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Another bear story without a photo of a bear.

Bear and I saw another bear today. (see Another episode of Wild Kingdom for Bear’s first bear encounter.)

A black bear.

A BIG black bear.

So.

Bear and I were in the Jeep returning from a brief outing to our walk on the empty subdivision road a bit to the north.

Shortly after we entered the “tree” part of our road, Bear’s nose was in the air and he was doing the scent gulp thing.

It had just registered in my brain that he was smelling a bear when we rounded a corner in the road and THERE WAS THE BEAR!

I am fairly vigilant for bears and particularly in the Fall and Spring. But as I think about it, I have NEVER seen a bear when I was expecting to see one. No, they are always a surprise.

And today was the first time I’ve ever seen one on a road.

The ever alert Bear sounded with the bear bark.

The bear turned toward us briefly…Bear was barking loud and continuously…the bear exited stage left off the side of the road, down a steep incline and into the woods.

Somewhere in there I was fumbling for the camera on the seat beside me.

Rats! Another bear story without a photo of a bear.

But…we cannot have a post without a photo…oh, no!!! THAT would not do.

So…a bit of a teaser…

What I did with that extra pumpkin:

I don’t think I have ever made a more beautiful little loaf of bread.

Oatmeal Pumpkin Sunflower Seed Cranberry Bread.

More later.

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The frost is on the pumpkin… the first of probably several pumpkin posts…

If I had pumpkins outside, they would certainly have frost on them as it was 27 by my thermometer this morning.

Thankfully my pumpkins are inside, in a sunny window.

And so are the herbs. I have a plan for 2 window table/shelves and some extra lighting to see if I can coax the group to stay alive and growing through the Winter. I’m not much for inside plants so we’ll just see how this goes.

Rosemary…probably my favorite herb…she is nice and green, but the whole growing thing has not been happening. I did some reading. Rosemary likes sun and heat. Hoo, boy – she definitely will need the grow light AND the best sun spot. And she likes to be moist but not wet or dry. Rosemary, she is high maintenance: pray for her, please!!

Back to pumpkins. I had three from my CSA farm distribution. One has been dealt with…the smallest I cooked with the smallest squash to refine the process and decide if I wanted to buy a few more for extra pumpkin as well as squash puree.

I do! The process is easy and not time consuming. I think I have 20 minutes in this morning’s effort and that includes doing the dishes after.

The hardest part is slicing them open! I found that taking off the top is fairly easy. Then, halving and quartering is not so difficult as trying to halve from the get go. I think there is a physics principle in there somewhere about the strength of a sphere…

I put a bit of water in a pan, quartered (or smaller) pieces flesh side down and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, the seeds. I LIKE pumpkin seeds and they are full of good stuff. I buy them roasted (and shelled!). I decided to try roasting a few of my own as long as I have them. It is not the roasting, but the shelling part that might be the show stopper.

I’m not big on a mega processing kind of thing…a whole day making jam or dealing with the veg – I much prefer doing a number of small batches. So, one or 2 pumpkins at a time. But the seeds I decided to save until I have enough for a cookie sheet full. Today’s chore was just the cleaning and that was easy…soaked them in some water and the pulp slid off.

These went into the frig for later roasting…probably :)!

Pumpkin is done.

The skin is easily peeled off with a paring knife at this point. I defy anyone to peel an uncooked pumpkin with a paring knife and as far as I’m concerned peeling an uncooked pumpkin is putting fingers and hands at great risk with a large, very sharp knife that is apt to careen off who knows where. Too scary for me.

This method is easy, safe (r!) and I didn’t lose much pumpkin in the process.

I gave it a light mash – just enough so that I could pack and measure. A pie takes 2 cups.

Unfortunately, I decided to taste the mashed pumpkin. It was good!

A few bites too many and I ended up with a bit less than 2 cups. So…1 cup for the freezer and the partial for the frig and something other than pie. I haven’t decided what but I’ll probably share the result(s).

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Change

Yesterday (Tuesday) morning started out a balmy 62 – a warm morning even during summer and completely unexpected for early October, especially with the long advertised cold front seemingly on its way.

Bob took advantage of both the sun and the warm air from the dryer.

Blue sky, white clouds and the larch just starting to lighten up as they go from green to chartreuse to gold.

I took advantage of the warm morning to keep to my shorts routine. I might get some afternoons in shorts, but a full day ??? – this was probably the last for awhile.

The herbs also enjoyed the sun and warm air.

That pretty much tells the story…it did get above 68 and stayed there until nearly 6 p.m.

I had the house open to the sun and the breeze. Although the wind kicked up in the afternoon, it stayed warm** until early evening. Much as I love Winter, I enjoyed this day of warm sun and breeze, even with the dust that the wind brought in.

By early evening, the wind shifted to the north and the air had that bite of a night that would get cold.

And today… morning started at 37F…AND….

Snow on the ski trails of Blacktail Mountain…

And Big Mountain…

And the mountains beyond the road home.

**I realize that for some, 62-68 might not seem like shorts weather! All is relative, though, and the humidity was very low at less than 20% AND my internal furnace runs hot, i.e. anything above 50…unless it is very damp…is shorts weather.

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October First: a colorful morning

Weather changes are forecast and even started.

The first week of September was cool, but the last three felt more like late Summer than early Fall.

Today, the transition is to continue and by Tuesday our mid-70’s temperatures are forcast to be 15-20 degrees cooler with hopefully a bit of rain.

Last night, the wind started.

Sunrise hit morning clouds.

I wandered through the woods with Bear on our morning outing.

The just past full moon was still high to the west.

A colorful morning.

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Swallow Crest Farm CSA 2012

Last Thursday, I picked up the final distribution from my CSA.

Beautiful!

And most of it is long lasting.

Except for that head of red leaf lettuce which was part of a BLT with Mozz breakfast sandwich.

And today’s (Sunday) salad.

The week prior included the last of the kale and chard, a nice amount of potatoes and carrots, beautiful leeks and some onions.

Green eggs and goat cheese! I would have added ham if I’d had any :) !!

As disclosed previously, I have been making Bear’s food. Usually it is brown rice, yogurt and hamburger (from Costco’s organic ground beef), but on occasion, for our breakfast, I whiz some kale and eggs in the Vita-mix and then scramble them, ie. green eggs.

This morning, I added red pepper to mine.

To Bear’s, I added his usual brown rice, yogurt and a bit of burger.

I continue to use the fresh chard in place of bread for sammies and taco/tortilla wraps. This morning a nice leaf of chard held salmon, goat cheese and capers…with a side of cherry tomatoes.

Not very much from the CSA, but these tamale pies…oh, so good – had to share!

There are some onions from the CSA in the pulled pork mix that sat under the corn bread topping. And the fresh corn in the topping is local sweet corn!

I’ve not yet made homemade tamales, but this pie was so good and so easy…maybe I won’t! I topped a pulled pork tamale “filling” with my standard Mexican Cornbread (muffins). That’s it.

Another leaf of chard for a tomato-mozzerella burger and a side of late summer potato salad. The potato salad is CSA potatoes and organic celery dressed with homemade mayo, pickle juice, greek yogurt, sugar and mustard dressing.

Leeks… The leeks were the basis for soup two weeks in a row. I made a leek-sweet potato soup and a leek-cauliflower soup.

I’m getting a bit smarter…although I ended up with a LARGE pot of soup each time, I froze 1/2-2/3 each time…YEA for me. I have two containers of leek soup in the freezer awaiting some dark Fall-Winter day when soup MUST be had!

My freezer this year…it is stocked! More than any year in my entire 57 years on this earth…I have things to eat that only need defrosting. Again…YEA for me.

Because I live 30-45 minutes from town/supplies and because I live in a place where the roads become treacherous (actually, it is the other drivers…) – I have always made sure my pantry is stocked by October 1. But this year, courtesy of my CSA subscription and just thinking and LOVING fresh fruits and veg…my freezer has become part of the Fall-Winter food stocking.

So, when the snow flies and the roads freeze, I will thaw a bit of the soup as you see above and be thankful for my freezer, for my forethought and for Swallow Crest Farm CSA!