Friday, September 30, 2022

In My Kitchen, September 2022

My one new kitchen tool in September.

Kitchen Challenge

Most kitchen posts are about cooking, baking, and acquiring new foods and cooking devices. Today I’m going to start with something completely different: fighting stuff that gets tracked in through the kitchen door. Everyone has to keep the floor clean, but nobody talks about it! September starts the season here when trees are constantly dropping little seeds and things… October and November the trees are dropping leaves… then there will be slush and snow. 

On the ground outside my kitchen for most of the month:
Hundreds of maple twirlers

Everywhere on the tile floor: maple twirlers.

What to do?

Most of you probably have a mini-vac just like I do.
Mine is hanging beside the flour canisters in the pantry.

Fall Produce in the Kitchen

As the leaves get ready to drop, September is also approaching the end of the growing season for many great fruits and vegetables in Michigan, like peaches, plums, apricots, lettuce, bell peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes. Happily, the season for apples and pears is just starting. And onions and potatoes last through the winter.

First frost date for the lower 48 states. Alaska has frosts virtually all year.
Hawaii has frosts only at high elevations. (Source)

By the end of September, the first frost here in southeastern Michigan is not far off — if it hasn’t happened already. The current forecast gives us another two weeks before it happens this year. Fresh produce is a big deal for many of us, but much depends on the weather; above is a map showing what we could expect. In my experience the frost is often a bit earlier than the map indicates, though I guess that the warming of the planet is giving us a few more days of ripening tomatoes. 

Some of the last local orange and red tomatoes, peaches, and plums… and an early apple.
I think the ripening tree fruit is more related to the length of the day, and yes, days are getting shorter.
My fresh produce comes from two stores that sell local produce: The Produce Station, a retail market,
and Argus Farm Stop, a farmers’ consignment market.

I did not freeze or otherwise save any fall produce this year,
except for this one little bag of plums, frozen for a plum cake next winter.

From Argus Farm Stop: fantastic local corn. I always husk corn outdoors.

Very fresh large duck eggs, raised by Webbed Foot Pines and sold by Argus.

You can see how fresh the eggs are by the way the yolks
stay very spherical and don’t flatten out.

Baking


I baked a white pizza.

Len baked croissants, which I documented in an earlier post.

 New book, published this month: Ken Forkish,
Evolutions in Bread

The new book features breads made with
early strains of wheat, like eincorn.

A gluten-free challah that Len made for our neighbor, using a recipe from the web.

Coming soon…

Halloween candy is everywhere, and I’ve had some already.

One by one, leaves begin to color and to drop.




I’m sharing my September kitchen summary with the blog event “In My Kitchen” hosted by Sherry at her blog Sherry’s Pickings (sherryspickings.blogspot.com). This post © 2022 by mae sander.

27 comments:

Jenn Jilks said...

It is a wonderful time of year! I enjoy it.

Jeanie said...

I think (hope) I feel good enough today to get to the smaller market up here -- assuming it's still on. (I think it goes till October). I've been wiped out with pneumonia for a couple of days but I really want some honey crisp apples if I can find them and some acorn squash. It really is the best time of year!

Your baking looks delicious. For that matter, everything looks delicious! (And I know what you mean about the floor!)

Tina said...

I'm in the green section for the frost map, the upper part of Florida. We have a lovely 2 weeks of beautiful fall weather then we get cold. Not like in Michigan but, it does get freezing temps here.

Once I made a heary vegetable soup and it was so late in the day the pot wouldn't cool to put in the fridge. I placed newspapers on the floorboard of the car and put the pot in there for the night.

Great produce you have!

DVArtist said...

This is a wonderful post. We keep a whisk broom hanging just inside the door to brush off our shoes before going inside. However, it seems I am always sweeping up leaves and grass. Lovely photos of your baked goods. I really enjoyed this post. Have a nice day.

Marg said...

Autumn is my favourite time of the year, but spring is pretty good too!

We just got a new puppy so he delights in bringing leaves inside and then chomping them up into little bits!

So many delicious things in this post!

Tandy | Lavender and Lime (http://tandysinclair.com) said...

I have a cordless electric sweeper for the leaves that come into the house and to clear the patio. As usual, Len's bread looks excellent.

Iris Flavia said...

Yes, cleaning on the plan this (long) weekend.
Oh, thank you!!!!
I noted "toast" - but instead will buy croissants! Yippeee!

Velva- Evening with a Sandwich said...

Like Tina living in the northern part of Florida-It will be awhile before we get cold. The weather at the moment is glorious. The kitchen is a high traffic area in my home and we are forever tracking in things from outside or we got messy in the kitchen.

Michigan fruits re delightful. We are at the end of peppers and eggplants, peanuts and okra. Citrus will soon come into season with all the lettuces, broccoli and cauliflower ( all the cool weather plants).

I enjoyed visiting your blog. Stay warm.

Velva

Terrie said...

Since neither my husband or myself really cook, this all looks amazingly delicious (and way too much work!). We're only just beginning to see leaves fall here in Seattle - but I sure love this time of year. No leaves come in but man do we have spiders! Have a great week.
Terrie @ Bookshelf Journeys
https://www.bookshelfjourneys.com/post/sunday-post-18

Gretchen said...

I am in Wisconsin and we were very close to having our first frost this week. Some areas near us did. We live at the base of a hill which shelters us a bit from the frost. Our Maple twirlers dropped earlier in the summer and there were so many! Seems like it goes in cycles. The leaves are really changing now! Have a good week!

Unknown said...

I've never seen a frost map like that before but it totally makes sense! Those croissants look REALLY good, I would have loved one straight out of the oven and I can just imagine how wonderful your oven smelled. That fresh corn and duck eggs also have me drooling...

sending greetings from Toronto, just a couple of lakes down the road
dreams of sourdough @ http://ayearindarwin.blogspot.com

Harvee said...

We already turned out heat on as it got too cold a few nights ago.

We leave our shoes at the door, but stuff gets tracked into the house anyway, and our kitchen floor is always full of crumbs, specks of food, spices, and escaped liquid. It's the most cleaned floor in the house.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

The Farmers Markets are all gone and the farm shops have all closed for the winter Getting fresh fruit here will now have to be at our local markets.

I've never had duck eggs. I had no idea anyone even raised ducks for their eggs. The bread sure looks yummy.

I have a spatula like that one you got. Looks like the same brand, too. I hope you like yours better than I like mine.

gluten Free A_Z Blog said...

Mae,
You are so right about tracking things into the house. For me, it is not just in the fall- we seem to have the issue all summer. I keep a mat inside and outside of my deck door. I love how beautiful the gluten-free challah came out which I know can be tricky and often look more like a pretzel. (would love that recipe). As soon as I saw the pancakes on the griddle, it took me back to my childhood when my mother used to make pancakes on Sunday mornings. Enjoyed this post. Thanks,

Beth F said...

Glad you picked up the Forkish book. Hope it was my review that prompted you to get it. It's getting cold here too.

Beth F said...

Glad you picked up the Forkish book ... Hope it was my review that prompted you to buy it. It's getting cold here too.

Vicki said...

I have that same Griddle!

I love going to the fruit/vegetable markets but haven't been in a while.

I'm in the orange section, west central Florida. It's been known to frost here and a few times I've had to scrape it of my windows. I don't remember that ever happening years ago.

I always have a mini vac, don't know how many I've replaced over the years. They are so handy!

All of your baking looks so good, especially the Challah! Don't think I could ever get one to look that good, and now I want one.

What is the name of the flower in the last photo? I've never seen one before that I can remember.

I hope you have a great day!


Elza Reads said...

Your photos tell a story all by themselves. I love it! So wholesome and homely.

Have a great week Mae and enjoy the fall.

Elza Reads

Emily said...

I love the look of that fruit. That frost table is pretty useful. I love Autumn when you get to go through all the leaves. It does leave a mess on the floor though!

Have a great week ahead!

Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog
My post:
https://budgettalesblog.wordpress.com/2022/10/02/sunday-salon-23/

Carola Bartz said...

I hear you about the floor. This is the season where the leaves make their way into the house. The kitchen floor has some more additions from preparing food - cleaning it seems to be ongoing. I'm still getting produce from the garden, but I do feel that some of the tomatoes might not ripen in time. We do have time here though until our first frost, but nights can get nippy. I buy most of my produce and fruit at the local farmers market which is year round. The croissants look very delicious.

Sherry's Pickings said...

Those maple twirlers remind me of the leaves that fly off our tipuana tree. Very similar. That corn looks really beautiful. I may not ever have had duck eggs. I imagine they are very rich in flavour. Len's challah and croissants look amazing. How clever is he! Thanks for joining in this month as usual. Much appreciated. cheers!

thecuecard said...

We had one frost warning about two weeks ago ... it got down to 33 degrees in Calgary overnight. But since then we haven't had another warning. It's been around 47 overnight ... which is a heatwave, LOl .... our veggie plants are still alive ...

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

The idea of fall is, in general, meaningless here along the Texas Gulf Coast. No apples growing. No falling leaves. Slight temp drop.

I envy you, Mae.

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

And I've added Evolutions in Bread to my wish list.

francesca said...

Nice to hear about Michigan's seasons and Autumn leaves. I'm still dealing with my dry oak leaves from three months ago, attempting to compost them all before the fire anger season is upon us here. They are a wonderful resource, but annoying early in the season when they stick to everything. it's amazing how they find their way inside, or into roof guttering, fencing, small cracks.
I'm very impressed with Len's croissants. I wish I lived close by for a taste. It's always inspiring to have another bread book and this one looks good. I'll check it out in the library.

Cheers, Francesca, www.almostitalian.blog

Liz said...

Since we have mostly conifers here there aren't any beautiful leaves, I miss that part of fall. But the days are crisp and the air feels different. Our trouble is needles...pine, redwood and cypress. They catch on the dogs fur and they bring them inside.

Wonderful things in your kitchen.

Happy Retiree's Kitchen said...

It's so interesting to read about what is happening in your part of the world Mae. We don't have as many leaves etc flying in but gardeners always manage to bring in something or whatever from outside. I'm looking forward to our stonefruit season, just around the corner. I like the look of your new bread book, I'll make a note of that. Take care, Pauline