcoming year.

FG You must have found some interesting dregs when dredging the recesses of your deep freeze?

D Yes, the most delicious excavation was just enough lemon dessert hummus to take on a kayaking picnic to the lake yesterday. Most unusual was a baggie of six homemade ghee candles made from cotton balls, leftover from my friend Nan’s memorial service four years ago. You never know when I may need them, and they remind me of Nan, whose Vermont garden was the “first one you saw driving into town, so the rows had to be straight.”

FG Any epiphanies over the last six months of your experiment?

D Home-ground tangerine rind is delicious, as is rice pudding with tamarind, apricot and cardamom.

FG What lessons have you learned?

D Twenty-five pounds of garlic is way too much for one person to use up in a year! I have enough high potency powder from two years ago to even sprinkle on oatmeal, should I choose.

FG Any regrets?

D Instead of rushing out to buy a pound of cardamom on December 31^st to ensure “cardamom security”, I might have stocked up on chocolate bars to get me through the six months. Fewer frozen Asian greens and more broccoli would have provided variety. I would have saved time if I’d foraged more instead of spending weeks gardening. Dehydrating produce instead of freezing it takes up less room and costs nothing to store.

FG What’s been most challenging throughout your moratorium?

D Not getting through the gallon of spicy homemade kimchi (some of those Asian greens that grew so prolifically last summer, having escaped the ravaging paws of Grandpa Groundhog, which I then fermented to save.) Here, try some. I still have the gallon. Maybe it will help fuel your flight home.

FG What will you do with all that leftover frozen pesto I saw you bag up and return to your almost empty freezer?

D Hmmm. There is a lot. Top a pizza, toss it with pasta, or finger paint with my grandkiddles all sound good to me.

FG What wisdom have you gleaned from this personal challenge you set for yourself on December 31st?

D I have very good friends and family who ate my home made concoctions, no matter what ingredients, tastes and combinations. They were curious, supportive, and generous in gifting me treats when I ran out of certain supplies. I have never been offered so much coconut milk and chocolate in all my years!

FG When I wave my magic wand to help you restock your pantry, what’s at the top of your shopping list?

D Fresh tropical fruits- pineapple, mangoes and almond milk for summer smoothies. To heck with eating local. My six month experiment is over, so I can indulge.

FG Poof! Pesto Presto Chango! You’ve got it!

Peace of Cake

Imagine spending more time driving and shopping for one food product than it takes to make a cake! I can’t remember ever in my life shopping for a sole ingredient.

I hankered for gingerbread cake, and what better excuse than the Women’s Resistance Choir performance and celebration potluck. I had all the ingredients I needed – molasses, plenty of powdered ginger and spicy homemade apple butter to sub in for oil. I figured the fruit spread would enhance the cake, where olive oil might render an off flavor. I had everything – but flour.

As we’re a peace-loving group of women who sing songs of joy and empowerment, I cut a peace sign stencil of parchment paper, lay it down on the cake and sprinkled powdered sugar through a metal strainer over the stencil as decoration. I quickly realized that it’s impossible to erase confectioner’s sugar, and that the image might distort in transit. Oops. Maybe the design wouldn’t melt or blow away. Perhaps a humid day wouldn’t be as forgiving.

Four months into my “Food Buying Moratorium” (when I decided to restrict meals to eating out of my pantry and chest freezer for as long as possible), I’ve had to adjust some of my rules. If I plan to share food with others, it’s okay to shop for an ingredient when it’s needed for a recipe.

Since January, I’ve been enjoying all sorts of homemade dishes and delicacies without needing to venture to the market. Alleluia! My preference is to be outside skiing, hiking, or biking. Anything but shop.

Although I’m starting to miss having food choice, an abundance of last year’s frozen greens, beans and pesto await consumption. Possibly my supplies will last through June. My friend, Loekie, suggested that it would sound much more impressive to survive half a year without buying food, , rather than five months.

We’ll see.

Fascicles, Sessiles and a Medicinal Dose of Power

“What are you collecting?” the gardener had inquired.

“You are going to laugh at me, but I am collecting lob-lolly pine pollen, the same messy yellow powder that everyone here in North Carolina has recently been complaining about covering their windshields, porches, decks and shoes.”

“Cool,” he replied, without missing a beat. “Want some company to get more?”

What are the chances of finding another person in my cousin Jeff’s co-housing community, who appreciates foraging for free medicinals?

Until this trip, I had never even heard of a Loblolly Pine, the second-most common species of tree in the United States, after red maple. The lanky “telephone pole tree” can stretch over 100 feet when mature. As they grow taller, the trees lose their lower branches. Locals refer to them as lolly pop trees.

Jeff had complained one too many times about the yellow powder’s prevalence, so I sarcastically interrupted his diatribe with, “Bet it’s good for something. I’ll go look.”

It turns out that the pollen can be helpful medicinally in many ways:

The pollen is chemically almost exactly identical to the male hormone testosterone and can be purchased in big bags over the internet as a testosterone supplement. Supposedly, Native American warriors would carry a small bag of this pollen with them to eat before battles to "pump them up.”

Lob-lolly pollen contains 18 amino acids, numerous vitamins, including D which is rare for plants, is full of minerals, and has beneficial enzymes. Some uses in Chinese medicine include: relieving fatigue and rheumatic pain, strengthening the immune system and heart, as well as increasing mental agility.

My new friend, Bern, and I managed to collect a quart each of cones, which I spread out on a paper bag on the counter until they had dried, opened and released their pollen. I ended up with a meager quarter cup of relatively flavorless, but powerful powder- 12 teaspoons, which I readily shared with Jeff before we headed out on the wooded trails on our mountain bikes. Did we fly! Hah!

Bern was going to save his scanty stash until early spring, next year, when he planned to take it preventatively as an antihistamine.

After learning that the needles are rich in Vitamin C (five times the amount found in a lemon), I collected a handful, over which I poured boiling water for a lemony -piney flavored tea.

Imagine what a resource is going to waste throughout the southeast! I imagined giant shop vacs attached to humungous bags, hanging from helicopters throughout the forests, collecting this nature’s powdery wonder.

***Lob-lolly has two or three needles per fascicle, which is a slender bundle (as of pine needles or nerve fibers). The cone is directly attached to the branch, which is called a sessile (a plant or animal structure attached directly by its base without a stalk or peduncle).