Mid-Winter Musings

For those of us who live in cold climates, we figure out our own ways to get through the winter, until the spring gardening season arrives.

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It is mid - January and full - on wintertime here in Maryland . We have had cold-blooded weather , remain pretty nigh to freeze or below for about two months now . We have had the occasional 40 degree F daytime which feels downright balmy . The woodstove , as report in last workweek ’s blog , is going day and Nox and I go about the star sign in sweats , slipper loot and socks , undershirt , another layer of cotton tee shirt or mock turtleneck and a sweatshirt with strong-armer or hard sweater ; the layered look .

I have tried walking some day , however my nose and digit feel like they are rooted , my nose runs as my hint visibly puff up out before me as I go and I ca n’t seem to get in my usual 2 1/2 to 3 mile trek . I look out the birds feed outside the windowpane and wonder how they keep those little bodies tender on 15 degree F nights . The chipmunk have been out - of - great deal , hole up in a snug burrow , while the squirrels still are out and about . They check into under the birdfeeder daily ; I wonder if they are out of the nut I see them busily storing in the decline . The geese flee over day by day in numerous V - mold configurations , we are fortunate to be in their flight practice — in the aurora they head for a pond over on a local farm — and in the evening they go to overnight at a nearby reservoir lake . I never fatigue of their blatant voyages pass by overhead ; they always make me stop what I am doing and stare upward , openmouthed , to watch them . Their breasts beating with their pumping wing , often if they are take flight low enough I am able to hear this even amidst their honking .

The greenhouse is quiet and silently waiting . It only needs water about once or twice a week , since most plants are in a dormant or almost - hibernating province . That is sort of how I find … in a near - dormant commonwealth or quasi - torpid . It is hard getting out of bed in the morning — removing my torso from a ardent cocoon of covers — to get up and get going on cold grey years . I do n’t seem to move too far from the woodstove unless I am falsify a warm winter supper , or taking a raging bathtub before I go to bed . I ’ve positioned my laptop at the big wooden mesa near the kitchen stove and have n’t been in my business office for weeks . Although I have been work — spending a lot of time preparing detail for spring and summer program and getting my calendar for 2011 posted on my Web sitewww.susanbelsinger.com .

I ’ve moved the big bag of potting land indoors since it was freeze severely out in the shed and I brought in the abstruse flats which want scrubbing before I plant some hardy greens and herbs in them . I did this a few weeks ago — just have n’t feel like planting yet . The lunation changes tomorrow , so I will be able-bodied to sow some seed before the full moon on the 19th .

I daydream over catalogue , while drinking red-hot tea . I have my favorites which I have ordered from for years , however , I just get an e - post from Conrad Richter usher in his newSeedZoo Project , which piqued my pursuit . I think it is exciting that a big grower like Richter ’s has decided to offer special quantities of strange seeds from around the globe . They may seem a bit dear , however there is a set of labor involved in procuring , catalog , describing and offering belittled sum of seeds such as these . in person , I ca n’t waitress to share some of the exotic wintertime squelch semen with horticulture champion , or to harvest one of those much obscene bull ’s horn peppers , manipulate up some of those Sierra Leone Limas , and roast and grate some of my own Italian Atrei “ coffee beans ” !

Besides thinking of garden - to - be , I consider make nourish intellectual nourishment like hearty hot soups and fret and wintertime greens . After the vacation , I decided to avoid sweets and gamy - fat food , check my calorie intake and exercise more . That sorting of causes a riddle since we tend to want to corrode more in cold weather and it is too cold to drop a lot of clip outdoors . I endeavor to cook seasonally and am using lots of dried beans and grains along with root vegetables , greens , genus Brassica and wintertime crush . Desiring a crunchy , healthy collation , I adjudicate to make pickles with winter vegetables since there are n’t any cucumbers in time of year .

My friend and herbal confrere , Donna Frawley , who has a marvellously successfulherb business , packages a huge miscellanea of herbaceous plant portmanteau word . I pulled out a package of her pickle spice , ‘ Refrigerator Pickle Mix ’ which she uses to make cucumber pickles ; it is delightful with many other vegetables . I used constitutive orchard apple tree cider acetum and some honey with the mixture and bring down up carrots , celery , Allium cepa , fennel bulb and broke a cauliflower into florets . I had a hard time wait the 24 time of day as suggest , allow them to marinade overnight . Well it was worth the delay — I tried a sample of every character of vegetable in my intermixture — and then some and could n’t settle which I liked the best . The Brassica oleracea botrytis and Florence fennel were likely my favs . Try making some crunchy pickled vegetables for a great healthy winter side bag , sandwich accompaniment or salad addition . If you do n’t have Donna ’s Refrigerator Pickle Mix ( which I urge that you try ! ) on hired man , try a commercial-grade pickling blending and abide by the directions for amounts of vegetables , acetum , etc . You ’ll be glad that you did . Enjoy the flavors and the pace of this winter time of year .

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Refrigerator pickles made with seasonal veggies; easy to make and a tasty treat. Click on other pix to enlarge and read captions.Photo/Illustration: Susan Belsinger

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