"Bee time and hoverfly time, watching them among the borage and oregano and radishes I let go to flower. Bird time and berry time, picking pecked-at strawberries and thinking of some small bird nabbing a bite in the early morning, her feet rustling lightly in the straw." Beautiful writing, Antonia, that seems to fit so well with the beauty of the sentiments expressed. It's hard to imagine a greater contrast than the one between the experience of the changing year in rural Montana on the one hand, and Tokyo, where I live, on the other. Yet it's also possible to appreciate the seasons here, helped by the Japanese love of seasonal fruits and flowers. During the heat of August people here listen for the sounds that hint at autumn on its way, the changes in the song of the cicadas, the first crickets. Thank you for helping me slow down to look and listen to the progress of the year.
Your description of Tokyo's seasonality brings to mind Pico Iyer's book about death and loss, Autumn Light, almost completely placed in Kyoto, where he lives. It brought that part of the world (where I've never been) to life in a way few other things I've read had. Seasonality was part of it, and it's interesting how nature's seasons can be reflected in seasons of life and mourning.
"August has always felt like a time of preservation. A slow-time, bejeweled-time, not wearable jewels but rich with bright color the way sunlight looks through a jar of rhubarb syrup." Exquisite writing. I feel exactly the same way, having also grown up in a family that pickled and froze and preserved everything. As I wrote recently about pickles and hot sauce, hand harvested and preserved foods are edible prayers. I have much of that work waiting for me in Pennsylvania when I come home from Prague later this week.
As you also say near the end, these traditions help keep us in conversation with our home places and also with our neighbors. I preserve a year's worth of some foods for myself, but I make far more pickles than I can eat because it's the perfect thing to bring to a potluck or to gift to a friend.
One thing I've never been able to do is keep potatoes through the winter and then use my own potatoes for seed the next spring. Perhaps you can share your method for storing them? I should have 100+ pounds to harvest soon, and I'd love to plant some of my own stock next spring.
It was fun revising this piece to post here, because I knew you were from my part of the world and it's nice knowing someone out there reading knows the smell of pine and possibly huckleberries and chokecherries, too.
And what a good question. I am on a learning trajectory with this and REALLY wish I'd dug a root cellar years ago. That's what my mom used to use, though she didn't grow potatoes (she kept all the canned goods in there, except the pickles, which floated in an enormous open crock on the kitchen floor). The first year, I brushed dirt from them and packed them in boxes in newspapers. But we had a deep freeze (like -40 for 3 days) followed by days of rain cycle and I lost all the potatoes, onions, and apples. Last year, I loosely brushed the dirt from them and stored them in various paper bags that I kept in different places--including one cooler, left slightly open for airflow--with mixed success.
I've never tried to keep my own for seeding (3 families eat from my garden, and the potatoes are popular) but I would think any method that works to keep them for eating in the winter would also work for seeding.
It must work that way, or something like that, because I can tell you that every fall I think we've dug up all possible potatoes, and every spring there are potato plants coming up from forgotten tubers from years past. Potatoes are literally taking over an entire section of the garden, crowding out the peas. And they're still delicious! My stepmom just dug up pounds and pounds of Yukon Golds from a section that we last planted *3 years ago*.
Another friend of mine who gardens a lot has been trying a method where he grows the potatoes in a burlap bag full of dirt (I think you can buy potato bags specifically made for this) and then just brings the whole bag into his garage in the fall, and gets potatoes out of it when he uses them. Temperature permitting, it's probably the most effect storage method.
"Bee time and hoverfly time, watching them among the borage and oregano and radishes I let go to flower. Bird time and berry time, picking pecked-at strawberries and thinking of some small bird nabbing a bite in the early morning, her feet rustling lightly in the straw." Beautiful writing, Antonia, that seems to fit so well with the beauty of the sentiments expressed. It's hard to imagine a greater contrast than the one between the experience of the changing year in rural Montana on the one hand, and Tokyo, where I live, on the other. Yet it's also possible to appreciate the seasons here, helped by the Japanese love of seasonal fruits and flowers. During the heat of August people here listen for the sounds that hint at autumn on its way, the changes in the song of the cicadas, the first crickets. Thank you for helping me slow down to look and listen to the progress of the year.
That is lovely, Jeffrey. And thank you!
Your description of Tokyo's seasonality brings to mind Pico Iyer's book about death and loss, Autumn Light, almost completely placed in Kyoto, where he lives. It brought that part of the world (where I've never been) to life in a way few other things I've read had. Seasonality was part of it, and it's interesting how nature's seasons can be reflected in seasons of life and mourning.
My favorite sweet, simple reminder amongst many in this piece: Cinnamon exists.
"August has always felt like a time of preservation. A slow-time, bejeweled-time, not wearable jewels but rich with bright color the way sunlight looks through a jar of rhubarb syrup." Exquisite writing. I feel exactly the same way, having also grown up in a family that pickled and froze and preserved everything. As I wrote recently about pickles and hot sauce, hand harvested and preserved foods are edible prayers. I have much of that work waiting for me in Pennsylvania when I come home from Prague later this week.
As you also say near the end, these traditions help keep us in conversation with our home places and also with our neighbors. I preserve a year's worth of some foods for myself, but I make far more pickles than I can eat because it's the perfect thing to bring to a potluck or to gift to a friend.
One thing I've never been able to do is keep potatoes through the winter and then use my own potatoes for seed the next spring. Perhaps you can share your method for storing them? I should have 100+ pounds to harvest soon, and I'd love to plant some of my own stock next spring.
It was fun revising this piece to post here, because I knew you were from my part of the world and it's nice knowing someone out there reading knows the smell of pine and possibly huckleberries and chokecherries, too.
And what a good question. I am on a learning trajectory with this and REALLY wish I'd dug a root cellar years ago. That's what my mom used to use, though she didn't grow potatoes (she kept all the canned goods in there, except the pickles, which floated in an enormous open crock on the kitchen floor). The first year, I brushed dirt from them and packed them in boxes in newspapers. But we had a deep freeze (like -40 for 3 days) followed by days of rain cycle and I lost all the potatoes, onions, and apples. Last year, I loosely brushed the dirt from them and stored them in various paper bags that I kept in different places--including one cooler, left slightly open for airflow--with mixed success.
I've never tried to keep my own for seeding (3 families eat from my garden, and the potatoes are popular) but I would think any method that works to keep them for eating in the winter would also work for seeding.
It must work that way, or something like that, because I can tell you that every fall I think we've dug up all possible potatoes, and every spring there are potato plants coming up from forgotten tubers from years past. Potatoes are literally taking over an entire section of the garden, crowding out the peas. And they're still delicious! My stepmom just dug up pounds and pounds of Yukon Golds from a section that we last planted *3 years ago*.
Another friend of mine who gardens a lot has been trying a method where he grows the potatoes in a burlap bag full of dirt (I think you can buy potato bags specifically made for this) and then just brings the whole bag into his garage in the fall, and gets potatoes out of it when he uses them. Temperature permitting, it's probably the most effect storage method.
Gorgeous writing. And so many important reminders for me. Thank you.
Thank you! Good reminders for me, too. :)