Texas Fall Garden and Thanksgiving Food

Thanksgiving harvest

Here it is, the day before Thanksgiving, a little windy, a little balmy, and 81 degrees. I am harvesting more veggies from my garden. I love fall gardening in Texas! In the picture above, the rectangular platter is full of what I picked from my garden this afternoon, 15 tomatoes, a dozen peppers and some okra. In the bowl, are tomatoes and okra from the last few days. I am picking a few tomatoes a little early, because, in the mercurial nature of Texas weather, we are going to go from Indian summer to 28 degrees tomorrow night. I have so many more green tomatoes and peppers to pick or cover up before the cold front.

Most of the green tomatoes can be cut off on the branches and hung up in a dark closet, where they will ripen slowly, and give us ripe tomatoes for Christmas.

Fall flowers, pansies and chrysanthemums

In the spirit of the season, that is...FOOD...here is one of the dishes I will be bringing to my mother's for Thanksgiving tomorrow, Wild rice mix with butternut squash and green apples.

Unfortunately, I won't be using the butternut squash from my garden, my biggest squash is the size of a squat zucchini. I guess I'll be covering it during the cold snap and hoping for the best.

New Fairy Tale Poetry Anthology

Well, I am taking the plunge again!

My good friend and wonderful poet Christopher Soden and I have just launched Rainbow Crow Press.






Fairy Tale Poetry Anthology

Call for submissions


Rainbow Crow Press is currently seeking finely crafted, imaginative poems for an anthology of poetry based on traditional fairy tales. Submit up to 6 poems to RainbowCrowPress@gmail.com with Submission (poet’s last name) as the subject. We will ask for selected poems to be sent to us in an RTF attachment, but we will not be opening attachments during the selection process.
Deadline January 1, 2011.



I was very excited to get our call for submissions listed on Duotrope this morning, and have sent requests for listing to New Pages and Poetry Kit as well. Hopefully, wonderful poetry will be rolling into our inbox soon!

I have always had a strong attachment to fairy tales. I think they speak to something very elemental in us. Over the years I have written 13 or so fairy tale based poems. It seems that quite a few of these turn out to be coming of age poems.





Here is a sample poem, by me...

Red

All day I am enchanted.

Newly nubile,

clothed in red—

a secret I did not yet

let my mother in on.

Sent on my errand,

guarding the cakes, my goodies,

I am not to speak to strangers.

I am not to speak.

Body held clean and warm

and safe, swaddled in red.

Red for fullness, life—

secrets whispered for a maid,

a woman’s promise.

The forest floor is soft

with leaves, crimson and brown,

year after year of brittle autumn

cradling new life, bed of ferns

uncoiling, tender green.

I must keep my eyes straight—

mustn’t stray, look into the eyes

of hungry wolves in the shadow—

guard my sweetness.

Crunch and give, as I step off the path,

the forest floor is soft.

I have walked this far.

When my fingers find his tangled hair,

there is no cake, no thought

for Grandma.

He says, Red.

Suddenly, I am ravenous.

-Anita M. Barnard

published in Illya's Honey

nominated for 2008 Pushcart Prize