Stirring the Cauldron

New Moon Newsletters from Jessica Prentice

New Snow Moon

November moondark kitchen notes
from Jessica Prentice

The moon is new today and we are moving into the lunar cycle called the Snow Moon in 16th Century England. This particular moon seems to have many varied names: the Mad Moon was a Native American name, and in old farmer's almanacs it was the Big Wind Moon, the Dying Grass Moon, or the Falling-Leaf Moon. The message comes through loud and clear in all these: winter is coming.

Here in the Bay Area there is a chill in the air, though days are still sunny and can be quite warm. And no chance of snow. We did catch sight of some snow as we drove past Mount Shasta and up into the high elevations of southern Oregon and northern California while camping a few weeks ago. This is of course the only way you ever see snow around here: going up into the higher elevations during the winter months.

Thinking about the Snow Moon, I got to thinking about how much we take for granted now our ability to freeze and chill food simply by opening the door to the refrigerator. For much of human history, however, "cold" was something that was either elusive, seasonal, or an almost constant reality depending on the local climate. Cold needed to be found and used where it was, like root cellars dug in the ground. My partner's father, who grew up in Texas in the 20s, lived on a farm that had a cistern. Dairy products and meat that needed to be kept cold would be lowered in a bucket into the cistern, so that the bucket was just immersed, but not submerged, in the cool underground water. That was their refrigeration.

When I think about snow and about food, another thing that comes to my mind is the fascinating practice during the Ottoman empire of harvesting snow and ice from the mountains during the winter, and then bringing it down to the cities and burying it deep in the ground, where it would stay frozen until being disinterred in the summer. It was then used to make what the Turks called serbet, derived from the Arabic sharbat, from the root shariba, "to drink." The Turkish serbet (pronounced sherbet) was a syrup made of fruit juices and flower blossoms poured over crushed ice. Wealthy people often perfumed their syrups (from the Arabic, surup) with musk and ambergris. Sherbets were served in homes and sold in the streets throughout the Ottoman empire. European sorbets and American sherberts are descended from this practice.

Before the invention of electric refrigeration, people often went to great lengths to harvest ice and create the conditions for natural refrigeration. Some people of course didn't need to. The Inuit and other peoples of the far north (in Russia, China and Japan, for example) would store their food simply by burying it in the snow. In some places, temperatures were so cold that game would freeze almost immediately after it was killed. It may be an exaggeration, but a description of the "frozen market" in St. Petersburg in 1880 mentions that "...snow hares were frozen in an attitude of flight, with ears pointed and legs outstretched..." I can't quite get myself to believe it, but it is quite an image!

Although "freeze-drying" may strike us as one of the most modern and new-fangled ways of preserving food, one form of it at least has ancient origins. The indigenous people of the Andes in what is now Peru practiced a traditional form of freeze-drying to preserve their potatoes, creating one of their staple foods, called "chuño." Two food historians who studied the practice write:

In more temperate climes, the development of ice-houses to store foods dates back at least to 1100 BCE in China. A verse to the Goddess of Cold goes:

Throughout Europe and America in later days, a similar practice was carried out of cutting blocks of ice from frozen ponds and lakes and transporting them to farms, homesteads, and cities. In the 19th Century, a British plant collector observed Chinese farmers intentionally flooding certain fields before the first freeze. Then the water would freeze and they would harvest the ice, then plant the field with rice again once the spring thaw came. The Chinese, by this time, were using ice to pack fish on fishing boats. Soon after the plant collector published his observations, a huge icehouse was built in Essex, England, and farmers were encouraged to flood their fields and harvest the ice to be stored in the ice house, and it became a profitable "winter crop." This ice was used by sea-going fishing vessels to store their catch.

Nowadays, of course, our supermarkets are full of frozen foods -- especially all the little individually packaged and frozen microwaveable meals: from organic vegetarian entrees to meat-n-potatoes tv dinners. I, for one, resent this trend. All that packaging and all those resources used for a single, crappy, instant meal that contains little or no real nourishment. Alas, alas.

Here in a temperate climate, even during the Snow Moon our farmer's markets are full of wonderful cold-loving fall and winter produce which ARE full of real nourishment: the many-hued squash and sweet potatoes, and the rich and hearty root vegetables. I recently made "pumpkin mashed potatoes" for a dinner event, and they were a big success, so I thought I'd share with you a rough recipe:

• 2-3 parts potatoes (I used Yukon Gold), washed and cut into big chunks
• 1 part sweet potatoes (I used Garnet), peeled and cut into big chunks
• 1 part butternut squash, peeled and cut into big chunks
• lots of butter
• cream, sour cream, half and half, buttermilk, yogurt, crème fraiche, whole milk, or a combination of these, used generously
• a generous grating of nutmeg
• a pinch of mace, if you have it
• a pinch of allspice as well, if you have it
• plenty of salt and pepper

Bring water to a boil and then steam potatoes, sweet potatoes, and squash over simmering water until fork tender. Mash the vegetables with a potato masher, fork, or whisk and add butter and dairy and spices until you like the consistency and flavor.

Serve and enjoy... MUCH better than a tv dinner!

A reminder to those of you in the Bay Area: I'm preparing a dinner that's open to the public on November 16th. Learn more about it by going to www.headlands.org and following the links to public programs, and the "Basic Kneads" dinner.

Wishing you all a warm and cozy Snow Moon,
Jessica