It’s not New Year’s, I know. But in some ways, I feel like my own personal year begins in autumn — how long I await the crisp, clear sky and long, sharp shadows. I want to fill my house with winter squash and apples, and honor the season by toasting it with the only flavored coffee that ever touches my lips: Pumpkin Spice (I’m sipping the year’s first, as I type).

Today’s photo represents a metaphorical turning point: these were the partial contents of our CSA box this week. For the last month, we’ve been opening the box to a welcome bounty of tomatoes. Heirlooms, of widely varied colors and shapes. I’ve made two tomato pies, a few batches of fresh salsa, and our favorite quick-dinner of late, Pasta with Italian Sausage and Fresh Tomatoes (a post and recipe are coming). We’ve had enough basil in the past two boxes for me to make several cups of pesto, now nicely put up in the freezer for winter pizzas and pastas. But I was surprised when yesterday’s box had a single tomato, and only a handful of basil. What replaced the void in summer fare was a beautiful butternut squash.

Please don’t mistake surprise for disappointment: while I love good garden tomatoes, I love autumn more. It’s more just changing 30-something (ahem) years of a seasonal clock. My Georgia friends are probably still neck-deep in ripe tomatoes, giving them away to whomever will take them, with enough leftover to make 3 more pies by the end of the month. Here in Indy, it’s a different story; it is unabashedly autumn here, complete with pumpkin-laden porch steps. I love it; I made a kabocha squash soup this week, and it was seasonally appropriate. In September. That’s new to me.

The other thing that’s new: I’m so close to switching to my new blog site.  The good news is that I didn’t end up changing the name after all; the bad news is that well, I’m still not done. But the change is imminent, and while you are probably not nearly as excited as I am, I do hope that the new site will offer better usability and more features (and it will be so… so… SO much easier to update and backup). Hold me to an October launch, won’t you?

This entry was posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 4:46 pm and is filed under seasonal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.