Mountain Musings: Autumn’s Gifts on a Humboldt Homestead

Mountain Musings – A guest column by Dottie Simmons who lives in eastern Humboldt County describes life at her rural homestead:

Ahhh… Autumn  I often think it is my favorite of the seasons. The workload is huge, as are Spring and Summer’s, but it is the work of reaping rewards. Our Thanksgiving is truly a celebration of living close to the Earth.

There is so much to be grateful for – Autumn rains mark the return of green hills and the end of fire season. The shorter days bring longer restful evenings and, with luck, sleep. The migration of turkeys, juncos, chickadees and more, down from higher elevations fills our feeders as the blackbirds fill the air with their raucous chorus. Every day the oaks, ash, maples and willow are more resplendent until the first big wind, or simply time, drops their leaves and they stand naked in a pool of color. The skies are amazing day and night as the air chills and views and stars are crisp until the drama of the changing weather brings serious storms and the pleasure of hanging by a warm woodstove.

And once again it is the time of ripe apples and pressing cider.

Cider pressing is one of the most communal of the homestead food preservation tasks. There are other things we do with the help of family and friends, but harvesting and pressing the apples together is a tradition here.

Every year there are many factors that determine when we can do this task.  First and foremost is when the apples get ripe. You would think this would be more or less a constant, but nooooo… these trees at this elevation in any given year’s weather have a mind of their own. And this year they stubbornly held on for the first rains, then delightfully became larger and sweeter and juicier – weeks later than in previous years.

Second is when it works best for most of the people involved. Coordinating schedules is always tricky, especially as this was later in the year than usual, yet four generations of our family and some of their friends joined forces and we picked, cleaned and pressed over 35 gallons of cider from 2 of our trees to share and store and some we boiled down into ‘cider molasses’, a favorite to put on pancakes and waffles, yogurt and such.

And, of course, there was cider to drink at our Thanksgiving table, a feast representing the rewards harvested from this life over the course of the year.

And that Thanksgiving feast itself is far more than a grand meal and leftovers. That turkey carcass is simmering now, becoming stock for soups we will enjoy in the year ahead.

No matter what else is happening to us and around us, we still always have much to be thankful for.

** In case you are interested, you can make cider molasses by boiling cider in a large, wide pan until you have reduced its volume to around 1/7th of the original. 1 gallon of cider yields just over 1 cup – a great way to store a lot of cider in a small space!