When I awoke yesterday morning I fully expected to see the first big frost of fall, but there was no frost surrounding the Blind Pig house. It was 36 degrees.
I noticed WKRK, our local radio station, said it was 34 degrees in Murphy. I also noticed the long range forecast shows the upper 20s for us in about a week. I guess that will be our first frost unless something changes between now and then.
I enjoy all the seasons equally. I’m always ready for the next one to come by the time the current one is ending.
As each season begins there are a few things I relish. For fall of the year it’s the first airish weather, watching the leaves change colors, and the first fire of the year.
Another thing I love each fall is the first time I notice the windows fogging up as I cook supper. It makes me feel so cozy and safe inside our warm home cooking for the people I love most.
The things we plant in our fall garden are only improved by the first couple of frosts so that’s another thing we look forward to. I don’t know how it works, but frost adds a sweetness to turnips, kale, and mustard greens.
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We were in the Mountains in Western NC for a couple of days. Stayed in Black Mt. Not far from where we live. We were surprised to see how warm it was. Leaves were looking pretty. I hated to come home. I think this weekend we’re driving up by Boone where the elevation is higher. Where we live the leaves drop before they have a chance to turn.
Heavy frost in Southern Wisconsin last Friday night. It will be good for the horseradish and hopefully get rid of some mosquitoes. The deer are starting to run. my son inlaw hit one with a fire engine Saturday night. not much left of that one.
I love collards all year. They taste great before and after frost.
I got curious about the temperature forecast for the ski slopes up around Banner Elk and Beach Mountain. They are not forecasting temperatures below freezing for Beech Mountain until next Tuesday when their low is supposed to be 23º and the high 40º. Sugar Mountain is forecasted to be warmer on that day with a low 24º and a high 41º. That’s too cold!
Ed-I bet that’s when I’ll get my first big frost 🙂
I love this blog and all of the wonderful comments everyone left! I agree with the joy of the season’s changing!! Blessings to you all!
Well, Tipper, I’d say frost is a might late for you this year. Seems when I lived in Raleigh we always got the first frost during fair week (NC State Fair). The mountains were always ahead of us by a week or two.
All greens are better after a frost. I don’t know why, either!
Didn’t you get new windows this year? You might not see fog on them if they are double glazed until it gets really, really cold . . . enough to make the inner glass’ inner pane cold enough to make moisture in the air reach its dew point.
I can’t visit the NC mountains in the Fall any more, but reading your blog and watching CA videos is the next best thing.
Blessings to all . . .
Getting cooler here also at night but no frost yet. My daddy was the one who cooked the collards in our family. He always said never cook collards until it frosts on them 3 times. I never understood why it had to be 3 times, but I know a frost on them makes them sweeter. He also said it made them more tender. This is a funny story that I still smile about each year. A long time ago when daddy was living and able to grow his collards, he had quite a few that year. Well, a lady he knew stopped by and asked if she could have a mess of collards, which to my dad that would mean probably maybe 4 or 5. Well, he and mama came home and she was fixing to leave and she had so many that her station wagon was full of collards. She had them stacked up so high that she could barely see. She thanked him for the collards and he told me he told me her he hoped everyone enjoyed them and he meant, everyone. LOL. He told me he didn’t think she’d take half the crop and it would take half a hog to season all them. I still laugh about that. Have a blessed day everyone!!
We have had a beautiful harvest moon. So large & luminous, as we sat by the fire pit Saturday & Sunday night surrounded by friends and family. Our leaves are at peak & we have had a few frosts here in NY. My Indian corn is finally hardening up & the winter wheat is being planted today. Fall is definitely upon us & it is my favorite season. Did any of you ever put pretty fallen leaves between two sheets of wax paper & iron them, to keep them fresh & colorful? Or how about putting leaves under a sheet of paper & coloring over the top with crayons? These were the things my mother would do with us in the autumn & I did them with my girls. I am babysitting a little fella, 3 1/2 yrs old now, and I just remembered doing that & think maybe he’d like to do it too. Also, raking big piles of leaves & jumping into them? Always a favorite when we were kids.
I love kiss of frost on my kale, collards, mustards, and turnips. WONDERFUL!
When I was getting ready for church Sunday morning, I looked out on the back yard and saw a light covering of frost on the grass. It was sunny and burned off pretty fast and was actually not too cool when I came out of church. We have since had some beautiful sunny warm days but they say a cold front will be coming in Thursday here in SC PA. Now I will be putting away and covering patio furniture and have eaten the last strawberry and sweet tommy toe tomato from my planter garden. Winter is coming whether I like it or not – I love to look at fresh fallen snow but I do not love to be in it any more.
I brought some of my outdoor plants inside Saturday night as a frost was predicted. My shed roof was white with frost on Sunday morning, our first of the season. The plants stayed inside again on Sunday night when we expected not just a frost but a freeze as well. This is the second driest spell of the year with temperatures expected in the 80s today and tomorrow that will hopefully bring rain on Thursday. I didn’t have the heart to tell my friend he mowed my turnips and radishes when he surprised me by cleaning up and mowing my garden when I was not home. So, I have no fall crops to look forward to eating after the first frost.
It’s still in the low 50’s to high 40’s at night/early morning here in the Piedmont area of NC. After buying vegetables at the grocery store last night, I’m regretting not planting a fall garden this year. We don’t eat a lot of the fall greens but do eat a lot of cabbage and cabbage has gone up like everything else. Plus I’m already missing fresh cucumbers and tomatoes from my summer garden. I’m thankful I can still buy vegetables from the store I enjoy, but they don’t taste as good as fresh from the garden.
Was chilly out in WNC yesterday morning! Was at Wal-Mart at 7am and in the gorge before 8. And got some good photos…beautiful day!
I love fall to but like spring it goes by too fast. It is really nice to be out and be just comfortable without a jacket. Those days are too few and are to be treasured.
No frost yet here either just south of the mountains in north Georgia. Lows so far mid 40s. Expect just about any time to see frost down below me on the creek. Temperatures in the 20s in October for Murphy area sound both way low and way early to me. Hope that is not an indication of things to come this winter.
About things getting sweeter after frost, I tried an experiment with persimmons last week. I picked some directly off the tree and they were sweet except for the skin. I put some and put them in a zip lock bag and in the icebox. Tried one yesterday and sure enough it was all sweet. Plan on picking some more to get ahead of the critters.
Randy, I’m in the same boat with you. Mustard and turnips barely out of the ground and lucky to be alive at that. I’m watering my few fall garden plants once a week.
There was frost on the roof of our school building in Franklin County, VA when I came in this morning, but none on the ground. Canaan Valley, WV was the coldest spot in the lower 48 on Sunday morning with a low of 16.6 degrees at 8 a.m.
I love all the seasons, too, with the exception of basically the end of February to the end of March, those last few weeks when spring isn’t here yet and winter just isn’t letting go. What I long for, though, is time to just slow down and watch the seasons pass.
Catherine-that is amazing! Thank you for sharing 🙂
I love this special time of the year, (Fall) is definitely my favorite season and I love watching the leaves changing colors, the cool crisp mornings, the fall gardens are flourishing waiting on that first frost of the year
and DEER SEASON is in full swing around here in South Carolina!!
Yes, rifle season for deer opened this morning in SC. Some type of (weapons) deer season has been opened in some areas of SC since Aug 15. After all of the damage caused by deer, I hope you deer hunters kill all of them. My son deer hunts so I am not against deer hunters, I just never enjoyed it, I loved either bird (quail) or rabbit hunting along with squirrel hunting with Daddy. I got a lot of enjoyment from just watching my dogs. By this time of the year when I hunted I was more anxious for Thanksgiving-the seasons opened, than I was for Christmas when growing up. I am in full agreement with you FALL is my favorite season. By the way I lost my entire summer garden to deer this year and it has been to dry to even think about a fall garden. I hope you have GOOD LUCK with your deer hunting. They were no deer in my area until the DNR turned some loose in the 70’s.
We had a light frost yesterday morning here on the Plateau. It was the first of the year.
Fall is a splendid time of year- on that I would agree. I too like a little fog on the windows because I guess as a child, I always knew something good was cooking when I saw the windows fog up and I felt the warmth all around from a coal furnace. When mommy got burned one early morning stoking the coal furnace, my grandpa had a gas furnace installed. He said “as long as I live, there will be no harm to my sweet Pearl!” I cant eat kale and greens because I throw blood clots. The last time I ate a half can, I threw blood clots in my left leg (as usual.) Sometimes I get a hankering and could eat a whole can by myself! In WV we had a better September and October without rain and white mold literally every day like summer than the WHOLE of summer. I trust not the weather people. I mean if they said nothing was happening and calm was about, who would tune in? So throw the gloom, doom, worry and fear at ‘em! Have a good one all! Don’t try to figure it out. You’ll get a headache for the rest of your life…
We had the first frost of the season here in Connecticut on Saturday night. I covered some of my flowers hoping to get another week or two of their beauty. The yard looked rather ghostly looking out in the moonlight! I love fall, but wish it was going to spring and skip over winter snow.
My grandmother always said “collards aren’t worth a toot until the frost hits them.” She’d have a fit if you tried to pick some before frost. “Shugar, they’ll be bitter!” I’m not sure what makes that true, but you and her are right. There’s just something about frost that brings out a sweetness. A pone of cornbread … a pot of greens … a fire crackling in the fireplace … doesn’t get much better than that!
farmers almanac is calling fir below average Temps and snow. I’ve finally figured out my wood stove so bring it on
We are bone dry in my area of upstate SC so anyone that tried to plant a fall garden has been out of luck. A chance of rain predicted for the next two days but only about tenth of an inch of rain expected. The extended forecast calls for 36 degrees on Oct.19, so no chance of frost before then. The trees are dropping their leaves before they have a chance to change colors. You are right about turnip greens tasting sweeter after a frost. I may not have any this year, I planted them around the first of Sept. and they have only broke the ground but have not grew at all, less than 1/4 inch of rain
since being sowed.
It’s colder there than here in New England! Fall is my favorite season. Sweater weather after the hottest August on record is especially welcome this year.
We’re forecasted for low 30s here in Lexington (NC) next week. I’m surprised by how soon these temps are coming this year!
All the things about fall that I love are those as well. I think collards taste better after the first frost too. Do you guys have any idea how many of us are enjoying popsicles AGAIN?.. I had not thought about them til you guys renewed my interest.
There are a lot of months between now and planting time, but when I saw the email from the company I purchase sweet onion sets, let me know I could order them for a spring delivery, my interest is peaked for the new planting. Holidays are next and the planning is in the air. Take care and stay well. God Bless