The August Avalanche
Until yesterday, the week was pleasant and enabled us to work outdoors without going out by 7:30 a.m. and in by 9:30 at the latest. We continued to harvest beans – now up to 26 lbs. frozen. We put up 10 more pints of Italian tomato sauce. I did a lot of weeding and started seedlings of cabbage, red cabbage, radicchio and three kinds of Chinese cabbage. I meant to start bok choi but could not find my seeds. Woody found some in Orléans yesterday while shopping, so some time today, I’ll plant them inside. This time of year, as soon as they sprout, they go out onto the potting bench outside, so they don’t get leggy. I pulled my dead or dying pansies from their long pots and planted radish seeds. The chipmunks have finally found my garden and started biting into the paste tomatoes. Bummer.
I wrote two poems and have been struggling over a third that I haven’t finished adequately yet. This afternoon, canning pints of tomatoes. The dining room table, the buffet, even the top of the dehydrator are covering with tomatoes, red, pink, yellow, orange waiting to be dealt with. The plants are slowing down, but I suspect after getting fed today, they will continue to produce into September. I hope so. After we can enough sauce and tomatoes, I hope to dehydrate tomatoes. I love to use the dried tomatoes as an enrichments in tomato sauces, like for pasta.
Woody was waxing nostalgia for his grandmother’s brisket, so much of yesterday from 2 p.m. on, I worked on brisket. As far as I’m concerned, me cooking brisket properly is the once a year or even once a decade activity. I prepare it with lots of vegetables – many carrots, many slices of white onion, chunks of turnip, tomatoes and in the last hour of cooking, red wine and mushrooms. It was done by 7 and we had it on the sunporch with Dale and Stephen. I served it with poppyseed noodles. Dale made a key lime pie. It was a fun relaxed evening with a fine breeze blowing off the marsh and through the screens. The secret is bayleaf, marjoram, oregano and allspice and very slow cooking, browning it first and then gradually adding the other ingredients. It was incredibly delicious and tender, but I wouldn’t like to spend a day making again it any time soon. There are almost no leftovers.
I did some more recording for the audio book of ON THE WAY OUT, TURN OFF THE LIGHT. I sure hope I’m finally done. Another e producer sent the video of my poem “To be of use” that I had read for that project. I had a phone call Friday when we were canning and I explained I couldn’t chat then. She called back yesterday from London. I had a conversation with the production company the first week of March about appearing in a televised program about Marilyn Monroe. They were acquainted with the piece I had written about her about ten years ago. I was interested and then completely forgot about it. We’re trying to work out how I can be filmed talking about Marilyn. I won’t go to NYC or Boston during Covid 19 and told them they had to find a studio on the Cape for me to do it. I don’t know it if will ever happen, given the circumstances now.
The cats have settled into new routines. They are all three getting along very well. Since I was informed suddenly that I couldn’t have the kitten from CASAS after preparing for her [kitten food, etc], we have all settled in and are no longer looking. Three is enough for the time being, at least. They are happy, so we are. Nobody is bullying anybody. They eat from the same plate at supper before moving on to the other plates. They know they are going to get three plates at supper but still when the first plate comes down, they all must eat from it.