Foraging

 

Yesterday we went with our daughter to pick chestnuts.  Our Elizabeth loves them roasted so much she will eat a hot bowl of them like popcorn.  

Picking might be a term you can't use for chestnuts, though.  It's more picking them UP from the ground because on the tree they protect themselves very well.

The outer casing, those burrs are PRICKLY

When they are really ready, start opening, looking like a Muppet mouth,

they fall and you want so badly to just pick them up from the ground and open that casing.

But they are very protective and needle sharp.

But if you want those beauties that are still protected, you have to use your shoes. One on each side you slide the casing off.

For the most part, you just walk along the ground and pick up the ones that have fallen from the outer casing 

It's not picking, it's picking UP, step and bend, step and bend.

In our daughter's family THIS is the sign of autumn.

We picked 18 pounds and it didn't take anytime at all 

This should be enough for Elizabeth, but she would say "only just!"

It was a fun time topped off with a visit to a farm stand heavy with pumpkins and squash and mums and donuts and a small country diner for lunch.

 

I Need Your Help

 

I need your help.  Truly. 

I've had this fabric for many years, like probably over 10.  I loved it at first sight and thus didn't want to cut into it unless I could find a way to make it the star. And so it sat.  Every time I looked at it hiding under something as the stash grew I'd stroke it and tell it someday....

I am working out of my stash and want to use this before I die. I'm not planning on that anytime soon but the horizon is a lot closer than when I bought this.  I'd like to use it.

It occurred to me this morning that I could ask you all.  If I was there I'd go to Scrub Stitchin' and get lots of help.  This is the next best thing.

It is not directional, like birds and trees, the design goes every which way.  This is a good true color representation.   I just want it to be not so cut up that it gets lost. I absolutely love this and don't want to ruin it. 

As a background for an applique?  Large pieced design?  I want it to show.  There are 2 yards.

Any ideas? 

Exhausted

Saturday was spent bent in half. 

I had three quilt tops I was desperate to get layered and ready to be quilted. I needed to get them to this stage in the process of being born to just get them off my mind. 

Layering for me isn't easy.  I have to put PH's puzzle table up against the dining room table and they aren't as long as each other.  Close but no cigar.

The Liberty circles was started during covid.  Friend Barb and I decided to do this together.  Well, she  finished several circle quilts while I struggled with the boredom of circle after circle.  But finally it was done, and this one is definitely going to get quilted soon.  Too much has gone into it, including for the most part buying these fabrics in London.

I know it looks like a mess of mish mash but I really like this blue and green quilt.  It was the easiest to layer because it fit on the two tables with no overlap.

This was one Friend Marilyn started and abandoned. The pieces were found in her stuff and she didn't want it. I liked it enough to work on it. It was intended as a Christmas quilt.  I added two rows to brighten it up a bit but still using the fabrics she had stored with it, the second and fifth rows to make it bigger than a table cover.  This was the last one to be pinned and as you can see, the corner overlaps the table sizes.  By now I was exhausted.  It was a hot day, batting had to be pieced, and I was physically done.  But I was also this close to finishing the three so kept going.

I've never layered three quilts in a day.  Anything I work on now is going to be small!!  In face I'm thinking of using even more scraps for some little quilts, not placemats but Kathleen Tracy doll quilts. 

Today is going to be a book day.  No needles, scissors, pins.

 

I Like Old Things

 I like old things. When I used to frequent estate sales, I'd head first to the bedrooms for the linens, pillow cases, etc. then to the kitchen for the tools someone else used to stir, mix, mash with.  Very few of my kitchen utensils are new.  

I like old food.  Years ago I was talking with a chef and he ended by saying, "you're an old world cook."  And he's right.  Not necessarily healthy in this day and age, but I cook like my grandma did and the foods she made.  

So it's only natural I search out old or heritage apples. They fascinate me.  There used to be about four orchards in Michigan where growers nurtured the old varieties but they've gone now.  There is only one very near me that has some and they are so fun to try.  Some varieties date back to the 1700s and as they ripen I go get more and more.

We had heard of an area of Michigan (the tip of your little finger as you look at your hand representing Michigan) that was settled in the 1850s but is now part of the National Park system.  The National Park system took over the area to protect it from development, it is a very sensitive area and needs to be protected from huge developments.

From October first through the month they allow people to pick the apples from the abandoned farms.  People here didn't grow the apples for commercial purposes, they grew them for their own use as food and cider.  

So we went.  Turned out to be a beautiful drive in beautiful weather to a beautiful place but disappointing in apples.  We found out that people had been going into the area picking for two weeks prior so what could be reached had been picked.

The red dots are the abandoned farms

We didn't get many and they were in the condition we expected, pitted, pocked, bruised because the Park service doesn't spray or tend to the trees.  The farm area is being stabilized but not overly preserved.

I got three pints of applesauce from the apples.  I baked the sauce this time.  Peeled, put in a baking dish and into the oven.  I don't ever season applesauce, I just cook them down.  No sugar, spices, nothing.  

This one, though, I got from the orchard I am frequenting near home.  I can't remember the name of it, Red something.  But look at the flesh.  It's as red as the skin.  It really wasn't the texture I like in an apple but I wasn't planning to eat it out of hand.  This is a heritage variety.

Here it is cut

And here's the applesauce.  I didn't buy many so got two pints and one small container.

I also don't hot water process them.  My freezer is my best friend so everything goes in the freezer. 

As I'm collecting different varieties from this orchard I plan on a pie.  Using all different kinds, textures and tastes makes the BEST pie! 

Is it a pumpkin?

 Wow.  Who knew?  Certainly not me.  I said I wouldn't talk about pumpkins again but I can't help it.  I learned so much from my Australia friends.  Mainly, you don't have canned pumpkin nor pumpkin pie. And what you call pumpkins, we call squash.

This is an image Maria sent yesterday.  These are not pumpkins they are squash.

To us, these are pumpkins.  

And these

And these minis you can hold in the palm of your hand or let your eight month old baby hold or wire onto a wreath or carve out a hole and put a candle in for table decor or whatever.

And this is a pie pumpkin.  You can tell because there is almost no ribbing and they are heavy. These you cook down, moosh down and season for pumpkin pie

These warty ones are the ones I think are fun, but they are pumpkins

There are even white pumpkins.  I was told today that they are very dense and you could successfully cook with them but it's more fun to decorate with them.

But THESE, to us, are squash.  

And these. There are many, many different kinds, shapes, sizes, densities and taste.  They are different animals altogether.  These are what you in Australia call pumpkins.  

All pumpkins are squash but not all squash are pumpkins.  A square is a rectangle but a rectangle isn't a square. COULD you cook with any pumpkin?  Yes, of course, but some are watery and not very fleshy. Those are the ones the kids carve for Halloween.  If you are going to cook with one you would choose a pie pumpkin.  But to us, a squash is not a pumpkin.

Totally confused?

Pumpkin again

Does everybody not have canned pumpkin in their groceries - I mean here in the US you can't escape it this time of year, but Australia, Norway, Germany?   

I don't want to belabor the point on pumpkin but I've been getting questions and didn't realize pumpkin pie wasn't a thing everywhere.  

I got on the bandwagon today but not for pie.  I pay so little attention to who is eating it at Thanksgiving I had to actually ask PH if he likes it.  I hadn't noticed after 51years.  Here, leaving pumpkin pie off the dessert table at Thanksgiving is like leaving the turkey off the dinner table.  You just don't.

After many studies by many kitchen people this is still the brand to buy. Of course there are many other brands, some house brands, this isn't the only one but people SAY it's the only one.  And if you are going to give it a go, don't get the can of pumpkin pie mix, get this.  Some purists cook down their own pumpkin.  No thanks. 

And use this recipe.  After many studies by the kitchen people, it's been determined to be the best recipe.  You couldn't prove it by me but there was a lot of excitement last year when someone said to add 3 eggs, not two.  

Inside the label there are also extra recipes that are printed with ink so light I could barely read it so didn't take a photo, and one was for pumpkin bread.  Now I WILL eat that so, since I bought a can to show you I made the bread this morning.

  

I like to put banana bread or any other kind, blueberry muffins, etc., in these little bowl things. They are the perfect size to cut it in half for PH and I and I freeze the extra for another time. They measure exactly the length of my hand.

I also doubled the recipe because I didn't want to be stuck with the leftovers in the can.  The pumpkin bread recipe also called for - you got it - pumpkin spice.  Well, I don't have that so I tossed in cinnamon, a bit of cloves, nutmeg and cardamom.  Why not? I made a full size loaf and these four minis. 

And that's all I'm going to say about pumpkin anything the rest of this year.  

Calico

 I think you'd have to be of a certain age to recognize these calicos. 

My daughter is still clearing out Friend Marilyn's house and she brought these home.  She was going to just throw them away but decided to ask if I wanted them.  Hmmm.  

Obviously they were a guild thing from the 1970's, each block is signed, and Marilyn embroidered over their signatures.  I'm going to take these to her next time I go visit to see if she even remembers them.

And WHAT am I to do with them?  I took them for the sake of the work that's gone into them, for the sake of the historical calico.....how old do you have to be to be considered historical?  I know these came from the very early 1970s.  I distinctly remember when quilting began again as a nostalgic bicentennial activity and groups and guilds began to form.  I also remember if you used the word calico the reply was "well, this is what's out there". 

And I guess because I remember these fabrics it dates me, too. I didn't quilt back then.  Back then I was starting to crewel, count cross-stitch and give the side eye to needlepoint.  I took a quilt class to prove to myself I wouldn't like it.  Oops.  But when I took that quilt class it was in a bona fide quilt fabric store with real choices far more generous in the offerings than these well over 55 year old calicos. In fact, for that learning class I chose from the Aunt Grace 30's line.  There were lines.

Of course there were fabric stores, fabric departments in department stores (remember them?) and choices in cottons. My mom was a really accomplished seamstress so I was surrounded by fabric, but a store dedicated to quilt fabrics? I believe (and you will correct me if I'm wrong) that didn't really become a thing till the art of quilting re-emerged as a nostalgic "lost" art for the bicentennial of the U.S. This was a time when quilt revival went from making quilts from necessity to a hobby. 

As I laid them out on the cement last night I really marveled at them, how that yellow and red really sets the date.  The others you could probably get away with now, but that yellow and the combination of it's starkness with the reds.  And that green!  Calico had it's own look.

Pumpkin

 

In a post or two ago I mentioned it was time for pumpkin spice.  It gets earlier and earlier, just like Christmas, but once it hits there isn't anything in the world that isn't flavored pumpkin spice.  Coffee, ice cream, pasta, pasta sauces, candy, dips, if you cook with mixes, cereal, syrups, muffins, cookies, ravioli, they are all flavored pumpkin spice, frosting on donuts, donuts themselves....I could go on and on and on because pumpkin spice flavored things go on and on and on.

Truly, it's about enough to drive you crazy if you aren't in love with the flavor.  The spices are all the 'cozy' flavors of fall so the marketing people went a little crazy with it.  No, they went a lot crazy.

After my first mention of it Australia Jenny asked, "what's pumpkin spice?"  Oh, to live in HER world!  If you don't know, it's a mix of mostly cinnamon, with nutmeg, allspice, ginger, cloves.  You can buy it or make your own adding more of what you like but the spice that carries all the others is cinnamon.  And why would you make it yourself?  It flavors absolutely everything.  Everything.  Once I was in Trader Joe's and it was EVERYWHERE.  I had to leave. There wasn't anything NOT flavored pumpkin spice.  I drove by the oil change store here in town and their sign out front says something like "pumpkin spice oil changes!"  I laugh because that's just about it. 

It started out as a spice blend for pumpkin pies, which is another predominant thing this time of year. Or maybe it's supposed to just mimic the taste of pumpkin pie and the marketing people went off the edge of the cliff.   I don't like pumpkin  pie.  It's a texture thing but I'm sure it's delicious....if I ate it. Who needs the pie when you can get that flavor in anything and everything?  

I had to take a photo of this magazine cover.  Look at that.  One hundred and two recipes for pumpkin something and they ALL feature pumpkin spice.

Soon everything will be flavored peppermint.  But I like peppermint.  

Hexie work station

      A few posts ago, I think it was when we took Elizabeth to her archaeology dig, I said I remove the backing from my hexies  before I stitch them together.  Jenny wondered how they stay in shape for the stitching.  They do.

I have a box of hexies, these all have the stiff paper backing from those post cards that come in magazines and junk mail, I have a hexie punch for that.  

As we drive I do what is done if the hexies are stitched together WITH the backing in but I remove them first.  You can see the dark pink one holds its shape fine.  When we stop for gas I dump the deleted card stock in the trash.

The back doesn't look any different than if the card stock was still in place and everything holds its shape.

     As we head out our first stop is for an iced tea from McDonald's.  I got an extra water cup, put it in the door handle and keep the hexies that have been de-backed in there so I have a mini stash ready to go.  I don't plan anything other than not putting two navy or two reds side by side.  I stick my hand in the cup and take one out.  You can see they are all holding their shape just fine.     

 

OH! I JUST THOUGHT OF SOMETHING!  If you are a gluer this wouldn't work but I never, ever use glue on my quilts in any way, not even the fusible stuff.  So, if you are a gluer this is a lost post for you. 

    I could never, ever keep the backing in and remove them at the end.  It just wouldn't happen, I'd be so bored with it and the card stock would make maneuvering the piece on my lap in cramped car quarters almost impossible. 

 

                                             

It's growing.  I decided to go long rather than wide. This was taken about 8 hours into this trip, it's the culmination of many previous trips and has grown even more since I took this photo.

Home Again....Again

We were in the Upper Peninsula for ten days while PH did some selling for the state parks and just got home yesterday.  

     The trip is a lot of driving so we do try to give ourselves a small break. We always try to fit in one thing for us, a stop for an attraction, a special restaurant, a detour for something we saw on a sign on the road.  

      This year, before we left, something came up on FB about the troll at a tiny, tiny place called Germfask, Michigan.  He lives at a campground.  I told PH that THIS was what we needed to see. It wasn't even out of the way, but rather ON the way so it was even better.  Turns out Germfask has a history.  During WWII it was the site of a Conscientious Objector prisoner camp.  Only the most troublesome COs were sent here because it's so secluded...there is nowhere to go.

    There are 154 trolls in 17 countries built by Thomas Dambo.  Look it up to find one near you.  all of Dambo's trolls are different and all have different stories to tell.  Apparently there are people who travel the world looking for them.  Australia friends, there are even some there!

After finding Benny's campground home it was a very short walk to find him.  He's big. He can't hide. 

Benny is fishing with his beard, hoping to snag a fish or a kayaker.

Benny was magical.  We had a hard time leaving him.  Every angle gave us a different perspective and we took lots of photos

PH said this was the highlight of the trip, finding Benny. I would agree.  It would have been a shame to miss him.