Here in western MA, the evenings are cool enough that we’ve pulled out the big fluffy comforters, but warm (sometimes even hot) in the day. Which means it’s autumn olive time!
Please make sure you are able to successfully ID autumn olives for eating them (preferably with a friend in person who’s familiar with them). But a few quick tips: the berries are speckled with tiny little white/silver dots, and the leaves look silvery on their undersides. Autumn olives are opportunistic and spread quickly and easily, flourishing on the sides of roads, parking lots, and other places where soil has been disturbed by people.
My favorite is to harvest a bunch (careful, some of the stems have thorns!) and freeze them. Then on some bleak winter morning, I’ll dump a bag full into a saucepan, add a little honey and a couple tablespoons of water, then simmer until the berries are soft. Each one has a large seed in the center, so once they’re soft, I push them through a sieve to remove the seeds. I love this autumn olive puree/sauce served over pancakes or yogurt.
Autumn olive season always makes me think of my poem “flare,” which you can read here on the Academy of American Poets website, and which begins:
it’s nearly
your birthday,
there are autumn
olives thickened
like blood on ribs
on the branches
along the bike path…
Some beloved friends of mine have started a GoFundMe to try and help me with the medical expenses from caring for my oldest child who has several severe chronic illnesses. Like I mentioned last time, these past two years (and this past six months in particular) have been brutally hard, and have had a massive financial impact on us. Here’s the GoFundMe link to more information, and my deep gratitude for any amount you’re able to give, and for sharing the GoFundMe. It feels very difficult to ask for this kind of help in a world so filled with suffering and need.
Lastly, I had a delightful time talking with the good folks at the radio show Poet Talk last week, and if you’d like to hear me talk about the relationship between gardens and poetry, chapbooks, and why I’m fascinated by angry poems, you can listen to the episode here.
I also have a new poem up at MER in their new Medical Motherhood folio, which I’m really honored to be included in. My poem is below, follow the link to read the other pieces.
Not unrelated to any of those, I’m starting to plan an online writing group I’ll be running later this fall/winter for folks who are chronically ill and/or disabled. Interested? Leave a comment below or message me.
Last but never least: kitten and big cat pics.
With love and rage,
Adrie