Favorite Fall Projects

For as long as I can remember Fall projects in my home has always revolved around the fantastic aromas of baking, canning, freezing, and family togetherness. We never had time to worry about crafts, though us kids slipped some in during the evenings after the chores were finished. Usually these crafts revolved around drawing pumpkins, coloring and decorating them.

Even with my older children, Fall brought on the trips to the Orchards, where we were found picking fresh fruits, tasting fresh ciders, and learning about all the various fruit trees, how they are managed, the proper way to pick the fruit so not to damage the tree. At home we always had our garden to harvest. Our days from the beginning of Fall were spent being busy preserving all this food, baking, enjoying the aroma, and tasting all our wonderful creations.

This was also the time of year when we began to think about the holidays. Food has always been a huge part of all of our planning. The children would pick out the best of the best jars of jams, peaches, pears, and make special gift labels with the names of family and friends that would receive these precious gifts for Christmas.

As all our work began to come to an end the kids were allowed to mix and match the fruits to make that special jar of yummy goodness that only they thought would taste good, for instance I will never forget when my son chose to use pears, bananas and strawberries to make himself a very special jar of fruit to enjoy on Christmas morning.

People use to give us the strangest looks as we would load up two grocery baskets with pumpkins and squash. I think they thought we would be using these to decorate for Halloween, though the kids did get to paint a face on one each. No these were bought so we could cook them down and freeze for fresh pies throughout the year and yummy squash to add to any dish.

Talk about freezing, We always bought two cases of Walla Walla Sweet Onions, which were diced and froze in perfect serving size for when ever I was making a dish that called for onion. Bananas were purchased by the case and once ran through the food processor, would be precisely measured and froze for delicious banana breads throughout the year as well.

It is going to be a little more difficult to get all the fresh fruit where we live now, but starting next year we look forward to taking the necessary drives to as many fruit and vegetable stands that we can and once again begin this great family tradition with Selena.

As I said in the beginning, Fall has always been more about storing up food for the year, (I always imagine squirrels, when I say that) then it has been about crafts. I guess, old habits die hard, but believe me my family has always rested assured through some of the terrific storms we get, the days and weeks we have been without power, they always have something yummy in our pantry to eat. It’s always been nice from my point of view to not have to buy all these things throughout the year at the grocery stores either.

I have to add, watching as all the hay, straw and firewood was brought in up here for the horses, and homes, flooded me with so many great memories. It truly helped me to get in the mood for all the baking we have been doing.

Pop on over to Three Thinking Mothers and see what others do this time of year with their families.