November is here and the end of daylight savings time last Sunday brings darkness an hour earlier each evening. There’s a chill in the air, so we don’t mind cutting short our outdoor activities and gathering near the stove for an early supper. The trees in the front yard are rapidly losing their leaves, and sweeping the porch is a frequently recurring task. Jim is hoping the cooler weather has brought an end to his yard mowing for this year.

The threat of frost a couple of weeks ago prompted me to pick most of our tomatoes and peppers before going to last month’s council meeting. I chopped a few of the smaller peppers for Jim to use in the goulash he was making that evening. A few of the tomatoes are already ripening, but there will be plenty for a meal of fried green tomatoes soon. I moved several fl owers into the house and cellar so a bright red impatiens is adding color to the living room and other blossoms adorn the dining room.

We’ve had an excellent farmers’s market again this year. I visited the vendors when they set up their booths for the last time at the end of October and used some of my produce coupons to stock up on a variety of veggies. I bought crisp radishes and cooked the tops for greensand purchased yard-long beans, young turnips and greens to add to our meals.

Then there were banana peppers for snacks, chives to brighten my scrambled eggs and butternut squash.

The squash came in a “buy three, get one free” deal, so even after giving one to my sister Nancy, I have a trio to bake with butter and brown sugar or possibly make a pie.

The walnut harvest has also ended. The local huller quit buying nuts last Saturday. On Thursday morning I checked the spots where I’d been gathering nuts and collected the last ones that had fallen. When I got home, Jim had loaded the sacks I’d filled earlier and we took them to be hulled - another 359 pounds.

Our timing was good. No one was waiting in line and we got home shortly before the afternoon rain began to fall. There are still a few nuts on the trees, but I’m content to let the squirrels have the rest.

Now it’s time to concentrate on the pecan harvest.

The tree beside Jim’s shop has matured enough that it’s producing some pretty good nuts this year. We pick up a few each day. A pair of crows has been hovering nearby and I’m sure they’re snatching a few, but there are still plenty for pies or other baking.

The November magazines are always full of recipes for tasty pies to takeadvantage of the fruits and nuts of autumn’s harvest. They’re the perfect ending to a bountiful meal and you don’t have to wait for a holiday to serve one. I’ve been browsing old issues of the magazines, and the chocolate pecan pie and raisin-pecan sweet potato pie (described as a “sinfully delicious dessert”) both sound interesting. Then there’s the old-fashioned date nut bread. I’ll have to get busy and crack some nuts soon.

Nancy and I attended an open house at the local grocery Saturday. We were treated to samples of several seasonal foods and signed up in hopes of winning a turkey. We tasted soup and corn bread (a good combination), ham, broccoli casserole, stuffi ng and sweet potato casserole, as well as some snacks. Drinks included cider and flavored milks, so I tried the new snickerdoodle milk. Stores are laying in supplies in hopes of selling lots of goodies for big family dinners; and the Sunday paper offered coupons for pie crusts, nuts, pumpkin and such.

Here’s a thought in closing, a good subject for reflection. It’s a little poem entitled “True?” by Nellie Knuth of Cascade, Iowa: “When we must accept a hardship That we did not dream could be, Our fi rst impulse is to ask: Why me? O, God, Why? When a blessing comes to us, We receive it joyously, Then seldom do we question: Why me? O, God, why me?”

Susan Holland, who works for the Westside Eagle Observer, is a lifelong Benton County resident.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 11/06/2013