Page 39 - the NOISE September 2012

Slipping into September now, and sliding on through to the Harvest Season. With some heroic efforts, the food should be starting to pile up in storage bins. Keeping things sorted and labeled is of importance, especially when it comes to seed saving. The site of origin is of significance, as is the date of harvest and a detailed description of the plant. If you can, identify the plant by common and Latin names, or make up your own name for it. Sort and cull infe- rior and damaged specimens, and save the best of the best.
It used to be that everybody had a storage room and root cellars (or sometimes, apple barns and stables), but now, most people have their refrigerator/freezer and the conve- nience of driving to stores in their car for supplies.
For farmers, there’s lots to do: harvesting and shucking corn, picking peppers, tomatoes, and melons, and foraging for rogue apples, wild nuts, and cactus fruits. The name of the game now is to bulk up and start gaining weight in re- sponse to the abundance of food and the changing of the season. It’s also essential at this time of year to save seeds from the best plants and preserve food to prevent loss from decay.
This year, the Fall Equinox occurs on September 22, with the moon in its first quarter phase. The equal day/equal night of 12 hours each is measured at the equator, so our days here are less than 12 hours long and still shortening as the length of night continues increasing for the next three months. The weather should have dried up, for the most part, and clear turquoise skies should be the normal, with a mix of still air and shifting breezes.
In the High Country, the chilly air may turn to below freez- ing before the end of the month. That means that mountain gardeners should monitor nighttime low temperatures and expect some possibilities of first frost by mid-September’s New Moon, but only in pockets. The first damaging frosts could occur towards the end of the month, as we ap- proach the Full Moon, so be prepared with protection mea- sures, just in case. Two to four weeks later, the lowlands can also expect the appearance of frost and damaging freezes. Sooner or later, it will happen, so be prepared for it.
Apples are ripening and dropping all over the place.
This looks like a bumper crop year, which occurs about every four years, especially when preceded by a couple of years of medium to low yields. This is often dictated from year to year and is also influenced by the moon cycles and air tem- peratures, as well as the amount of moisture. To store the apples, grade and remove damaged or blemished fruit and wrap them individually in paper to keep drafts away, which will make them go soft quickly. Apples can be dehydrated, baked, juiced, jellied, fermented, and frozen, as well as cel- lared fresh. They will also keep for months when sealed in plastic bags and refrigerated. Late season peaches and the first pears are also in season this month. Sometimes raccoons and bears steal into the orchards at night and eat copious amounts of the fruit, but don’t seem to gain much weight from it.
Prickly Pear Fruit, also known as Cactus Apples (or Tuna, in Mexico), are finally ripe this month. Look for deep red col- or throughout the fruit. The fruits of Opuntia wrightii (and other Opuntia varieties) are usually enticing and free for the picking; you just have to get past their gnarly spines. Keep handy a pair or two of tongs, some thick gloves, and a sturdy tight box with a lid to hold them in. Grasp the fruits with the tongs and give it a yank or a twist, and bingo!
The tiny spines on the fruits, called glochids (sounds like “glow kids”) are bothersome, but an easy way to process the fruit is to grasp each fruit separately and process them in a juicer, which will separate the liquid and pulp
from the seeds and spines. Syrup, jellies, pink margaritas, or kombucha are made from cactus juice. Do the juicing and straining outside if possible, because it could make a huge pink mess in the kitchen!
| Thunderfoot forages for wild foods to supple- ment his cultivated diet, and sometimes of-
fers wild foods (like black walnuts and cactus fruit) at the local farmer’s markets he partici- pates in. He also sells Oak Creek apples.
thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news magazine • SEPTEMBER 2012 • 39
SEPTEMBER TWENTY-TWELVE
CAPRICORN: You survived August, which means I totally lost that bet I made. Well, I guess you should just, like, live your life or whatever. I hadn’t planned to predict anything more for you ever again.
AQUARIUS: It’s not that the cosmos doesn’t like you; it’s that it is extremely indifferent to you. Whatever happens to you is cosmic throwaway that you just happen to catch via proximity. But don’t be sad; you’re not marked to die just yet. You still get to travel the boundless universe for a long time — just try to remember, you’re not of any conse- quence to it.
PISCES: So you killed Phyllis Diller and William Windom this month, but still can’t seem to destroy Zsa Zsa Gabor. She’s nearly 100, her bones are like pretzels — what’s the prob- lem?!
ARIES: Toads in the pool! Toads peeing in the pool! Toads peeing in the pool while receiving cosmic signals that in- struct them to conquer earth! All because you have that backyard pool! REAL NICE, BUDDY!
TAURUS: Now that you have a job, you can start to put money aside to get that third arm installed. Just be care- ful who the donor is — I knew a guy that got an arm from a vaudeville veteran. No pie within your reach will go un- thrown.
GEMINI: You’re on pills now, so you don’t think outside the box. Sure, you have a host of new ailments that the curative pills cause, but at least you don’t have those leaky bowels anymore. Think about that as you’re having your upcoming heart attack.
CANCER: The theme this month? A crap. And you will find it is the main thing not given to you by the cosmos. This doesn’t mean you have bad days, just that you don’t have good days. Completely average, forgettable days, one after another, as your life began and as it shall end.
LEO: You have luscious {expletive deleted}, which get you into trouble at Sunday mass. Of course, you can argue your creator-of-choice endowed you with them for some inexpli- cable cosmic reason, perhaps to help teach control to oth- ers, but it’s not like you haven’t noticed their huge {exple- tive deleted} as well and wondered how you can get some of THAT.
VIRGO: Blowtorch. This is the answer to your September amphibious dilemmas.
LIBRA: You didn’t send me any money. To hell with you!
SCORPIO: Damn, I sure miss the days when every man wore a suit and tie, and every woman wore a conservative dress. I wish people said “gee whiz” more and had some measure of personal pride. But nooooooo, everyone’s just trashy-casual, whiny and self-centered. It’s your fault, Scor- pio. Why? Just shut up. You ruined it all.
SAGITTARIUS: Kitty has taken over the city by now, and chances are you’re a slave to kitty. Fighting back would re- sult in your painful, slow demise, so my only suggestion this month is to do what kitty says at all times. Oh, and go ahead and send me all your money. You don’t need it anymore.
OPHIUCHUS: Nobody thinks you’re hilarious. You really should just put your clothes back on, lose the giant rubber chicken, and get a job. Contribute in some meaningful way. Or slack off and live off the welfare system. What do I care? My work here is done for the month.