October 13th, 2020
What’s in your share?
Salad Mix
Japanese Salad Turnips
Snap Peas
French Fingerling Potatoes
Cucumbers
Softneck Garlic
Sweet Italian Peppers
Onions
It’s hard not to notice that the seasons are changing. Be it a welcome change or a dreaded change, it’s happening regardless. Change is all that is; it’s the only way that the life continuum exists. The weather obviously changes. Our relationship with the weather necessitates changes in our behavior. There are obvious changes in ourselves; what we wear, how much time we spend pleasantly outside, the activities we partake in. But some of the biggest changes are those we don’t see.
Enter Winter Woman. She bursts through the door, eyelashes frozen, and cheeks red with wind. She moves harshly; heavy and quickly, but with intention. Her eyes are piercing, and if she decides you are in the way, she will tell you. Winter Woman can be terrifying, but if you look closer, you will see strength, torment, joy, and the instinct to survive.
You can see her strength through her ability to withstand the cold. Her recently tan, toned body becomes paler, softer, and her skin thicker to add a layer of warmth to protect the complex activities happening within her body. Her torment can be learned, if you listen. Being “Woman”, there are so many expectations that come along with the gender assignment, that living up to them can be exhausting. Winter Woman, though at her core rejects such assignments, knows that it is ultimately impossible to completely remove herself from the building blocks that are responsible for her existence. Therefore, learning to accept her winter form is hard; she needs to actively embrace it and be proud. This is tormenting for Winter Woman, and she can be mean as a result.
Even though Winter Woman has her guard up, she still experiences joy. And sometimes, because torment is present, joy becomes stronger. She has been taught to produce, to reproduce, to do, to make. But come winter, it is time to practice the unlearning of productivity. It is easy for Winter Women to reject productivity, but hard for her to mentally allow herself to. Time seems to slow in the winter, allowing more time to sit, to think, to laugh, to learn, to watch, to play, to eat, and to drink. To take this time catalyzes joy that is lost or unimagined when time is fast. The seasoned Winter Woman knows that she needs to harvest and store this joy, and save it for when time is fast and so is she.
Her instinct to survive knows what food is best. Soups made with the just-harvested chicken fat simmer on her stove all day, warming the cold house with their steam. Fresh vegetables are no longer, so Winter Woman eats from the root cellar the foods that store best; the ones with the most sugars and starches. A diet of carrots, potatoes, parsnips, onions, garlic, and canned tomatoes sustains her. She knows that this food needs to get her through the winter, so she rations it. Winter is such an easy time for indulgence, and indulge she does. But not with the precious vegetables. No. Bread is cheap, rice is cheap, bone broth is plentiful; she fills up on those, to make sure that the vegetables last.
This depiction of Winter Woman seems very serious and maybe even somber. However, at our home, we embrace her in mostly a funny way. If Winter Woman wants to eat an entire apple pie all by herself, she can. If Winter Woman wants to hibernate in her lair all day and watch movies in her jammies, she can. When Winter Woman is having a crabby day, she is allowed. Winter Woman lets her hair grow long and thick, aiming to please no one. She lives in all of us. Winter can be long, lonely, and hard for many of us. Embodying Winter Woman helps us get through.