putting up the goods

nick and i have spent the last few weeks belatedly preparing for winter. apple sauce. pickled beets. radishes. carrots. cranberry jam. butternut squash soup. carrot ginger soup. we are running out of ideas for what to can and are now fearful that we will be dining on nothing but puréed squash all winter long. a bit too similar to a baby's diet.

fortunately, the hens are laying again. i think the fox attacks have quite literally scared the eggs out of them. we also had the good fortune to buy some beef from a friends farm in western massachusetts. and we purchased 60lb bags of wheat and oats from a friend up north.

all of this doesn't distract neither nick nor i from the one glaring deficiency of our larder. the lack of dairy. we have no milk cow. still. we have kind friends to keep us satiated with yogurt, butter, cheese, and milk from their sweet cows. but we need our own milk cow.

counting the days until spring when this issue can be addressed properly.

a belated merry christmas to all of you. nick and i spent the weekend with my parents and sister on the vineyard. it was, as it always is, the most needed rest and comfort i could have hoped for.