I woke up one morning and realized that it was officially autumn and the year was almost over. And I will say, we have fully embraced the season.
During one of our weekends up at Timber Cove, we discovered the Fort Ross Orchard, a public, but very hidden and unpopulated space just east of Highway 1 and up from Fort Ross State Park. It was started by the Russians back in the early 1800s and now has apple, pear, olive, and cherry trees and picking is available for the public. We have since been back a few times to spend a few hours picking fruit and walking around the area. You are only supposed to pick what you can personally eat and we have definitely managed to make good use of what we have found. Our first weekend there, we picked apples for Granny Fran applesauce and pears for homemade marmalade. And just recently, we made a very large and very delicious apple and pear crisp.
In addition to picking apples and pears, we have also expanded our harvesting and preserving skills to include fermentation (Martin got a fancy fermentation pot for his birthday and has started the process of making rot kohl for our upcoming goulash dinner).
And autumn wouldn’t be complete without celebrating Halloween…and we went big this year. We rocked out to monster-mash songs and had a dance party Friday night at our house, my parents stopped by Halloween morning to drop off candy and treats and then, after nap, things really kicked into gear. We carved pumpkins, roasted pumpkin seeds, decorated the front steps and got dressed up (Oskar as an orca, Alva as a shark, Martin as a fisherman and me as a lifeguard).
We had friends from the neighborhood stop by that afternoon to pick up premade goodie bags on the front porch and to catch up in a socially distanced manner. And then we headed out to a nearby park for picnic blanket treat or treating organized by some families from school. We were home and in bed at the normal hour, full of candy and smiles.
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