Fall and The Push to Harvest

It is Fall, the smell of cool ground, leaves, apples, and urgency are in the air.



Growing up on the farm,  food preservation was part of our summer routine.  I remember standing on a chair helping my mom can peaches......  stirring the sugar and water in the jar with a wooden spoon. Grape juice, pears, cherries.........  and of course apricot pineapple Jam.  My Dad pulling in the yard with a pickup load of corn to be shucked, blanched, cut off the cob, and frozen.  We would trade potatoes for carrots.....  My dad raised dicing carrots for freezing.....  the size of sugar beets..... yes really.......... (i still have a distaste for cooked carrots...... we ate them so much in the winter....) we would buy 25 lb bags of Onions.

 We raised our own Beef.  My dad was a master..... I still compare the beef I eat to that I grew up on. Lamb was also eaten on occasion,  yes, Snowball and Herkimer (Lyn's "pets") were delicious.....

 My mom made Home made bread, I didn't learn to make bread until after I left home. Why would I, I got to eat hers!    I inherited her stone grinder.  It has been well used, from my childhood, to my own business adventures,  this grinder has made many a loaf of bread. It has ground wheat, rye and corn.

In Idaho it is Potato Harvest.  I have sorted on the back of a combine, Graded potatoes as they left the cellar.  Drove  "Spud Truck" even to buy a fancy sewing machine I wanted.  Not those fancy 10 wheelers with the automatic transmissions. No, we are talking Double clutching BOBtails from the past.....  that are still put to good use in Idaho.......  Thank you Angie and Shelly for helping me learn the art of potato truck driving.

There was not much fruit in Idaho where we lived.  My Mom and Dad would Bring us boxes of canned peaches, wonderful Washington apples, walnuts from the farm, 25 pound bags of Pintos and Red beans .  My dad would dry apples, he dipped them in pineapple juice to help with the color.  My kids still fight over these when I make them.  We would send them home with Idaho potatoes.......   Ashton is the seed potato Capital, they raise dense hardy potatoes in the high country next to the Teton's.

Spudnuts are a tradition after harvest...., we celebrate the abundance of family, home, community and the earth. 

We had our own Spudnut Festival last month..... here are a few pics, and the Basic recipe.  Spudnuts are Potato Doughnuts.  The first time I had them was at Grandpa Wayne's and Grandma Ruth's House. This was a staple in my bakery in later years.

  In this modern age of supermarkets and  the "free market" system, we can go to the store and buy any fruit or vegetable we desire, almost any time of year.  Yet there is still within me, this urge to "stock up". Is it my farm heritage?  The long hard cold winters in Idaho that I spent?  To me, it is something deeper.............  A connection to the seasons, the elements, the rhythm of life. A thankfulness to the abundance of the earth, and the comfort of knowing I put a little summer away for the winter.


   

Spudnuts

Cook:

2 large russet potatoes in enough water to cover.

 Poor off water to cool.  Mash potatoes.

In a large mixing bowl combine:

4 cups bread flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 cup powdered milk

2 Tablespoons Yeast

Add cooled potato water, and enough extra water to make 5 cups total. (should be warm, not cold)

Stir in mashed potato.  Let this mixture sponge for 15 minutes until it appears bubbly.

Add:

5 eggs

1 cup melted butter

1 Tablespoon salt                   

4 cups  unbleached All Purpose Flour

10 cups Bread Flour, or enough to make a medium soft dough.

Knead until smooth and elastic.

Let rise until double. Punch down. Let rise again.

Roll out on floured surface to ¾ inch thick.  Cut, let rise till double.

Fry in hot oil (375*) till golden brown.  Ice as desired……