GoodStuffNW: Edging Toward F*ll
In the Pacific Northwest, the other four-letter word starting with “F” is being bandied about and, like its profane counterpart, using it in certain surroundings can result in some major stink-eye being cast in the speaker’s direction. I, on the other hand, get a little frisson of excitement when the high temperatures start dipping into the 70s in early September, and I begin to look longingly in the direction of my down comforter, imagine snuggling into it to ward off the nighttime chill.
But today, right now, it’s still the peak of harvest season, and I’m digging out my quart jars to pickle more escabeche while the peppers are popping and start jamming hot peppers in with garlic and brine for hot sauce.
While berries have pretty much come and gone, local tree fruit is still plentiful—local apples are just beginning to appear—and you can find plums galore and peaches still clinging on (pun intended). Pears are not long for this world (or at least for this summer) but if you find them, make this ginger pear jam to remind you of the sweetness of summer.
In a more serious vein, I can't think of a farm family I know where one or more of the owners doesn't have another job (or two) outside of the farm to help pay the bills or cover health insurance. Farmer Andrew Tait of Virginia wrote about his family’s struggles in the wake of the passage of Trump’s budget bill, saying, “This bill, like so many before it, rewards the already powerful while punishing the people who hold up the economy in invisible ways. It gives to those who lobby and takes from those who labor. It reinforces a message I’ve felt in my bones for years: You’re on your own.” Read his essay here.
I’ve also published an emergency appeal for donations to the Gaza Soup Kitchen, which I mentioned in the last newsletter, as the famine spreads and Israel continues its attempts at erasure of the Palestinian people from their homeland.
As always, thanks to my subscribers on Patreon for your support of this source of news you won’t find anyplace else. Though the content you find here has always been and will always be free, subscribers help to underwrite the costs through their donations, so I hope you’ll consider a nominal subscription.
Thanks to you, too, for reading. And happy f*ll!
Best,
Kathleen Bauer