Kittitas Valley, Washington—No long good-byes for autumn which swiftly left as winter arrived with a flourish of freezing rain and snow. The snow that fell a few days before Thanksgiving crusted and stayed around as there was no break in the cold temperatures that came afterward. Fruit trees that had not shed all their autumn leaves before snowfall, let loose of them at once when the snow came and a state of dormancy quietly settled upon the orchards. Orchard maintenance tasks of weed control and some spraying for tree scab were on the to do list. Most late November and early December days found a layer of freezing fog over the valley floor while above the fog line it was clear, cold and crisp.

In the local terroir, late grape harvest for ice wines was just beginning. Washington wineries should be able to promise quality wines from a succesful 2007 harvest. After a slight drop, wheat prices returned again to the $10/bushel range but some Washington State grain growers were still waiting to sell as they expected even higher prices at a later date. Not hard to imagine a fairly jubilant mood prevailing at annual Wheat Growers and Farm Bureau meetings--jubilant for farmers means they smile a little when the subject of wheat and hay prices comes up.

Before December rolled around, livestock out on range or pasture were already being fed supplemental hay rations as the forage declined with the onset of winter. Fields seeded with winter grain crops showed an inch or more of frost in the soil which meant that fieldwork was essentially over for the year though one of our neighbors ignored the rule of thumb and plowed up a field on the Friday after Thanksgiving. We assumed his tractor work that day was just the excuse he needed for not going shopping with his wife and kids. - Source: Washington Crop Weather Report, USDA.

THE SNOW-STORM by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farm-house at the garden's end.
The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.
- Poems Household Edition [EBook #12843]

The Virtual Art Gallery of Fruit Art includes late fall and early winter scenes of farms and orchards sleeping through the dormant season, by Charles Dahlgren, Theodore Butler, Daniel Garber and Claude Monet. Charles William Dahlgren's Frosty Morning (1864-1955). Theodore Butler's Farm Orchard in Winter, Giverny, (1904) oil on canvas, The Caldwell Gallery, New York. Daniel Garber's Rural Landscape, (1880-1958). Claude Monet's Snow at Argenteuil (1874), oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Wishing you Happy Holidays from Eberhart Orchards and everyone at FruitFromWashington.com!

THE YEAR by Carl Sandburg
I
A storm of white petals,
Buds throwing open baby fists
Into hands of broad flowers.
II
Red roses running upward,
Clambering to the clutches of life
Soaked in crimson.
III
Rabbles of tattered leaves
Holding golden flimsy hopes
Against the tramplings
Into the pits and gullies.
IV
Hoarfrost and silence:
Only the muffling
Of winds dark and lonesome—
Great lullabies to the long sleepers.
Source: Carl Sandburg's Cornhuskers (1918)

Looking for a change of taste? Tired of mincemeat pies made from the Nonesuch™ product that appears in baking aisles (next to stacked cans of pumpkin and evaporated milk) during the holiday season? Try mince pear as a substitute. Here's an excellent recipe for Old Fashioned Pear Mincemeat from Farm Journal's Freezing & Canning Cookbook, Prized Recipes from the Farms of America, Edited by Nell B. Nichols. Another excellent choice for mince pear pie filling is included in the "Ball Blue Book Guide to Home Canning, Freezing & Dehydration". Look for the "Ball Blue Book" at most stores that carry canning supplies as well as any bookstore that specializes in a good selection of cookbooks. There is no beef suet in these recipes (your vegetarian friends can enjoy them without remorse).

Traditionally (in times of yore), mince pies were not customarily baked in large pie plates but made tart sized to be given to guests that stopped in during the holiday season. Tarts are easy to assemble. If you don't have tart pans, use a muffin tin and cut the pastry into circles (a large biscuit cutter would work, or simply run a knife edge around the lip of the top of a pint glass to cut out the dough. A star shaped cookie cutter used to cut the top crust adds a festive touch, or just make another round, tuck it in place once you have spooned mince fruit filling into the tart and covered it with the upper crust. Brush with egg, for a bit of shine, and bake.

Find various mince fruit pie recipes here (all are variations of mincemeat, without the meat):
Mince Pear Pie with ripe Bartlett or Bosc Pears, orange, raisins, cider vinegar and spices - www.gardenstew.com/about8082.html
Mince Apple Pie with 3 1/2 pounds small pippin apples, prunes, golden raisins and dried currants - www.fisheaters.com/christmasrecipes.html
Mince Cranberry Pie - www.rd.com/content/cranberry-mince-pie-recipe/
Trader Vic's Rum Batter Mince Pie with apples, raisins, red wine vinegar and Hot Buttered Rum Batter - www.tradervics.com/recipes-3.html

Credit: Library of Congress, Rare Book
and Special Collections Division

Gabriel Wells (1862-1948) was a renowned New York rare books dealer during the first half of the 20th Century. He authored a number of titles including: COMMON SENSE AND THE CRISIS - The Great Depression, Garden City, NY Doubleday, Doran & Company 1933; GENTLE REACTIONS - Essays on World War I, Garden City Doubleday, Page & Co. 1923; GREAT ENGLISH STRIKE. Garden City, NY Doubleday, Page & Co. 1926; INTIMATIONS - A Collection of Essays, London Constable and Company, Ltd. 1927. His articles on social issues were published periodically in the New York Times, The Herald-Tribune, The Sun, The World, The Saturday Review of Literature, and The Spectator.

Excerpts from The Art of Living - Christmas, 1942 by Gabriel Wells

What, then, is Life? Aspiration. And what is Art? Selection. Thus the Art of Living consists in Aspiring Selectively.

The clutter and confusion of life comes largely from indiscriminate behavior. The fact is overlooked that man is not a mass unit, but an individual unit, with specific personal traits.

Aspiration is the prelude to human conduct, just as Selection is a prelude to human method. Human Life moves vertically, resulting in Development, while Animal Life moves horizontally, bearing Growth.

We often speak of Life as a mystery. And so it is, in the simple, ordinary sense of being veiled. This is due to the fact that Life is not a ready-made, fixed affair, but is of itself a Potentiality. Hence: Life in its Actuality is what we make it. And in order to make it meaningful, rational, spiritual, we must use Perspective and thereby see Life as a Whole.
GABRIEL WELLS - CHRISTMAS 1942

The art of living by Gabriel Wells. Christmas 1942. CREATED/PUBLISHED 1942. NOTES: Leaflet Printed Ephemera Collection; Portfolio 242, Folder 29a. SUBJECTS Leaflets United States. MEDIUM 30 x 23 cm. CALL NUMBER Portfolio 242, Folder 29a PART OF Broadsides, leaflets, and pamphlets from America and Europe DIGITAL ID rbpe 2420290a http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.2420290a

Pet Show Poster is a WPA recreation project, Dist. No. 2, created by Federal Art Project, April 3,1939. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. (DIGITAL ID cph cph 3f05202 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3f05202 ).

CEREMONIES FOR CHRISTMAS by Robert Herrick

Come, bring with a noise,
My merry, merry boys,
The Christmas log to the firing;
While my good dame, she
Bids ye all be free;
And drink to your hearts' desiring.
With the last year's brand
Light the new block, and
For good success in his spending,
On your psaltries play,
That sweet luck may
Come while the log is a-tending.
Drink now the strong beer,
Cut the white loaf here,
The while the meat is a-shredding;
For the rare mince-pie
And the plums stand by
To fill the paste that's a-kneading.
- Source: The Home Book of Verse, Volume 1
Edited by Burton Egbert Stevenson [Etext #2619]

Mulled Cider

Prepare Hot Apple Cider in a crock pot during holiday gatherings. Frees up your stovetop for other cooking duties and guests can easily serve themselves!

1 quart apple juice or apple cider
1 teaspoon whole allspice
1 teaspoon whole cloves
2 sticks cinnamon

Combine ingredients and simmer 20 minutes. Strain out spices. Serve hot. 6 servings.

See our Beverages Recipes for traditional Wassail Bowls and cheery holiday punches.

Months of December and January
Featured Cookie Recipes

The chosen featured recipes for a Holiday Raisin Cookie, Holiday Fruit Drops, Coconut Butterscotch Squares and Assorted Cookies are from a large collection of cookie recipes that Grandma Violet Boulton typed up in 1953 as a wedding gift for daughter, Barbara and her new son-in-law, Dee. She collected some cookie recipes from McCall magazine, others she identified as "Canadian" of unattributed source but maybe going back to her childhood in Morse, Saskatchewan. One family favorite that appears in her cookie recipe collection is Santa Claus and Christmas Tree Cookies on a page so stained and torn that the words are barely legible.

What a lot of work it must have been, typing all those pages, double-sided, and getting the recipes so accurate on a manual typewriter! None of us have found photos of Grandma Violet working at her typewriter or even of her in the kitchen wearing an apron, using her Sunbeam mixer, but the memories of her doing these things remain. She'd make a big batch of cookies in a speckled fruit bowl as it was the largest one she had, the one that also served for making buckwheat waffle batter on a Sunday morning. The kitchen oven had a big bottom drawer where she kept the jar of Ovaltine that we'd take out and mix a cup, to go with a cookie, before being sent off to bed on our stayovers at Grandma's house. I remember Grandma had a custom spice cupboard inset into the kitchen wall with shelves just wide enough for one row deep of spice bottles, or those blue Crescent brand cans that you sometimes see in antique stores today—and it seems to me, her spices were all arranged alphabetically—as were the recipes in her cookie cookbook. - ce

GRANNY by James Whitcomb Riley

Granny's come to our house,
Ho! My lawzy-daisy!
All the childern round the place
Is ist a runnin' crazy!
Fetched a cake fer little Jake,
And fetched a pie fer Nanny,
And fetched a pear fer all the pack
That runs to kiss their Granny!
- Source: Afterwhiles [EBook #15862]

Picture Credit: Wassail Bowl and Moonlit Night Sleigh Ride illustrations from A Visit From Saint Nicholas, Clement Moore Illustrator: F.O.C. Darley [EBook #17382].

CHRISTMAS, 1701 From Poor Robin's Almanack

Now enter Christmas like a man,
Armed with spit and dripping-pan,
Attended with pasty, plum-pie,
Puddings, plum-porridge, furmity;
With beef, pork, mutton of each sort
More than my pen can make report;
Pig, swan, goose, rabbits, partridge, teal,
With legs and loins and breasts of veal:
But above all the minced pies
Must mention'd be in any wise,
Or else my Muse were much to blame,
Since they from Christmas take their name.
With these, or any one of these,
A man may dine well if he please;
Yet this must well be understood,—
Though one of these be singly good,
Yet more the merrier is the best
As well of dishes as of guest.
But the times are grown so bad
Scarce one dish for the poor is had;
Good housekeeping is laid aside,
And all is spent to maintain pride;
Good works are counted popish, and
Small charity is in the land.
A man may sooner (truth I tell ye)
Break his own neck than fill his belly.
Good God amend what is amiss
And send a remedy to this,
That Christmas day again may rise
And we enjoy our Christmas pies.
Source: Christmas: Its Origin and Associations Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries Author: William Francis Dawson Release Date: July 10, 2007 [eBook #22042]

Defined: Furmity, which comes from frumenty, which is "hulled what boiled in milk and flavored with sugar and spices."

The FruitFromWashington.com
Archive Feature of the Month

Title: New Mexico--Mrs. Fidel Romero proudly exhibits her canned food. [Two women standing in a kitchen pantry. Pantry contains preserved fruits and vegetables and stacked cardboard boxes labeled Kerr Mason Jars.], 1946. E.C. Hunton, Photographer. National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD. ARC Identifier: 513405 The FruitFromWashington Archive Feature metaphorically blows the dust off of an image or document from our past and brings it to the light of day for a new audience to see.

For birth and ancestry, and that which we have not ourselves achieved, we can scarcely call our own." - Ovid

Excerpt from Life in Canada...Personal Recollections and Reminiscences by Canniff Haight (1885)

The winter's work now began in earnest, for whatever may be said about the enjoyment of Canadian winter life--and it is an enjoyable time to the Canadian--there are few who really enjoy it so much as the farmer. He cannot, however, do like bruin--roll himself up in the fall, and suck his paw until spring in a state of semi-unconsciousness, for his cares are numerous and imperious, his work varied and laborious. His large stock demands regular attention, and must be fed morning and night. The great barn filled with grain had to be threshed, for the cattle needed the straw, and the grain had to be got out for the market. So day after day he and his men hammered away with the flail, or spread the sheaves on the barn floor to be trampled out by horses. Threshing machines were unknown then, as were all the labour-saving machines now so extensively used by the farmer. His muscular arm was the only machine he then had to rely upon, and if it did not accomplish much, it succeeded in doing its work well, and in providing him with all his modest wants. Then the fanning mill came into play to clean the grain, after which it was carried to the granary, whence again it was taken either to the mill or to market. Winter was also the time to get out the logs from the woods, and to haul them to the mill to be sawed in the spring--we always had a use for boards. These saw mills, built on sap-streams, which ran dry as soon as the spring freshets were over, were like the cider mills, small rough structures. They had but one upright saw, which, owing to its primitive construction, did not move as now, with lightning rapidity, nor did it turn out a very large quantity of stuff. It answered the purpose of the day, however, and that was all that was required or expected of it. Rails, also, had to be split and drawn to where new fences were wanted, or where old ones needed repairs. There were flour, beef, mutton, butter, apples, and a score more of things to be taken to market and disposed of. But, notwithstanding all this, the winter was a good, joyful time for the farmer--a time, moreover, when the social requisites of his nature received the most attention. Often the horses would be put to the sleigh, and we would set off, well bundled up, to visit some friends a few miles distant, or, as frequently happened, to visit an uncle or an aunt, far away in the new settlements. The roads often wound along for miles through the forest, and it was great fun for us youngsters to be dashing along behind a spirited team, now around the trunks of great trees, or under the low-hanging boughs of the spruce or cedar, laden with snow, which sometimes shed their heavy load upon our head. But after a while the cold would seize upon us, and we would wish our journey at an end.

The horses, white with frost, would then be pressed on faster, and would bring us at length to the door. In a few moments we would all be seated round the glowing fire, which would soon quiet our chattering teeth, thaw us out, and prepare us to take our places at the repast which had been getting ready in the meantime. We were sure to do justice to the good things which the table provided.

Many of these early days start up vividly and brightly before me, particularly since I have grown to manhood, and lived amid other surroundings. Among the most pleasing of these recollections are some of my drives on a moonlight night, when the sleighing was good, and when the sleigh, with its robes and rugs, was packed with a merry lot of girls and boys (we had no ladies and gentlemen then). Off we would set, spanking along over the crisp snow, which creaked and cracked under the runners, making a low murmuring sound in harmony with the sleigh-bells. When could a more fitting time be found for a pleasure-ride than on one of those clear calm nights; when the earth, wrapped in her mantle of snow, glistened and sparkled in the moonbeams, and the blue vault of heaven glittered with countless stars, whose brilliancy seemed intensified by the cold--when the aurora borealis waved and danced across the northern sky, and the frost noiselessly fell like flakes of silver upon a scene at once inspiriting, exhilarating and joyous! How the merry laugh floated along in the evening air, as we dashed along the road! How sweetly the merry song and chorus echoed through the silent wood; while our hearts were aglow with excitement, and all nature seemed to respond to the happy scene!

- Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago, Personal Recollections and Reminiscences of a Sexagenarian by Canniff Haight (1885) [EBook #6663]