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The North Country's Four Seasons
Now that I'm retired I guess I could travel around the country, like some of my friends do, or even travel abroad. However, I have no interest in that. I wouldn't want to miss the North Country's four seasons. Most people probably think of the four seasons as spring, summer, fall and winter, but not me.
For me, the first season has already passed by, and that's rhubarb season. For countless years I have looked forward to doing all I can to search for stalks of raw rhubarb. When I was teaching, the season would be kicked off when Stafford Middle School secretary Katie Zuckerman would show up with a few pieces of rhubarb, neatly placed in a little baggie, all cleaned and ready to eat. She'd be happy to share, and my earnest search would be on. I'd beg students to beg their grandparents. In more recent years my now-departed friend Ray Lalonde gave me a free pass to his rhubarb patch on Sailly Avenue. I was a frequent visitor. I'd chop the big leaves off the end, peel the stalk, and eat that sour raw rhubarb generously sprinkled with salt.
We are now ready to begin the North Country's second season, and that's green apple season. I love those Lodis or early green macintosh apples. My friends Nina and Bruce Sullivan and their son Danny from Banker's Orchards have already brought me a bag of Lodis. I eat those green babies till I'm almost sick. One day in the crisper of my refrigerator makes these delicacies just right for eating. With salt shaker in hand, I can easily enjoy four or five green juicy apples at one sitting.
I've also made an agreement this season with my friend Tre Green of Chazy Orchards. I'm no dummy. Would I rather sell him a videotape of his daughter receiving a prestigious award or trade that videotape for green apples? There's no question. I've cut a deal with Tre for a few bags of those delicious early green macintosh apples from his orchard.
The green apples hold me over until the third season, and that's the garden-vegetable season. Just as apples are ripening and I've had my fill of spherical fruits, along come those delicious North Country fresh yellow beans, green beans, radishes, tomatoes, you name it! I find it impossible to pass by those local roadside vegetable stands that dot our North Country roads without stopping to buy something. I can create a banquet of slices of fresh garden tomatoes, alongside piles of tender yellow beans and fresh carrots. Swimming in butter and seasoned with salt and pepper they provide a treat that just can't be found in other parts of the country or the world.
And just when you think it can't get any better, along comes the fourth season, and, to me, the best season. It's the corn-on-the-cob season. You tell me what part of the country can produce sweet tender delicious corn like we find here in the North Country. Oh, my! The nightly ritual of three ears of fresh sweet corn, found in countless varieties, drenched in butter and, like my other treats, generously sprinkled with salt.
I've always read and heard that eating vegetables is good for you, and I sure want to do things that are good for me. But perhaps dousing my treats in butter and/or salt isn't the best way to go about it, but it's too late. I'm hooked! No wonder I stay in the North Country! Where else can you find four seasons that can bring such delight?
Comments
corn on the cob.
Untill you have pulled an ear fresh in the garden, and eaten it raw while playing in the fields around Reber, you have no idea of how great it can be. 50 years later and at the other side of our country (California), sometimes I do get strange looks, when I stop by the local vege stand and buy one ear, husk it on the spot, and walk away chewing on one of the great delicacys, raw, straight from the fields, it don't get any better. Maybe it is the memories.
Maybe I don't care what makes it so good. Sometimes we can look at something so close that we lose something from it .
(Foxy's note: You are tempting me to try this, Marty. Tomorrow when I go out to buy corn, I'll try a raw one -- just once!)
Posted by: Marty | July 25, 2006 1:46 PM
I thought there was only two seasons in the North Country?
Winter and July 4th weekend!
Posted by: Kern | July 20, 2006 1:01 PM
great blog...my mother use to make rhubarb pies..and being from kentucky i could argue about who grows the best veggies..but i would have to vote on the north country...
Posted by: bill glasscock | July 19, 2006 6:04 PM
Foxy, Just today I strung, cleaned, and snapped a good size batch of green beans out of my garden. We also picked a couple cucumbers while we were there. Our tomatoes don't seem to be doing very well yet but our corn (peaches and cream is the specific type this year) is coming along swimmingly.
Although I have never sprinkled salt on my rhubarb, I do remember eating it raw out of my grandfather's garden and loving it. It is still one of my favorite treats. Green macintosh apples? I must admit that I have never eaten them green and I have never salted a macintosh but they are definitely my favorite apple. Salt on granny smith apples, however, are heavenly. Oh how I love fresh fruit and vegetable seasons......all of them!
(Foxy's note: Kathy, whose father was in the air force, attended Plattsburgh Middle School and Plattsburgh High School. She now lives in Kentucky.)
Posted by: Kathy (Hunt) Stacy | July 19, 2006 12:45 AM
Foxy, great view of the 4 seasons. Most people refer to the 4 seasons as
mud
construction
almost winter
winter
I like your 4 seasons better. All four foods are excellent eating.
Posted by: Chris Heckard | July 18, 2006 8:34 AM
Well you nailed this one for me Foxy, almost to perfection. As a kid I used to carry my own salt with me at all times just in case I ran into a small rhubarb patch (by accident of course). They were somewhat prevalent in the west end during the 40's. At least six areas that I can recall. Also green apples were a thing to cherish. You had to be careful when you picked up a few as the owner was not impressed by our hunger. For the most part we were able to glean most of the vegetables from our own garden. Rows of radishes, carrots or beans would disappear in moments. Back then we had our hidden supply of asparagus, a delicacy that was as tasty as it was hard to find. I know of no plots today, but I have heard that the local "Little Leprechaun" has a couple of good spots. He won't tell me where they are located but has brought me generous bunches on a few occasions. Then comes the corn on the cob. Now it is four or five nights a week as we follow it up the eastern coast and it just seems to get better as it gets closer and closer to God's country. I agree that the best is right here in Clinton County. Only about two or three weeks and it will be right here for us nightly. Drenched in butter with generous amounts of salt and pepper, what could be better. Maybe with "a bucket of wings" on the side.
Posted by: The Old Timer | July 18, 2006 8:13 AM