 Clinging To Summer Posted by Cassondra Murray Oct 20 2012, 3:52 am What does autumn smell like? For me, it’s the first curl of wood smoke in the neighborhood. You don’t know where it comes from, but the scent of it foretells the cold to come. It’s the aroma o Fall meant the smell of ripe tobacco curing in the barn, apples, and pumpkin pie in the oven. One of my favorite scents, to this day, is the pungent, acrid-rich smell of black walnuts. About this time of year, black walnuts are thick on the ground, and we picked up buckets full of them every fall. They have a thick hull with a strong fragrance that to this day is one of my favorite things about the fall season. I remember getting off the school bus on October afternoons at my grandmother’s house (we called her MotherGrant), and finding her and DaddyMike (my grandfather) in the garden, with a pile of towels and sheets sitting by the garden gate. I’d dump my books on the porch steps, and meet them in the garden to help get ready for the cold night ahead. On crisp fall afternoons, they were covering up the tomatoes. The scents of fall hung heavy in the air, but they were doing what they could to hold onto summer. It would get down to 34 degrees Fahrenheit that night, according to “the weather.” “The Weather” was, of course, the weather report on the radio. It took almost an hour to cover the rows of tomatoes in MotherGrant’s extensive garden with sheets, towels, rugs, and whatever else she had in the house. Because that night, it would frost. But it was just for that one night, you see. The next night, accordin’ to the weather, would only get down to 43 degrees. So if you could save your tomatoes for that one night, and then have them fresh off the vine for another week, you did so, and you were grateful. When the time came, when it would get so cold that you could not hold back the bite with the magic cotton sheet, you harvested the tomatoes, green as green could be, and brought them inside. Some you put on the windowsill in the sun, to ripen for a hint of the taste of summer.
And some…some you sliced, dipped in flour, and fried. And supper that night was fried green tomatoes. That’s a basket of tomatoes from my garden, on the left. See that big one? That’s perfect for fried green tomatoes. Things haven’t changed much. Last week, it got down to 34 degrees here in southern Kentucky. I took every spare sheet I had, and ran down to my tiny garden by the driveway. My little garden is a pale, surface effort compared to the acre-and-a-half garden that MotherGrant and DaddyMike grew. But still, I draped the sheets over my six tomato plants, each one heavy with green fruit, and my sage, cayenne peppers, basil and marigolds, and weighted the sheet corners with rocks. It was supposed to warm up the next day, and just like MotherGrant, I was hoping to hold off winter for one more night. The next morning, I got up and poured myself a cup of coffee. I looked out my multi-paned glass front door, down toward the garden near the road, at the white sheets stretched across the plants, and the rocks holding down the corners, and I realized I had completed the circle. I am MotherGrant. Almost two decades have passed since she died, but I carry on, just as she did. Later that morning I took the covering off the plants, and there they were, safe and sound. Green tomatoes hung on the vines, clinging to the hope of turning ripe before the hard bite of serious winter bit them down. Every afternoon now, just like MotherGrant, I listen to “the weather.” Although sometimes I get my weather report on the internet, I check it just the same. Just like her, I plant my garden in spring. I pray for rain–and although she did not, if the rain does not come in summer, I water. And in the fall, when the wind turns cool and I shiver a little and reach for a jacket, I recognize that stern warning of what is to come. And I cover up the plants, holding off Jack Frost’s deathly bite with the whisper-thin veil of a magic, worn cotton sheet, hoping for one more week of summer. I do this every year. It seems like a long time to me since MotherGrant and DaddyMike went to garden on another dimension, but just as they were, I am clinging to summer, holding on by my fingernails. If I can hold it off long enough, the dark, cold days of midwinter won’t seem so long and hopeless. It is the stretch between the last tomato in the garden and the first hint of crocus shoots in February that a soul like mine must So I hold off winter as long as I can. Just as they did, and their parents before them. I was driving to town a couple of weeks ago, and hadn’t heard the forecast for that night, but as I came around a curve in the road, and passed a woven wire fence, I saw the bright flash of sheets—purple and pink and plaid—stretched out across a garden on my right. I grabbed my cell phone. I dialed Steve’s work number. “Have you heard the weather?” “Yes,” he said. “There’s a frost advisory for tonight.” I turned my car around. I might be late for class, but I didn’t care. Knowledge would be there later. My tomatoes would not. I had to cover them up. And I did. This past week they cut the soybeans in the field across from us. That’s one of the combines in the picture below, cutting the field across from my house. As long as those beans were there, I could fool myself into thinking it wasn’t quite time to pull in for the winter. As much as I love to see those combines purring along over the slope, cutting the beans and stirring up dust, and as much as I love to be a part of the agricultural cycle they represent, I know what it means. The beans are gone. Summer is gone. Winter is almost here.
I have my own stash of old cotton sheets now, some worn and tattered. Over the years I’ve used old rugs, sheets of plastic, and cardboard boxes to put over garden plants in the fall. I covered my tomatoes last week for the two nights it dipped below 40 degrees. And even as I clung to summer, hanging on by my fingernails, I hedged my bets. I clipped a bunch of marigolds, just to have the scent and the summer color for a few more days. That’s a few of them on the right, in a cream pitcher that belonged to MotherGrant. And just in case the magic sheets weren’t enough, I pulled a few green tomatoes off of the vines. And we had Fried Green Tomatoes for supper. Tell me Bandits and Buddies.. Do you have a garden—either flowers or veggies? Or did you have one growing up? Did your parents or grandparents grow a garden? Have you ever rushed out to cover up a beloved plant, to save it from frost? Do you listen to “the weather” each evening, for sake of the garden or just to know what to wear to work the next day?What is your favorite season? What scent says “fall” to you? Have you ever eaten Fried Green Tomatoes? If you have a favorite recipe for fried green tomatoes–or any other fall food– will you share it? I have a great one. Sven may kill me, as he does not love southern food, but I promise to load my Fried Green Tomato recipe into the Bandita Recipe file today. TweetPosted in Cassondra Murray, Cassondra's blogs, childhood memories, Fall, gardens, Summer, Tomatoes, winter Comments65 thoughts on “Clinging To Summer” |
  
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f chrysanthemums, spicy and bitter-smelling when you brush up against the leaves. My mom had a bunch of loose, gangly, hardy mums that were way too tall and lanky, growing by the side of the house. There was no missing them, because when I was a little girl, we had to go outside to turn the antenna if we wanted to see a certain channel on tv. There were only three channels, and adjusting that antenna was a skill every family member needed. Every time you turned the antenna, in autumn, you brushed up against those mums.
Some you chopped, along with the last peppers of the season, and a few onions, and made them into a relish the old timers called Green Tomato Ketchup.
Is he coming to my place
Have Fun
Helen
Woooot! Helen, no matter where he roams, he always comes home to your tim tams and grandbabies. *grin*
Put him to work, will you? He needs to work off a little weight to get ready for Halloween candy.
Helen, congrats on bagging the GR. I hope he’ll behave. Well, as much as he ever does.
Cassondra
A beautiful post it is starting to get very hot here in Oz we had the air con on all day today and I so am wishing for autumn already LOL and it is still only spring.
For me the sign of autumn is the cooler crisper mornings and evenings and I always look forward to them. I really don’t have much of a gareden a few trees and roses and we don’t get such cold weather where I live and as for fried green tomatoes no I haven’t had them but they sound very nice.
Hope you keep your garden going a bit longer and stay warm
Have Fun
Helen
Oh, you have to try them sometime. They are a true southern American food I think. But they’re so easy, you can’t mess them up.
The same but different, we are carrying on traditions of our families. Instead of listening to the radio for “The Weather” we check the Internet. Instead of covering our gardens with sheets and hand braided rugs we use plastic.
Do you have a garden—either flowers or veggies?
Or did you have one growing up?
Did your parents or grandparents grow a garden?
Have you ever rushed out to cover up a beloved plant, to save it from frost?
Do you listen to “the weather” each evening, for sake of the garden or just to know what to wear to work the next day?What is your favorite season?
What scent says “fall” to you?
Have you ever eaten Fried Green Tomatoes?
If you have a favorite recipe for fried green tomatoes–or any other fall food– will you share it?
I have a great one. Sven may kill me, as he does not love southern food, but I promise to load my Fried Green Tomato recipe into the Bandita Recipe file today.
You’re so right. We ARE carrying on. The same but different.
Whoops!, Accidentally hit enter…………
I don’t have a garden anymore, the ground here in the middle of town is not productive except for weeds and maybe moles.
Definitely had a garden growing up, so did my grandparents. There were many, many times we would get the call to come help cover the grandparents’ garden, theirs was always huge while ours was tended to quickly.
I don’t listen to the weather anymore, I lost what little faith I had in their abilities when that storm/tornado hit the end of June and no one saw it coming.
The scents of fall to me is that first whiff of wood smoke, and the smell of the leaves, that damp musty smell. My mother called it loam in the making….LOL she was an earth mother of the first order.
Fall is my favorite season with spring (if we have one) running a close second. Though the lack of sun plays havoc with depression I love the cooler weather, in the summer it is very hard for me to deal with the heat.
Fried green tomatoes is about the only way I truly enjoy them. I can eat tomatoes on occasion but they are not a favorite of mine, in sauces (though red sauces are not my fav either) I can handle them but green and fried is the best.
We won’t worry about Sven, we won’t ask him to cook them for us, we just need the recipe to do it ourselves.
Dianna, I didn’t realize y’all didn’t get warning about that storm. It was a doozy from what I saw. Laid waste across several states. It hit here before it hit y’all, but I think it was worse for you. People up Joanie’s way on the Ohio River, and I think Donna up in central Ohio, got hit hard too.
Dianna, I think our mothers must have been related…Grins. That sounds SO like a comment mine would have made!
Oh, and the recipe for fried green tomatoes, again, the same but different, my grandmother and mother always used corn meal to dredge the tomatoes, just a little salt and pepper for seasoning, bacon grease to fry them in of course and if that wasn’t available then plain old lard.
I use vegatable oil and have started using a lot of Panko for the crunch. I love crispy and crunchy.
Yum. Yours sounds yummy.
I haven’t had the bacon grease to use lately, but I may have to actually plan for that this week. Realistically I probably have to pull the tomatoes before next weekend, and I’m going to have a bunch more.
One nice thing about the Atkins diet (Steve and I have both been on that since January) is that you can have all the natural fat you want. The breading on the tomatoes–now that’s an issue. :0/
Do you have a garden—either flowers or veggies?
When I first moved into my town house, I grew veggies and herbs. Then it got all dried out and everything died when we got stuck with water restrictions. When it started raining again and I started growing them again, the possums got stuck into them instead of me…
bummer! So, I swapped veggies for flowers and succulents and have loved my garden ever since. I grow Gloxinas, Agapanthus, Large Leaf African Jade, small leaf jade and Aloe Vera as well as a poisonous plant called The Naked Lady.
Or did you have one growing up?
Yeah, we did. Mum and Dad used to grow peaches and apricots. We also had a Bowen Mango tree when I was young; with bumper crops every year – so many that we couldn’t eat them all! We’d spend most of the time giving them away or freezing them.
Did your parents or grandparents grow a garden?
My Nan and Pop grew veggies and fruit in their backyard right up until they had to go into a retirement home. Pop grew beans, potatoes, spinach, peas, carrots, strawberries…. oh and tomatoes… boy did he grow them! He grew a lot of his veggies from the seeds of the last season so he got some great mutations and they tasted great!
Have you ever rushed out to cover up a beloved plant, to save it from frost?
Yes. I have moved my Gloxinia in from a hail storm a number of times so it wouldn’t get damaged… however it was me who would be pelted with hail and not the plant.
Do you listen to “the weather” each evening, for sake of the garden or just to know what to wear to work the next day?What is your favorite season?
With it coming into Summer here in Australia, we have to be careful things don’t dry out here. I’ve begun watering my garden twice a day; early in the morning and at around 4pm just when the sun has moved enough into the shade that the plants will keep wet all night.
What scent says “fall” to you?
Curry… we have a lot of Indians living in our area. And so, we often smell them cooking curries for dinner; and they cook them all day in pressure cookers or slow cookers… starting them at around 10am for when their husbands come home.
Have you ever eaten Fried Green Tomatoes?
No… what are they like?
If you have a favorite recipe for fried green tomatoes–or any other fall food– will you share it?
Mozette I love the pictures you paint of your neighborhood, and the smell of curry in the fall. It makes me want to visit and go walking with you so you could point out how things change.
I grow Gloxinas, Agapanthus, Large Leaf African Jade, small leaf jade and Aloe Vera as well as a poisonous plant called The Naked Lady. Your plants are so different. Those are all greenhouse plants here. I have an Aloe Vera in the kitchen window, but when I was a greenhouse grower, I thought the Gloxinias were absolutely fabulous. They’re so fragile though. It was very hard to keep those big leaves intact with transport, and not to spot them up with watering. So beautiful though, when you could.
What color is yours?
There’s a funny story to my Gloxinia… I’ve had it for about 20 years and it flowered once and then went dormant for about 6 years. So, just when I thought it was dead – because it didn’t flower or leaf for about 2 years – I pulled the bulb out of the pot, pulled the roots off it and shoved it back into the soil. Well! The following Summer, it flowered up a storm! I guess it needed the kicked in the proverbial pants to get going again… what I did shocked the hell out of my Mum though.
The flowers on my Gloxinia are Pink.
http://365project.org/mozette/365/2012-01-28
http://365project.org/mozette/365/2011-12-19
http://365project.org/mozette/365/2012-03-02
http://365project.org/mozette/365/2012-03-06
http://365project.org/mozette/365/2012-03-13
These are photos from December through to March of 2011 – 2012… since they were taken, I’ve repotted the Gloxinia so there’s more soil in it; and it’s begun to leaf early… so it looks like I’ll be getting flowers even earlier than December this year!
Hey Mozette! I adore curry, so that would be a lovely “fall” smell. And I also like agapanthus, although they won’t grow well in my zone. :>
I acquired mine from a neighbour who ‘wasn’t a gardener’ and thought they were weeds. He also chopped down all his trees in his garden too! (I know, I know, lunacy, but he did). The tree-loppers yanked them out and offered them to me… I have the two in a pot for this Summer and now, there’s two buds on them that are almost ready to burst! I’ve been watering them twice a day – as they love their water – and the buds have reached over the tops of a 5ft fence!!! How lovely is that? They’re a lilac/blue colour.
Oh, the cream pitcher marigolds are cute!
Nope, never had a garden nor do I have one now. There is a corner of my backyard that has some nice greenery growing on its own, does that count?
I think the majority is lesser periwinkle but I could be wrong. My grandmother grows a few veggies in her backyard. I used to love it when the cherry tomatoes were ripe and she’d let me eat them all.
I don’t listen to the weather but I always check the weather on the internet or the TV.
The smell of fallen leaves screams Autumn to me.
No, I’ve never had fried green tomatoes…but, you must be psychic! My mother came home with some green tomatoes yesterday after coming across them at the grocery store(and other customers who told her that they’re great) and we haven’t got a recipe for them! I don’t think they’re available around here very often. So yes, bring on the recipes, please and thank you!
Oops! Seems I’m telling tall tales. I misunderstood. My mum actually got them off a coworker who said they were great.
Pissenlit it’s the only time of year around here that you’ll find tomatoes green in the grocery or at the farmer’s market. Everybody pulls their tomatoes if they know a hard freeze is coming.
I like my little cream pitcher too. I don’t have anything pink in my house, but I love it because it was MotherGrant’s.
Okay here we go. This recipe is actually a lot like the Southern Living one, so if you ever don’t have this handy, you can google Southern Living Fried Green tomatoes and you’ll get close.
Fried Green Tomatoes
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk (I use half and half with a teaspoon of vinegar to make my own)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tsp sea salt (table salt will do)
1/2 tsp pepper
3 medium size green tomatoes, cut into 1/3″ slices
Salt to taste for finishing
Extra Virgin Olive Oil or other natural fat.
Combine egg and buttermilk in a bowl; set aside
Combine 1/4 cup flour, cornmeal, 1 tsp salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl or pan.
Put the other 1/4 cup of flour in a third bowl to set up your assembly line by the stove.
Dredge tomato slices in 1/4 cup of flour, dip in egg mixture (give it time to coat) and then dredge in the cornmeal mixture.
Pour oil (I use evoo) to a depth of 1/4″ in a large cast-iron skillet. Heat to 375, or medium, so a bit of flour sizzles a little when you drop it in the pan. Drop tomatoes, in batches, into hot oil, and cook 2 minutes on each side, or until golden. I turn the heat down just a little to let them cook through, but it doesn’t take long. You may need to add a little more oil. You want the tomatoes to be firm but fork tender. They’ll be a little softer toward the edges than in the firmer, green middle. Definitely don’t let them get too mushy.
Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle hot tomatoes with a little salt.
I take a wad of paper towels and wipe out my skillet between batches, but some people leave all the crumbles in the grease so they get kind of burned, and that’s a different “style” of fried green tomato. I don’t like the slightly burnt taste with the tomatoes but a lot of folks do.
If you’ve never had them before, they’re easy to make, but there are also some video tutorials on the internet if you just can’t picture it.
Ooooooh that sounds sooo good! But I’m unable to have tomatoes anymore due to acid problems… darn.
I hate it when your body reminds you that you’re getting old. 
Awwww. shoot.
I guess, theoretically, the green ones have as much acid as the red ones, right?
Cassondra, what a beautiful post! I could feel autumn approaching as I read it.
I so envy your tomatoes.
My parents always had a few tomato plants when I was growing up, but not garden. My uncle had tomatoes, corn, beans, and maybe some squash in the back half of his yard. After my dad retired, he also grew strawberries in a patch by the driveway.
The dh puts in a small garden, tomatoes, beans, and peppers. He grew radishes for a while, but he’s the only one who eats them. After our neighbor who liked them passed away, the dh stopped with radishes. He also tried carrots, but there’s too much clay in the soil here. They turn out stubby, kinda like radishes. He tried lettuce, but the urban rabbit population made heavy inroad, so he stopped.
I don’t remember ever covering the plants against frost.
I think there’s an art to fried green tomatoes. We’ve had some in restaurants that were just totally blah, not much flavor at all. On our recent trip to Savannah, though, we had great ones as an appetizer at a waterfront restaurant.
We tend to let ours ripen as much as possible, so we’ve never tried to make the fried green ones, but your recipe looks great.
As an aside, I liked Fannie Flagg’s book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe a lot.
Nancy, as I type this, I am sitting at the home of our dear friends, who recently had fried green tomatoes at the Whistlestop cafe about 60 miles north. I never read that book, so I don’t know if it’s the same cafe as in the book or not. I’m guessing there were lots of whistlestop cafes when the trains used to carry passengers cross country.
The whole Fried Green Tomato thing really did come about, I’m guessing, from folks trying to preserve the harvest–and cling to summer a little longer–each fall when frost threatened. I never really paid much attention to that dynamic until this year, when my tomatoes were late, and SO loaded with fruit that needed just another week or two..
I suspect you’re right about the origins of the recipe, and about there being many Whistlestop Cafes. I think Fannie Flagg is from Alabama. Despite the somewhat whimsical title and Flagg’s former career, the book is not funny, but I thought it was very good.
You know, Sven is a great cook, but that boy’s a little bit of a food snob.
Just sayin’.
It’s true! He is! I wanted to make fried okra one day. He said, basically, the same thing my mama used to say, that okra is a mutant thing, not an edible. Grins.
My mama used to say we should just give it back to the Indians as she claimed they pawned it off on white settlers as a joke. Snork!!
But I ADORE fried okra. Don’t like it slimy and boiled, but fried? Heaven.
I’m the same on okra. It’s okay in small slices used to thicken veggie soup, but otherwise, it needs to be fried.
You know, I’ve never asked Sven to add grits to my breakfast. I wonder what would happen.
You’d either get that blank look he uses to discourage commentary on his food prep, or a look of absolute and utter disgust. I know, as I asked for grits one morning when I was blogging and needed sustenance.
He told me grits were “peasant food”
Guess that makes me a bona fide peasant!!
Me too.
And fried green tomatoes fits that same peasant food. But Sven can just get over it. Peasant food is some of the best there is. It’s the basis of gourmet, to me. Simple, fresh food, done well and differently in each region.
He’d probably classify corn on the cob as animal fodder. I think it used to be, in Europe, from whence he hails.
I have to say, that I’m with Sven. I do like it in gumbo though. The New Orleans cuisine I’ve had uses a lot of okra, and I do like Okra in that type of food.
Fried or just plain boiled though? Blech.
My grandparents farmed vegetables for a living. It wasn’t too large but more than enough. I can still remember how wonderful it was to get freshly picked vegetables. I remember shelling lima beans and peas and nothing today tastes that good! One year my grandfather helped me grow pumpkins and we started them in his hotbeds. I kept the larges for a jack o lantern and my aunt made pumpkin pies with the rest. Today I don’t have a lot of land but I grow some vegies in large pots. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed.
Oh, Catslady, how fun! I hadn’t thought about shelling peas in forever. Used to go to my aunt’s house and to keep us out of mischief she’d set us to shelling peas so she could put them up and can. I remember shelling a LOT of peas! Ha!
I’ve spent many an hour shelling peas to freeze. My folks grew tons of them. Mom would basically can and freeze all summer, and we’d eat on that all winter. MotherGrant did the same. I actually can’t ever remember eating peas out of store-bought can when I was growing up, except in the school cafeteria. They knew how many bags of peas or corn from the freezer they’d use in a year, and they put up that many plus a little more each time, freezing and canning everything. Home canned is just better.
Cassondra, I adore your posts. They are so evocative and shine with the simplicities of living. Just delicious.
We always had a garden when I was growing up. Usually a huge one. Tomatos and carrots and peppers, lettuce, corn, three or four kinds of beans, squash and every few years, pumpkins. As the season waned, and the crop grew less, or time was marching toward fall, Mama would let us pick and eat. My sibs and I used to take buckets of water out and little Morton salt shakers. We pick cherry tomatoes and yellow-pear-shaped tomatoes, peppers and carrots. We’d rinse them in our buckets, salt and eat. Grins. It got veggies into us, and now, as a mom, I truly admire her cleverness!
I’ve developed an allergy to the peppers, but I still adore the tomatoes and all the rest. My yard, other than the front yard, is too shady for veggies, but I’ve got fruit trees – plum, apples, and peaches. We’ve finally gotten fruit from al of them! I planted another apple a year or so ago, so it should be coming into maturity and giving me apples in the next season. Love that.
And considering how many apples my kids go through? Having a few “freebies” will be welcome!
That wood-smoke-smell and fresh leaves and pumpkin pie are the Fall smells I love. This is one of our only divergences, my Evil Twin, as I ADORE the winter. :>
Jeanne, if I can get my wood stove going, I won’t mind winter so much. I’ll just miss the green of summer. And it is awful for me when it’s gray for a long time.
Lately it seems, there haven’t been as many nice clear, crisp winter days when the sun shines, and hardly any snow, which always brightens everything in winter.
Lately winters have been just…gray.
And autumn, for the past few years, hasn’t been as colorful as it can be in this area. This time, though, if teh weather holds, we’re going to have a nice long fall with brilliant colors like the ones I remember from childhood. for the first time in a while we’ve had enough rain in the late summer months to carry us through a colorful fall.
Wow, Cassondra, what a beautifully atmospheric post. Just lovely. And so evocative of an American autumn. Which isn’t at all like an Aussie autumn. Having said that we’re heading toward full summer down here. I’ve been swimming most days and last night I could feel those hot summer nights just hovering over the horizon of the next few days.
Anna I actually love those hot summer nights…in particular the long evenings that just go on and on. Time to sit outside and socialize, grill and enjoy time off.
Winter always feels rushed to me. You get home from work and it’s dark already. You leave for work in the dark.
A nice long autumn shortens that winter a little, so I’m always glad for that too.
Love fried green tomatos… you can also wrap green tomatoes in newsprint and they will gradually ripen… store in a dark cool place..
CateS, we always just put them on the windowsill or on the counter in the sun to ripen. I’ve always heard of the newsprint in the dark trick, but I’ve never used it. I might have to try that with a few.
A brown paper bag works too, especially for avacadoes. :>
We don’t have a garden. My grandma’s neighbor grew lychees and bananas. I’ve always wanted to try fried green tomatoes, but haven’t had a chance yet. Autumn smells like apple cider and pumpkin spice to me.
Ohhhh Jane! Apple cider! YUMMMM!
We have an orchard here that is kind of a destination for families–you go pick out apples and pumpkins out of the patch, get a hot fried apple pie and a cup of mulled cider…that kind of place.
We usually go every year, and they have the best apple cider for sale. I normally bring home a couple of gallons. Freeze one, and sip on the other. *slurp*
Give the fried green tomatoes a go sometime. You ought to have some in the green grocer’s up there I’m guessing.
Cassondra, that sounds like so much fun!
Our farmers market – yes, right here in the city! – had cider this time and I’m actually making Apple Cider Pot Roast as I type this. Crock Pot is a wonder. Ha! I’ll let you know how it goes!
Ah, Cassondra. I adore Autumn. It’s by far my favorite season. I love the turning of the leaves, the cool temperatures, the crunch of leaves beneath my feet as I walk, sweaters and jeans, snuggling up with a good book, cheering on my two favorite football teams.
It’s why I plan a trip home to Ohio every fall to spend time with my family. My soul craves this season. And while we get a taste of it here in late November, it’s nothing like being immersed in it at home!
Suzanne, I don’t blame you for seeking out some real autumn weather and color. If I were somewhere without four distinct seasons (as I know them), I would be heading out of town!
Suz I would miss four seasons if I lived in Texas. I am just now coming around to an interest in football, but that is one thing I think I would enjoy…tailgating and snuggling under a blanket in a stadium.
Beautiful post, Cassondra! I look forward every month to your blogging day.
I was relaxing on the back deck last night and caught just the slightest whiff of wood smoke floating on the evening air. That, more than anything, tells me that fall is here. I don’t have a garden. I get my veggies from the local farmer’s market. They do a much better job of growing than I ever could!
Our colors are finally starting to change here and should be at peak in a couple weeks. The sky is a brilliant deep blue and the air crisp and clear which makes the mountain views breathtaking this time of year.
PJ, that’s a lovely description.
That is a lovely description, PJ! ANd that blue of the sky in October – so clear and gorgeous! – I just love it. There’s something about the quality of the light and the crispness of the air that makes that blue sky just divine. :>
There truly is a difference in the way the sky looks in different seasons. And I think it’s just what you said…the quality of the light.
I read somewhere that the high humidity we have in the summer makes the sky look a paler, more washed-out blue.
PJ there is nothing like autumn in the mountains. And honestly, I think the changes of seasons seem a little more crisp and distinct in the mountains. Maybe it’s having the trees bare, bloom, green, then color up right in your face like walls around you or something.
But the feel of the seasons in the mountains is different to me…it just has a special energy I can’t explain.
But it was always a little cooler in the summers I thought.
Cassondra, I used to plant both flowers and vegetables, back when the kids were young and I had more energy than sense. These days, I am lucky to get something stuck into the two planters by the kitchen door. We had a couple of strawberry plants this year (still alive believe it or not) that flowered THREE TIMES, cause the weather was so squirrely.
But, sadly, my gardening days are both behind me and ahead of me. I plan to garden again. Someday. Not pressuring myself about it, though.
I do love autumn. The smell of woodsmoke and the sharp scent of decomposing leaves smells like autumn to me. I also adore all things pumpkin and really look forward to baking pumpkin bread, pumpkin cake and pumpkin pies. I also love to make butternut squash soup with curry. Yum! Those are special fall treats for me.
As for fried green tomatoes, when we went to see the youngest at UNC-Asheville last month, we were at a really great place for lunch, The Early Girl diner, which describes itself as “farm-to-table Southern comfort food”. The darling daughter ordered a Fried Green Tomato Napoleon. It was like Heaven with goat cheese. I have never had anything more delicious in my life! (And that is saying something, because I totally treat my taste buds!)
Man, all this talk about fried green tomatoes makes me want to go find some green tomatoes and check out the recipe section…
Ah, another pumpkin fan! Yipppeee! I’m about to make pumpkin fudge for a party. Never have made that before, so I’ll let you know if it tastes as good as it sounds. :>
Y’know, I missed, somehow, that your dau was going to UNC-A! I remembered UNC, but not that it was the Asheville campus. My sibs live in Asheville, as you probably remember. Love me some Asheville. Go to Malaprops Books next time you’re up there. And there’s a BBQ joint just down from the UNCA campus…OMGosh, SO good!!!
Caren I didn’t like fried green tomatoes when I was a kid. But this recipe that I posted above is just melt-in-your-mouth. Give it a try if you can get ahold of some green tomatoes. I bet the farmer’s market might have a few in the next week.
Hey, Cassondra–
Beautiful post, as usual. I do have a garden–right out by the road where the sun shines. There’s a big rectangular raised bed in the middle–that’s mine–and two smaller square raised beds on either side–those are for my girls, one apiece. Each spring we take ourselves down to the garden center & fill up our gardens to our own tastes. This year one girl did a salsa theme & the other went all higgledy piggledy with grape vines & carrots & rosemary & peas. I myself grew the basil & the tomatoes, the onions & the peppers. I like me some tomato sauce for my Friday night pizza.
I’ve lost a fair number of tomatoes to frost, but I’ve never done the fried green thing. I’ll have to look up that recipe….Thanks!
Susan, it’s an easy recipe, and I bet your girls will like it. I posted it up in the middle of the comments. It’snot in the recipe section yet, but promise to put it up this weekend. I’m having trouble getting it to look the way I want it.
What a lovely and evocative post, Cassondra, as yours always are!
Fall is my favorite time of year as here in the South it is usually neither too hot or too cold. And I love the falling leaves, the crunch under my feet. The dogs go crazy as they watch the leaves fall from the trees like invaders from space.
I don’t have a vegetable garden but both of my brothers and my Mom have one every year. I get to reap the benefits without doing the work.
I have five acres and an ideal spot for a garden, but I simply don’t have the time to plant or tend one. I hope to have the time one of these days.
I do have flowers, flowering shrubs and roses and I even have a little grape arbor.
I do check the weather as it is very changeable here. I have dogs who stay outside in dog runs and I need to know when to check the run covers and when to put more hay in the dog houses.
If a cold snap surprises us I do go out and cover my vulnerable plants with burlap bags I keep in the barn.
I was just thinking the other day as I turned onto the dirt road where I live that Fall was truly here because I could smell the smoke from my neighbors’ fireplaces. Once we Southerners start using our fireplaces at night Fall is officially here.
I don’t eat fried green tomatoes but my Mom has a great recipe and she also has a recipe for a fried green tomato casserole.
Louisa, the dh especially loves fall and spring. He said they were both very short in the Colorado Front Range, where he grew up. The year is mostly summer or winter there, with the transitional seasons all too brief.
Louisa, don’t you love that scent on the wind? It’s funny how as the winter goes on, I’m less able to smell it. I guess because it’s everywhere. You know how your nose gets used to a smell and you can’t discern it as easily.
Fried Green Tomato Casserole???
I can’t even imagine how that works.
Is it good?
My parents, Honey’s parents, and most of
the people we knew had a garden going
during the war. ( World War II ! ) It was
the proper, loyal, American thing to do,
especially since there were so many items
not available! I recall someone, perhaps
my grandmother, doing Fried Green To-
matoes when I was young. One scent that
I miss dearly is Mother’s favorite gardenias.
All the years I was growing up, she had a
beautiful full bush in bloom outside the
living room window. You had walnuts, we
had pecans and pinecones. In Texas, each
home had at least one of each in the yard.
I’m going to be looking for your recipe and
Louisa’s, if she will share!