(^10) September/October 2019
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Best Days
■ Begin logging:
September 7-9; October 4-
■ (^) Harvest belowground crops:
September 17, 18;
October 14-
■ (^) Setting eggs:
September 9, 10, 18-20;
October 7, 8, 16, 17
■ (^) Fishing: September 1-14,
28-30; October 1-13, 27-
Calendar
September 2: Labor Day
11: Patriot Day
14: Full Harvest Moon
23: Autumnal Equinox
October 2: Watch for banded
woolly bear caterpillars now
13: Full Hunter’s Moon
14: Columbus Day (observed)
31: All Hallows’ Eve
WIT & WISDOM
from The Old Farmer’s Almanac, always ‘useful,
with a pleasant degree of humor’
Pumpkin Pickles
Yields about 3 pints.
4 cups peeled, cubed pumpkin
11 ⁄ 2 cups sugar
11 ⁄^2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 sticks cinnamon
10 whole cloves
- Steam pumpkin until barely tender, about
10 minutes — don’t let the pumpkin touch
the boiling water or it’ll get mushy. Drain. - In a saucepan, combine sugar, vinegar,
cinnamon, and cloves. Cover and simmer for
20 minutes. - Add pumpkin to pan, and return to a
simmer. Cover and cook for 3 more minutes. - Remove pan from heat, leaving the
pumpkin in the syrup. Cover and refrigerate
for 24 hours. - Heat mixture to simmering, and cook for 5
minutes. Remove spices. Pack pumpkin into
sterilized jars, and fill with syrup. - Seal jars, and process for 10 minutes in a
boiling-water bath.
Suspending small bunches of fresh-
picked everlastings — flowers that keep their
shape and color when dried — in a warm,
dark, dry place is a simple drying method
that’s been practiced for generations. An attic,
a room with a woodstove, or a closet will work.
Avoid damp basements or kitchens with high
humidity. Hang the flowers upside down to
keep the stems straight and allow for good
air circulation.
Cockscomb, statice, baby’s breath, salvia,
and strawflower are among the easiest for
beginners because they dry quickly (7 to 10
days) and retain their colors well. Cultivars
with large flowers and high moisture contentmay take 20 days or more. A quick test: If the
stem snaps when bent, the flower is dry.
Another drying method is to use a drying
agent, such as silica gel. Its fine particles are
easy to pack around delicate blossoms. Most
flowers are dried in 4 to 5 days. This method is
superior to air-drying for delicate flowers and
preserves their natural colors well.
Once dried, everlastings can be arranged
as you would fresh flowers, or made into
beautiful floral wreaths and more.Dry It, You’ll Like It
Facts & FolkloreSkywatch
September: The moon floats to the
right of Jupiter on the 5th, left of
Jupiter on the 6th, right of Saturn
on the 7th, and left of Saturn on
the 8th. On the 29th, the thin
crescent moon forms a triangle
with Mercury to its lower left and
bright Venus to its lower right.
Autumn begins with the equinox on
the 23rd at 3:50 a.m. EDT.October: Mars starts to rise
ahead of the morning sun, but it’s
still subdued in solar glare. This
leaves Jupiter and Saturn to strut
unchallenged in the southern sky
nearly all night long. Green Uranus
comes into opposition on the 28th;
the planet is dimly visible to the
naked eye away from city lights.The 2020 Old Farmer’s Almanac is now available!
Find it everywhere books and magazines are sold, as well as at
http://www.Almanac.com/Shop or by calling 800-ALMANAC (256-2622).