Henny Penny Farmette

On the Henny Penny Farmette, the signs of autumn’s arrival are evident almost everywhere in our orchard and garden.

Lavender and sunflowers still bloom but the summer vegetable garden has run its course

I’ve made jams, cooked produce, and dried fruit. Of late, I’ve been harvesting heirloom seeds for next year’s garden. The birds will pick over what’s left and the soil can rest. Fall fruit now hangs on the trees in a showy splendor.

The pomegranate trees support a multitude of leathery-skinned, ruby-red fruit holding hundreds of sweet seeds. On the Fuyu and Hachiya persimmon trees, the golden fruits hang like ornaments. In the squash patch, French sugar pumpkins cling to dry, stringlike vines and you might find a butternut squash here or there.

We’ve harvested some pumpkins and heirloom butternut squash symbolize the arrival of autumn

I picked most of the late summer pears two weeks ago, putting a few in paper bags and storing them in a cabinet for two days. That allows them to reach the perfect ripeness for eating them fresh.

We grew corn this year, but the triple-digit heat and smoke from wildfires turned the lush, tall green plants to papery stalks before the corn really ripened. Still, before the stalks can now be composted, a few can be bundled together and placed in a porch corner to symbolize the arrival of Autumn and her festivals.

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If you enjoy reading about country living topics, check out my  Henny Penny Farmette series of mysteries.

Also, I have written extensively about self-help, spirituality, and wellness. Find my books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo Books, and everywhere books are sold, online or in brick-and-mortar stores.

All available online and in bookstores everywhere

More than 150 rituals for sound mind, strong body, and meaningful connections to the people around you

Packed full of ideas for creating the life you want

A special book that will be treasured for a lifetime of spiritual pursuits and practices

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Anyone can find peace, clarity, and focus…all it takes is a moment

It’s nearly Thanksgiving and our Henny Penny Farmette continues to bring forth delicious, organically grown edibles for our table for which we feel truly grateful.

We give thanks, too, for neighbors like Dan and Annie. This past Sunday, Annie carted to our house a box of persimmons and bags of apples and pomegranates. We harvested all our apples last month so her timing was great. While we have persimmons and pomegranates hanging on the trees in our small orchard, many are not yet ripe enough to pick.

Ripe pomegranate

Last month, I froze cubes of butternut squash in freezer bags and readied pumpkin flesh for pie. While picking a few ripe persimmons recently, I noticed that we’re sharing them with a visitor who seems to sneak in and munch during the night. I’m thinking the culprit could be a raccoon, opossum, skunk, squirrel, fox, or a gaggle of wild turkeys that seem to make an annual pilgrimage through our area.

The two main types of persimmons grown on our farmette are Fuyu and Hachiya. The Fuyu is rather squat-looking and Hachiya has an elongated shape. Both take on a bright orange color in the fall. When fully ripe, Fuyu is sweet and crunchy like an apple whereas the Hachiya is soft like jelly. Though commonly thought of as fruits, persimmon and pomegranate are technically berries.

Pomegranate and persimmon are plentiful this time of year

Fuyu persimmons can be peeled, sliced, and eaten fresh, roasted, or tossed into salads. They add a vibrant splash of orange to a winter salad that could include slices of citrus and pear tossed with greens,walnuts,  pomegranate seeds, and goat cheese.

Pomegranates are ripe when their leathery outer covering turns red and begins to crack. Inside each pomegranate is white tissue separating compartments of ruby-red seeds called arils.

Ripe pomegranates hang heavy on the trees this time of year

The seeds are high in antioxidants that reduce inflammation and free radical damage. Though they are messy to remove, the pomegranate seeds are healthy and nutritious additions to any diet.

To preserve pomegranate seeds, freeze them on a baking sheet. Once frozen, slip the seeds into freezer bags and return to the freezer. The seeds can be kept frozen for months.

Pumpkins come in a variety of sizes and types. Personally, I prefer the sugar pumpkins for recipes calling for pumpkin as an ingredient.

French sugar pumpkin are small but perfect for pies

This week as we prepare for the big feasting day of Thanksgiving, lots of cooks are already baking pumpkin pies.  Many will use canned pumpkin as a shortcut to their pie preparation but pumpkin filling made from scratch is especially delicious.

Our pumpkin pie features leaves of pie dough, brushed with egg, and sprinkled with sugar before baking

The old fashioned way to make pumpkin pie from scratch is to use fresh, organic pumpkin puree from the produce that you’ve grown in your garden. The process to make a pie takes longer because first the pumpkin must be peeled, seeded, and cut into manageable pieces and then cooked down. Then just follow your favorite pumpkin pie recipe.

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Taking care of yourself is one of the most important things you can do over your lifetime and it starts with healthy ingredients and fresh produce.

My newest self-help wellness book is  THE SELF-CARE PLANNER, A Weekly Guide to Prioritize You.

My books are available for purchase through online and traditional bookstores everywhere. Buy The Self-Care Planner and other titles offered by my publisher, Simon & Schuster online. Visit my author’s page at https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Meera-Lester/2137649823

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Check out more recipes and tips for healthy country living in my Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries (Kensington Publishing, NY).

This three-book series of cozy mysteries features elements based on the real Henny Penny Farmette

Each year on the first day of autumn here on the Henny Penny Farmette, I take stock of my fruit trees and vegetable and flower gardens.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac points to mid-October 2019 for early rain in Northern California, so there’s much for me to do over the next two or three weeks.

Nothing says “autumn” like ripe pomegranates

My chores list includes the following items. They’re roughly the same from year to year.

1. Gather seeds from self-seeding or heirloom, open-pollinated plants (flowers and vegetables) for next year’s garden. Dry seeds and store them for planting next spring.

Gather seeds from plants such as coreopsis, cosmos, and marigolds for drying for next year’s garden

2. Sow spring-blooming bulbs (such as daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, ranunculus, crocus, and buttercups available in garden centers now).

Siberian scilla adds a lot of color for a small grouping of bulbs

3. Turn soil and prepare beds for the cool-season vegetable garden (broccoli, cabbage, beets, and parsnips).

4. Inspect and divide perennials.

5. Harvest olives and preserve them.

Bartlett late summer pears

6. Pick late summer pears and ripe pomegranates. The leathery covering of pomegranates already may be splitting open and showing ruby red seeds. The juice of the seeds makes a wonderful jelly.

7. Check persimmons for ripeness. Pick if they’re ready. They might need another month.

Hachiya persimmons are delicious when they ripen to softness

8. Harvest and store pumpkins and butternut squash. Peel, remove seeds, and cut the flesh into squares for freezing.

9. Compost old garden vines and vegetable plants that are done bearing for the season. Check tomato plants infected with bacterial or fungal diseases and do NOT add any of these to the compost pile.

10. Begin the process of cleaning and storing gardening items not required over the winter.

11. Sow spring-blooming wildflowers in prepared beds.

12. Schedule time to prune back crop-bearing fruit trees (like apricot, peach, and plum).

I actually look forward to those chores. They’re part of the natural rhythm of farmette life. With a list and plan to get everything done, I won’t be caught by surprise when the weather turns cold, dark, and rainy.

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If you enjoy reading about farming, country living, keeping of bees and chickens, and gardening, check out my Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries. They’re chocked full of ideas, tips, and delicious recipes for country living.

Also, take a look at my numerous self-help and wellness books. All are available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, Walmart.com, and other online and traditional bookstores everywhere.

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Packed full of ideas for creating the life you want

A special book that will be treasured for a lifetime of spiritual pursuits and practices

More than 150 rituals for sound mind, strong body, and meaningful connections to the people around you

Hachiya persimmons are delicious when they ripen to softness

I awoke today intending to collect some persimmons and gather in the ripe pomegranates from my garden But the news on my local TV station made me think twice about going outside to work.

The Bay Area air quality would be four times as bad as in Beijing (where many wear masks to avoid breathing the particulate). I’ve lived in the Bay Area since the 1970s and can’t remember suffering through such terrible air quality. Gardening was out of the question.

Our Bay Area air is so awful because of the “Camp Wildfire” that recently broke out up north. The inferno stoked by high winds was so fast-moving that it pretty much destroyed the town of Paradise (near Chico). Those winds also swept the smoke southward into the Bay Area. Although I live spitting distance from Mount Diablo, I couldn’t even see the mountain yesterday or today.

What I could see was a blood-red ball hanging in an opaque sky. Never saw the sun look like that.

Not only are wildfires raging on in Northern California. With Southern California’s Woolsey fire threatening Malibu and a section of nearby Thousand Oaks, I worry about family and friends in SoCal. Also, I am praying for those affected by the recent Thousand Oaks mass shooting. Not only are those folks grief-stricken, they now have to evacuate as fire threatens their community.

The rainy season in Northern California runs from November to April, but unseasonably warm weather (in the 80s F. last week and 70s F. this week) has been the norm. Fire danger remains high until the rains come.

I hope firefighters in our Golden State and everywhere else know how much their work and sacrifices are deeply appreciated.

Ripe pomegranates hang heavy on the trees this time of year

The smell of smoke outside is overwhelming. So while nothing gives me greater pleasure than being outside working in my garden, I won’t today. Not when I can’t breathe.

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From here on the Henny Penny Farmette, I write nonfiction self-help books about health, wellness, and spirituality; and for fiction, I write mysteries that incorporate aspects of farmette life like keeping chickens and honeybees and growing heirloom fruits and vegetables.

Find all my books at Amazon.com, through Barnes and Noble, at Kobo Books, and elsewhere online or in traditional bookstores everywhere.

All available online and in bookstores everywhere

Anyone can find peace, clarity, and focus…all it takes is a moment

More than 150 rituals for sound mind, strong body, and meaningful connections to the people around you

It’s that time of the year when we mark the shortest day of the year, the beginning of winter, and the return of the light. I like to think of it as a day when I decide what I do and don’t want to take with me into the coming New Year.

The moon casts its cold light over the farmette through trees hanging onto their leaves.

We’ve had a run of cold nights with temperatures in the upper 20 degrees Fahrenheit. But the light will soon return and warm the Earth. Late January-early February marks the beginning of bare-root season. My work now includes pruning and spraying and clearing out the old to make way for rebirth and renewal.

Among the plants that renew are the fruit trees.  The pruned branches, garden clippings, and old vines are being recycled into compost for next spring’s garden. Come late spring, I’ll have trees with gorgeous canopies and tons of fruit to make into jam.

This DIY birdhouse is crafted from a repurposed fence board. Not all birds will take up residence in a house, but many will.

Garlic and onions are growing now and will through the winter months, thanks to our mild Mediterranean climate. But there is so much cleanup of the property that needs doing, I can only hope to start that today.

I’m putting out seed balls for the birds as well as refilling feeders and suet holders. Easy-to-find food keeps our feathered songsters around through spring when they start their families. For directions on making a birdhouse for your garden, check out https://hobbyreads.wordpress.com/category/crafts.

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Enjoy reading about farming topics? Check out my cozy mysteries–A BEELINE TO MURDER and also THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE  (both in the Henny Penny Farmette series from Kensington Publishing).

JOIN THE CHRISTMAS EVE FUN–Read a short excerpt from my newest book, THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE and check out blogger Brooke Bumgardner’s interview of me at http://www.brookeblogs.com

My farmette and bee-based novels are chocked full of recipes, farming tips, chicken and beekeeping tips, sayings and, of course, a charming cozy mystery. For more info, click on the links under the pictures.

The books are available through online retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, BAM, Kobo Books, and Walmart as well as from traditional bookstores everywhere.

See, http://tinyurl.com/hxy3s8q

This debut novel launched the Henny Penny Farmette series of mysteries and sold out its first press run. It’s now available in mass market paperback and other formats.

See, http://tinyurl.com/h4kou4g

NEWLY RELEASED! This, the second cozy mystery in the Henny Penny Farmette series, is garnering great reviews from readers and industry publications. Get your copy while you can. It’s sure to sell out like novel #1.

With the official start of summer a few days away, I find myself leaving my computer and the scene I’m writing on my third novel to take a break in the garden. Alive with honeybees, bumblebees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, the garden is perfect place for a respite and a cup of tea.

Honeybees love to forage on all types of blooming lavender.

Quite like a potager garden that includes flowers, herbs, trees, vegetables, berries, and grapes, mine also includes a patch of corn.

Climbing Sally Holmes roses with trusses of ivory blooms grow behind the 4-foot-tall corn.

Embroidered around the edges of the garden, there are climbing roses, fruit trees, and lots of lavender. Along the rows of lavender, there are peach trees with fruit the size of softballs and five pomegranate trees, laden with blooms and new fruit.

The pomegranates aren’t quite this large yet, but the trees have so much fruit, they’ll have to be thinned.

As I meander, I discover the trees of red and yellow plums have begun to drop their ripe fruit. I’ve got to make those plums into jelly or jam and ditto on the apricots.

Ripe apricots hang on the tree only so long before they drop.

But that work will have to wait until my late afternoon tea break. My novel won’t write itself. Still, the time I spend in the garden revitalizes my spirit and refreshes my brain cells, enabling me to return to the computer and the scene I’m writing with renewed vision and vigor.

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If you enjoy reading about gardening, keeping bees, raising chickens, and creating delicious recipes, check out my novels from Kensington Publishing.

First book in Meera Lester’s Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries

The Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo Books, Walmart, and other online and traditional bookstores everywhere. Available in hardcover, Kindle, and mass market paperback formats.

Novel #2 in the Henny Penny Farmette series, available Oct. 1, 2016

Potpourri mixtures are easy to create and their long-lasting fragrance can add an attractive visual appeal and fresh scent to any room. You can find many items in nature. Use a festive basket or crystal bowl for displaying your potpourri.

 

 

 

 

A five-pointed, dry and leathery pomegranate peel takes center stage in this potpourri

 

 

 

 

Go on a nature walk to hunt for materials (see the List of Potpourri Items below).

 

Visit a shop for spices–whole nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and allspice.

 

Cut or purchase herbs (preferably dried)–lavender, rosemary, and mint.

 

Combine nature’s materials with spices, dried herbs, and dried citrus slices and peels.

 

Add rose petals, lavender buds, and/or pinecones and red cedar bark.

 

Arrange pretty seashells or small pieces of driftwood.

 

Include fresh leaves and berries from eucalyptus trees  and also he fuzzy seed pods of wisteria.

 

Put the potpourri in a pretty basket or cut crystal bowl; add a drop or two of essential oil if desired.

 

 

 

LIST OF POTPOURRI ITEMS

Combine using any of the following to create interesting mixes, textures, and colors.

Find other ideas for farm crafts and delicious recipes in A BEELINE TO MURDER.

Click here: http://tinyurl.com/nhdae39

The author and her debut cozy mystery, A BEELINE TO MURDER

The Henny Penny Farmette is about a half hour away from Brentwood. There are at least fifty farms in and around Brentwood that offer families a U-Pick experience.  The city is located in the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Although Brentwood has had a post office since 1878, the city today is largely residential. That said, there are many actively producing farms and preserved lands around the pockets of community. The area has a semi-arid, Mediterranean climate and is situated on the alluvial plain of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

To bring out the maximum sweetness of pears, place them in a paper bag for two days in a kitchen cupboard

Many of the farms permit family picking of produce and tree crops. Some of the crops available for picking through October include apples, corn, figs, green beans, onions, peppers, pears, persimmons, pomegranates, pumpkins, squash, strawberries, and tomatoes. Additionally, walnuts, pistachios, and almonds are available year-round at some of the farm stands. There are also wineries and vineyards in the region.

As you drive around the area, look for a Brentwood Harvest Time sign as an indicator for a farm. There will be a number on the sign that coordinates to a name of a farm with that same number on a handily map that you can get at http://www.harvest4you.com. In July, the city hosts a harvest festival for the entire family. It features tractor rides and corn shucking and eating contests, among other activities.

Butternut squash is and old garden favorite and stores well

Finally, if Christmas at your house wouldn’t be the same without a live tree, you can find Christmas tree farms in and around Brentwood as well on the Harvest4you.com website. Check it out.

U-pick guidelines as listed on the map include the following rules.

1. No climbing or damaging trees

2. Children are not allowed on ladders.

3. You must buy what you pick.

4. Check produce for ripeness before picking it.

5. Do not throw fruit.

6. Do not litter.

Open-pollinated, heirloom tomatoes produced lots of tasty fruit over the summer, but . . . in December?

It’s the second week of December and the Winter Solstice is about to arrive next week. Walking through the bleak garden landscape, I wasn’t expecting any of my summer plants to still be producing. But surprise, surprise.

A cluster of red grape tomatoes were still clinging to a vine that had become overgrown by weeds. Not only was fruit still hanging on the vine, but the plant was setting up new blooms. I can only assume the reason for that is that we’re having unseasonably warm temperatures in the Bay Area.

These onions were photographed during the summer

I harvested a 10-pound bag of red and yellow onions at summer’s end. Now I’ve got a new bed where the onion heads re-seeded. I do hope these bulb onions make it through to spring. I might just build a cold frame over them.

California chili turns red when ripe

In raised beds, the jalapeno and Thai chili peppers that wilted and drooped during the terrible drought this summer have responded to recent rains with lots of ripe peppers and also new blooms.

It’s very strange as these babies need water and high heat; our Bay Area temperatures are hanging in the 60s Fahrenheit during these early days of December.

French sugar pumpkins ripen in the garden in October

I harvested the pumpkins and squash but hadn’t yet pulled out the old vines for composting. The hard-skinned pumpkins and squashes can be peeled, cut into cubes, and frozen for use later in culinary creations such as soup.

Coffee Cake, a variety of Fuyu persimmon, has orange flesh and the fruit remains firm like an apple

Further on, I picked the last of the persimmons and pomegranates. These are my favorite fall fruits. And if you’ve ever dropped ripe pomegranate seeds onto the ground, you’ll soon see that the chickens love them, too.

Red pomegranates hang like jewels, the leaves have since turned yellow and mostly fallen

Having uncovered all the garden’s surprises, my thoughts turn to how I’m going to lay out the garden next year and which heirlooms to grow. The garden soil needs to rest as we Bay Area gardeners welcome the rain now that the Pacific storm door has finally opened.

The spontaneous invitation my husband made to friends to stop by for a Thanksgiving snack and beverage before the “real” meal started sent me scrambling. What was he thinking? We were celebrating with all the relatives at my daughter’s home, not ours, so how could I host a pre-party gathering? He assured me we could make it work if we kept it simple.

The weather cooperated, so we gathered for a pre-Thanksgiving social in the garden

Our friends were scheduled to dine at a neighbor’s house in the late afternoon but decided they would come by our place first. I figured such a short visit of an hour or two wouldn’t require an elaborate meal . . .  we would snack on crackers and goat cheese, drizzled in a sweet cranberry sauce; pumpkin cream cheese rolled in nuts; and a torte of goat cheese with a layer of pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, and finely chopped pieces of olive. We would offer bottled water, sparkling cider, and a wine to wash it down.

I gathered what was growing on the trees and in the garden to decorate an autumn harvest-looking table

Our Northern California weather could not have been lovelier, so I decided we would sit outside in our garden. I combined red pyracantha berries with blooming red-gold roses and some spikes of purple French lavender in jam jars for a harvest festival look on our patio table.

Decorations for the table began with a few pomegranates, persimmons, chilies, and onions–all readily available on the farmette

Our friends arrived and, after a short time in our tiny farmhouse, followed me to the garden. We had a lovely visit while the blue jays, crown sparrows, morning doves, and black phoebes entertained us with their antics. I think I enjoyed the day all the more for having a chance to socialize a bit in the garden before sitting down to the big feast with all the relatives. Next year, I might actually plan to do a roving Thanksgiving with several parties. It was so much fun!