Entering the calm days of mid November
Thanksgiving is still nearly two weeks from now and we can enjoy the calm before the upcoming holiday season begins. We love the calm of early November as the garden turns from mid summer mode to the vegetable crops of autumn and winter. Nap time has visited the flower beds and pansies have become flowers of the month of November.
Nature is in a slowdown cycle as the only green in the forests and woodlands shine through in the holly, cedar, and pine trees. The nights of November are so calm you can almost hear the remaining leaves on the trees touch the lawn. Frosts are heavier and linger longer each morning. It is time to enjoy the best of seasons and prepare our hearts and minds for the season of harvest and Thanksgiving.
The artist of autumn turns lawn brown
The autumn lawn has a new color as the frosts of November have given the lawn many coats of crystal white and the lawn has a tan and brown tint as the result. The lawn looks even more brown with the coating of remaining leaves falling from trees. The leaves are now crisp which makes them easy to vacuum and blow to the garden area and composite bin and pile.
Season of the sweet potato
October is the season of the pumpkin, but November can be called the season of sweet potato especially in North Carolina. The coastal loamy soil of southeastern North Carolina in the Tabor city area makes itself North Carolina’s sweet potato capital. We grew up in northeastern North Carolina and Northampton County has its share of coastal loam and they also produce plenty of hefty sweet potatoes. My father and grandma raised plenty of sweet potatoes every year. They stored them in “potato hills” to have sweet potatoes all winter long. The potato “hill” was so simple but practical. It was a hill of soil lined with long leaf pine straw, bushels of potatoes, more pine straw, and hilled up with some more soil, with a stove pipe to gain access to the hill.
Yamming it up
Since this seems to be “sweet potato day” in the Garden Plot and also Thanksgiving Day less than two weeks away, we devote a little more attention to the sweet potato. This is a simple recipe for sweet and sappy candied yams. You can use fresh or canned sweet potatoes. Peel six or seven large sweet potatoes or use two large cans of potatoes. If you use sweet fresh potatoes, cut them into one inch chunks and boil in water until you can stick a knife through them. Drain the potatoes and place in 13X9X2 inch baking pan or dish. In a medium sized bowl, mix half cup dark brown sugar, one large six ounce box orange jello, one stick light margarine, half cup Karo syrup (dark), one tablespoon cinnamon, one tablespoon vanilla, and one cup chopped pecans. Heat ingredients together until margarine melts. Pour mixture over sweet potatoes and bake mixture at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Add a layer of miniature marshmallows and brown the tops of them until toasted.
Trimming the azaleas and evergreens
November is a great month to trim and shape azaleas and evergreens to prevent damage from the snow and ice later in the winter. Trimming and shaping them now while weather is fairly comfortable will make it easier to decorate them with strings of lights next month and also make them easier to install lights and also remove them after Christmas.
Sassafras trees: A tradition of childhood
Sassafras trees are a traditional tree of the southeast states. They are unique in their three perfectly round sections of leaves that turn red and bronze in autumn. The Sassafras tree usually grows in sunny open areas. My Northampton grandma knew the trees well and where she could find their roots which were the main ingredient of Sassafras tea, which is also the main ingredient of root beer along with the syrup, carbonated water, spices, and so fourth. When my grandma made sassafras tea, we don’t know if she made it as a tonic or for medical purposes or a beverage. We only knew she served it hot and in coffee cups with plenty of sugar. My mother always said we drank it because it had sugar in it! Grandma knew where the sassafras trees grew and would harvest the roots, not from the tree itself, but from the “shoots” that grew close to the tree. She would brush and clean the roots and place in a sauce pan full of water and boil. The water would turn deep red or bronze in color. She would place a lid on the pot until the tea got to the color she desired (hers was deep red, and probably as red as her morning coffee was black). If you wonder why sassafras tea is served hot, it is because it is like coffee, nothing is as bad as cold coffee. We remember as boys in northeastern North Carolina, we would harvest the roots in early autumn, chop it into small pieces, bag it up and take it to school and share it with other kids. We chewed it and it had a root beer taste.
A hefty presence of Jack Frost
Jack Frost visits us almost every morning in November, leaving his presence on the roof and lawn and white crystals on the Siberian kale. We love to go to the garden plot and gaze at the frosty crystals on leaves of turnips, mustard, broccoli, and kale. Surely the artist of autumn paid us a visit in the form of a late autumn hoary frost. God is in the rain, the frost, the snow, the crystals of ice on the Siberian kale, and he causes all things to grow.
Another interesting fact about oaks
In last week’s Garden Plot, we mentioned the mighty oaks and their harvest of acorns. Oak trees grow in many shapes, sizes, and heights all over the world. Worldwide, there are more than 600 types of oak trees. Some oaks produce acorns after two years of growth while other oak varities grow for 20 years before producing their first acorns. Most oaks enjoy long life, and some in America can be dated back to the Revolutionary War, shades of George Washington!
Ornamental cabbage-kale
Colder temperatures, heavy frosts, and soon, we will experience hard freezes. Keep an eye on your containers of ornamental kale and cabbage and move them to the rear of the front porch and place a towel over them on freezing nights. Remove the towel when temperatures warm up the next day, but keep towels nearby to cover each night a freeze is possible.
Melt in your mouth great peanut brittle
21st century peanut brittle has better texture, taste, and less sticky than the 20th century peanut brittle. When we were kids, peanut brittle was packaged in bags and when you reached into the bag, several pieces would come out because the brittle stuck together, and in the process of getting it from the bag, it stuck to your hands, it was not “finger licking good,” but “finger sticking good.” 21st century know-how has produced a brittle that will not stick together and comes in one or two inch pieces, and not in bags but foil wrapped packs inside illustrated boxes. The very best brittle is made with eastern North Carolina and southside Virginia peanuts that are grown, processed, parched, and prepared near to where they are grown. The best of all is Old Dominion peanut brittle made in Norfolk, Virginia. You can purchase it in our area at Food Lion, Ingles, Dollar Tree, and most super markets and candy stores. You can find it in downtown Mount Airy along Main Street. Be careful, this peanut brittle is not only very good, but can be addictive.
Goodies for the Thanksgiving candy dish
These Thanksgiving candy dish treats have been around a hundred years and are still a tradition today. They are candy corn, creme pumpkins, Hershey’s Kisses, and M&M’s. They add a touch of Thanksgiving to any candy dish or dining room table. Hershey’s Kisses come wrapped in harvest colors of foil and M&M’s have a harvest mix. They have been made by Mars Candy for more than 100 years. The name M&M comes from the initials of Mars and Milky Way. That burst of chocolate in an M&M is so different than any other in the whole world. They are certainly worthy of any candy dish. Keep plenty on hand during Thanksgiving.
Hoe hoe hoedown
“Drive on.” The truck driver drove up to this roadside truck stop in the middle of the night for a dinner break. Three wild looking motorcycle riders roared up with beards, nasty, filthy talking with black leather jackets. For no reason at all, they harassed the truck driver. One of the riders pored peppers on his head, another ate his apple pie, the third rider poured his hot coffee over the table. The truck driver never said one word but just went up and paid his bill and left. “That truck driver is not much of a fighter,” said one of the riders. “He doesn’t seem to be much of a truck driver either,” the waitress said. “He just run his truck over three motorcycles.”
“Family matters.” My wife read “A Tale of Two Cities’ and she had twins. She read the “Three Musketeers” and had triplets. I’m now worried because she is reading “Birth of a Nation.”
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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