FEBRUARY.

Work proper to done in the Kitchen-Garden in this Month.

In a forward Spring there is a great deal of Business to be done in this Month. Make fresh Hot-Beds for your Cucumbers and Melons, if the Old ones are grown cold; wheel Dung, and dig into your Ground. Also you may still continue to trench or ridge up any of your Ground that is stiff, or that you will not want to crop till the Beginning or Middle of April, by which Time the Frosts, Snows, Rains, &c. will have meliorated it, and made it much better for any Kitchen-Uses.  You may also towards the End of this Month (if the Weather is mild, and your Situation warm and Soil dry)  sow Carrots, Parsnips, Onions, Leeks, Beets, Parsley, Radishes, Lettuce, Spinage, Asparagus &c.  Towards the Middle of the Month should be sown a second Crop of the Windsor-Bean, to succeed those sown in January; also at the Beginning of the Month may be sow'd a Crop of the Spanish Marotto, Marrow-fat, or any other large Kind of Pease, to succeed the Hotspur before sown.  You may also transplant you Sugar-loaf or other Kinds of Cabbage, to succeed the early Crops planted in November; and at the End of the Month you may remove your Collyflower Plants out of the Beds, that they were presrv'd in all the Winter, planting 'em in a rich warm Piece of Ground, at the proper Distance to remain for good. You may also sow some Colleyflower-Seed on a gentle Hot-Bed, to be covered with Mats. You may also sow of the Sugar-loaf and other late Kinds of Cabbages in in a warm Border. Plant Garlick, Shallot, Rocamble; also some of your sprouted Onions may be planted for Scallions. Continue still to make Hot-Beds for forcing of Asparagus; transplant your Lettuces out of the Beds, that they have been kept in all the Winter, if they are too thick. If the Weather is Mild, you may slip your Artichokes, and plant at the End of the Month.  You may also plant Potatoes and Jerusalem Artichokes.

The Products of the Kitchen-Garden in this Month are Potatoes, Turnips, Parsnips, Carrots, some Cabbages and Savoys, Colworts in Plenty; Cellery, Brocoli, Boorcole, Spinage, Leeks, Onions, Garlick, Rocambole, Shallots, Beets, Asparagus on Hot-Beds, with Radishes, and all sorts of  Sallet-Herbs.

-Adam's Luxury, and Eve's Cookery., 1744

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It might be the weather, and the way we turn into ourselves when it gets cold. Our muscles work harder to stay warm and our brain naturally goes to warm and cozy places in our memory. Or it could be my birth week in November that causes me to reflect on the experiences that formed me and my idea of ideal. I naturally get tired around this part of the year, I want to retreat to my piles of notebooks and earmarked book pages to build the better me. This is my New Year. Although I am ill prepared for the aging part of my life, I can generally say that I am okay with myself. Not in a gloating way, just in a way that says that if I never do anything more than I do now, I think I would be proud. But, those earmarked books and those tea stained idea accounts are in the old desk, and if all goes to plan, next year will be amazing.

Thankful started back at school this month. It's been a hard adjustment for Prudence, she is always close at heel with her older sister. Shamefully, I have to admit, it's been a little easier for me to get things done. Not by much, but enough to notice. Its not quite Autumn yet, but its cool, and the horse Chestnut tree in the back is dropping mountains of brown leaves. The leaves hide the miniature balls of fury and hate, the horse chestnuts themselves. Inevitably, I will hear one of the hens hoot and holler, and I will charge out in my bare or stocking feet, forgetting my back yards' natural booby trap.

I feel a looming sense of unfounded fear about winter coming on, there is a need to run around and grab snippets of green, take pictures of the melons still left in the garden, gather more and more firewood and hoard food. Is it because of my heritage career? My homestead line of thought? Is it an inherited knowledge from grandmothers past? Whatever it is, it has become my enemy, I cannot enjoy the change in seasons as much as others do because of it.

September so far has been productive and kind to us. We have been able to sell our soaps at a few outdoor markets again; I love connecting and talking with the customers that have supported my journey so far. I love how my soaps look in the sun.  We were able to acquire an old cast iron stove, heavy and enameled black, for our kitchen. Thankful has settled in and feels comfortable with her new classmates, Prudence has decided to eat more and use words like 'treat', 'please' and 'toot.' Our work calendars are filling up (a good and bad thing), and because of this, our cupboards wont be bare because we chose to live out our heartsong.