It's fitting to celebrate the end of summer
with an ancient harvest festival.
(No, we won't be doing that.)
The last of the summer crops would
have been gathered and the Celts would
begin their sacrifices to ensure that
next years harvest would be bountiful.
They also believed the veil that
separated the dead from the living,
would be lifted and the gods would
play tricks on them.
Hence the "haunted" aspect of Halloween.
The Celts celebrations included
costumes of animal hides and antlers.
They also had jack-o-lantern's
made of turnips to ward off evil spirits
and treats (sacrifices) to their gods.
They had games like bobbing for apples
which was a fortune telling game
where an eligible man would put his apple
in the water and if his apple was
bitten by the girl, he was supposed to
become her husband.
I wonder if this practice ever backfired.
Hmmm.
😆
So, on Samhain, which was actually
November 1st, the Celts began
celebrating after the sun went down.
Why is it called Halloween?
The medieval Christians called
Samhain, All Hallows Day, and the
day before was called All Hallows Day Eve.
It quickly became shortened to
Hallow'een.
We call November 1st, All Saints Day
because, in medieval England,
Hallow meant Holy or, in some cases, Sainted.
The church, in order to quell the
superstitious Irish, held an evening Mass
on All Hallows Eve.
(I wonder if that worked?)
*******************
So much for ancient harvest practices.
On our little farm, the summers brutal heat
definitely took its toll.
This is a few of the last veggies
we have growing,
2 small green bell peppers,
2 green eggplants,
and
4 very small Japanese eggplants.
We still have onions, some poblano peppers,
and a few brave little cherry tomatoes.
The culmination of hard work...
This is some of our veggies and herbs
that I dehydrated.
Thats a gallon ZipLoc bag filled to almost bursting!
It'll make the veggie/herbal blend for seasoning.
I use them in sauces, salads or crumbled
onto meat before baking.
Delicious!
*******************
Milkweed.
We have several colors but few
caterpillars partook of our offering.
Here's one little guy
that looks ravenous!
The odd couple
eating from a can of tuna.
Lucy standing guard over the tuna can.
She is protecting it from the wild birds.
😁
Lucy checking out Minew's dinner spot.
We put the cat food up a bit higher
to keep Lucy from sampling it.
Sometimes it doesn't work...
Sweet little Minew,
she is too meek for a cat.
**************************
Here's a tasty recipe that I've used many times.
Vanilla Extract
Pour 1 cup of vodka or rum into a glass jar
with a top that can be sealed tightly.
I use a mason jar.
Take 2 or 3 vanilla beans and cut them
lengthwise to expose the seeds.
If the beans are too tall for the
jar, cut them in half.
You don't have to scrape the seeds out,
just place them into the jar with the liquor.
Shake the jar a bit to loosen up the seeds.
Place the jar in a darkened area for 2 months.
I give it a shake every so often to stir up the seeds.
Then it becomes the best vanilla!!
Great to make now for Christmas gifts.
Amazing..
🎃👻 💀
Happy Halloween!
💙💚💗
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