Apple Day and the Rhythm of Seasons

He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy. Acts 14:17

I've been pondering lately how the seasons provide so many opportunities for families to grow and create shared memories together. I have joyful recollections from my own childhood, all centered around the seasons. Every year my parents took our family apple picking, and we spent the day at the orchard and afterward making apple pies and pots of applesauce for canning. The tradition started many years before with my grandparents, and two generations later, we'll never let a year go by without taking our daughter on an apple adventure of her own. I have countless memories from these family times together. I remember the time we saw cider being made and we all ate so many apples that we got "apple sick" as coined by my younger brother (the golden delicious did us all in!).

We have had many different guests accompany us on our family apple excursions over the years, ranging from neighbors and school friends to foreign exchange students and a punk rock band! Everyone lent a hand peeling apples for the big pot of sauce, and in turn went home with a jar or a yummy slice of pie. There was the time the boys tried to see who could throw apples the furthest, and the time my mom had a prize for the one who picked the "biggest apple." There are the times it was sunny and beautiful and the times it was rainy and cold, all fun in their own ways. When we lived far from home, we many times travelled back for Apple Day, as us kids grew to call it. Apple Day became our very own little family holiday, nothing else to really celebrate except each other.

Then there is the german potato salad that my grandmother made every year for Christmas dinner (and that day only), connecting us in a small way to our family heritage. On the other side of my family, my grandmother almost always brought paczki on Fat Tuesday, and I often got stories from my mom of her Busia making traditional prune-filled paczki and how she loved to smell them cooking as a child. There are the more subtle things too, like husking corn on the deck into brown paper bags, and chomping into them later... and picking out just the right sized cucumbers for my grandma's bread and butter pickles.

Now with my own family, I am convinced how much families and children especially thrive on this kind of family rhythm, and how much the seasonal activities can teach our families and grow them together. Kids love to help and be a part of a family project, even more knowing it is purposeful (and delicious). These things are a great leveler between parents and children and siblings of various ages. It gives our family a stability and a rhythm of the year, and gives us a common anticipation for each coming season.

Our family has been intentional this year about cooking through the seasons, and as we do, I can see how we are forming these traditional family meals - the kind we only eat one time of year and look forward to them coming again. As I labor over these meals I can imagine it, anticipating next spring when we can again make a simple mixed green salad with strawberries, quinoa stir fry with fresh peas from the pod... and in the summer a fresh pesto pizza with homegrown tomatoes, and pasta with pesto and zuchinni, all from our own garden or farmer's market. This week has been a week of corn on the cob in our home, and cooking dinner has become a family affair, with daddy and our todder learning to husk corn on the deck (into a paper bag, of course), and enjoying the sweet look on our daughter's face as she eats up an entire ear of corn... when normally she rarely eats corn by itself at all.

Scripture talks about the seasons often, and we are foolish to think that we have somehow as a society "progressed" beyond them. We need these seasons, even if only metaphorically as we create a rhythm to our own lives that is filled with purpose and always seeking after God, allowing him to feed us spirtually in our need. After a long cold winter, we need a reminder of a resurrected Jesus, along with a coming up of the first greens. We need the refreshment of the summer, vacation, and the nutrition of fresh vegetables and sunshine. We need the rewarding work of storing and preparing for the winter, and we need that reward in the cold months of a warm hearty soup, the foodstores of the harvest season, and the hope of a Christ child. I am feeling incredibly grateful today for these yearly rhythms in my life, especially the kind that have served me as memory markers, allowing me to catalog and cherish the many moments of gratefulness I have had in my life. God himself has provided me with plenty of food and filled my heart with joy.

What seasonal memories do you cherish from your childhood or family?

A Seedling

For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. Isaiah 61:11

In accordance with our goal to buy local food, we are experimenting with a vegetable garden at home this year.  Since we don't have a lot of extra money to put into a garden, we are starting many of our plants from seed, which is significantly cheaper.  This takes more advanced planning, since seedlings have to be grown indoors until the final risk of frost has ended. 

We should preface this post with the disclaimer that we absolutely do not know the first thing about gardening, much less organic gardening.  But with a little help from our local library, we are learning as we go.  We found that one advantage to choosing your own seed is that you can choose a variety that works best for your region, soil type, and garden ecosystem.  You can also choose to avoid seeds that are genetically modified and experiment with some ancient varieties of plants, including heirloom vegetables that have been preserved and passed down over generations. 

About a week ago we planted our first tomato seeds, a french variety known as Carmello, which promises to grow large fruit with skin resistant to cracking.  How anxious a person must be waiting for seeds to sprout up from the soil, in particular when their very livelihood and survival depends on their success.  But yesterday we saw our first sprouts - a sweet little victory in our amateur gardening adventure!

Planting a seed takes trust.  Nothing we do will directly coax a seedling up from the ground.  We provide sunlight and water, and we hope to see the seedling suddenly spring up.  How often God surrounds us like soil, waiting patiently to see that we will trust him.  But if we are fervently devoted to his instructions, to prayer, to meditation on his word, we find that God will not leave us in the ground dormant and unfruitful.  He will spring up through us a full, righteous life and we will be vessels of his praise and glory.

The Local Advantage

When we set out to eat more local food, we did so for a few good reasons. Namely, to cut down on our food's transporation footprint, support local businesses, and get away from the consumerism culture surrounding our demand for any type of food, any time you want it.

These are all still great reasons to buy locally, but as the growing season is nearing its end, we have some time to reflect on some of the extra benefits we discovered along the way!

Local food tastes better. We never really stopped to think about why the food we buy in the supermarket fails us so often. In order for most fruit to make it to the grocery store before going rotten, supermarket produce is picked way before it is ripe, and distributors count on it "ripening" on the way. When you buy it, then, it is either under-ripe, or, it is soft like ripened fruit but void of flavor. Fruit that is picked at its peaked ripeness is the sweetest kind. Thanks to some local farmers we will be enjoying some tree-ripened peaches from our freezer all year long, not to mention all of the other amazing fruit we've had this season. We also found out how much sweeter and juicier the tomatoes are when they come from your own garden.

Local food is more informed. Can you imagine going up to your grocery store butcher and asking him what he fed to the chickens? No one knows better than the farmer herself what the farm's practices are concerning pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Not to mention that it is just good to know what kind of business you are supporting with your food dollars.

Local food is more fun!! This season we learned how to cook with ground lamb, eggplant, and squash just to name a few. Our favorite meals were ones we had to invent with items from the farmer's market that week. We really enjoyed the culinary adventure!

You probably have a bit more time to visit a farmer's market or roadside stand and pick up some local produce. What do YOU love about eating locally?

Where's the Beef?

We have been doing pretty well so far at reducing our meat intake, so we thought we'd share our first experience!

This past week we put our first goal into practice using some organic ground beef. 1 lb of meat cost us around $5-6. We made 40 meatballs from this adding bread crumbs, rice, onion, and green/red pepper, we froze them and that provided us enough meat for 10 meals (2 meatballs each). This costs less than $1 per meal to add meatballs, and we each eat only about 0.8oz of meat per meal.

Examples of meals we have tried so far:
- Meatballs with sautéed green/red peppers and broccoli, served in a light gravy over rice
- Spaghetti and meatballs in tomato sauce (a favorite)
- Meatballs in fried rice, with peas, broccoli, and carrots
- Meatballs sautéed with cabbage, onion, and green pepper, served in tomato sauce over rice (my quick version of Polish Golabki)

Yummm!