September 08, 1983 - The End of SummerSeptember 8,1983 The Suffolk Times Page 15
The End of Summer
By PAULSTOUTENBURGH
You can tell the end of summer is. here.
The blackbirds are flocking up, we see
swallows lined up resting on the tele-
phone wires and Labor Day weekend is
upon us. School opening signs are posted
and the boatyards are starting to get
ready to pick up the boats that made
summer something special to many out
here on the East End. The weather held
hot and humid and everywhere people
were shopping for that last outside
barbecue with family and friends.
Being no different than others we, too,
set up for our close of the summer get
together but this year it would be
different. Our son had raised some pigs
last year and one was cleaned and
stretched out in our freezer. We were
going to have a pig roast and for what
better occasion than Labor Day
weekend.
Lucky for me it was a small one and we
had taken it out of the freezer in its
mummy -clad plastic covering so that it
could thaw, hoping that by morning it
would be warmed up enough to start
roasting by 10 a.m.
Why is it we all worry? About 3 a.m. I
awoke and wondered if our frozen pig
would ever be thawed enough by morn-
ing. What if it didn't thaw out? It would
never get done in time.
So up I got and bleary -eyed went to the
kitchen where our prize. lay resting in the
sink. Sure enough it was still pretty
frozen. What to do? I surely had no
experience in this kind of thing and
Barbara, my right arm, was still asleep.
I'd have to try something so I un-
wrapped what seemed like yards of
plastic and then filled the two sinks with
water. Then bending as hard as I could I
got the front and rear in each of the sinks
with the middle straddling the partition
between. I knew turkeys could be thawed
that way for I'd seen Barbara do it often.
Why wouldn't it work with a pig? The
next morning, sure enough, the trick
worked and our pig could be split and
spread out for cooking.
Getting Ready to Roast
Now came the real work. Digging a pit,
getting some old grates with two pipes
attached to each side so we could turn the
grills over. Then I wired the pig down to
the racks and we were ready for the next
stage.
This was the wood shed where I
gathered kindling and wood for our fire.
Slowly the process fell together and right
on time at 10 o'clock we had the pig
sizzling away. Each half hour Barbara
and I, one on each end, would turn the
rack over making sure the fire below was
low enough not to burn.
Of course, there was the usual rushing
around for extra chairs and tables along
with the gathering of other goodies to eat
and drink. Then in between all this we cut
up a basket of peaches from our trees and
put up 10 quarts of delicious fruit for the
coming winter. This on top of the 16 jars
of raspberry and peach jam Barbara had
done during the week has gotten us off to
a good start. Even my wood supply has
been cut and split ahead for winter. I'll
probably be doing more as time goes on
but I've already gotten enough to last
through the year.
Guess we're no different than the
squirrels who have already found our
hickory nuts and are fattening them-
selves up in preparing for the coming
winter. Later they'll start burying them
for a reserve winter supply. Our lawn
and walkway are covered with the sharp
chips of shells that vouch for their
delight in eating our hickory nuts. All day
long you can hear the debris falling from
the treetops as they eat their way
through nut after nut.
We in today's busy pace don't really
think of nuts as an important part of our
winter diet but they surely played an
ffoQd� ow
important part in our ancestor's time.
And as a matter of fact right up to the last
generation or so of farm folk the black
walnut tree was an important part of
every farmyard.
Like the squirrels in the treetops our
friends and relatives gorged themselves
with roast pig and all the trimmings. As I
cut up the golden brown meat, a continu-
al array of hands picked up the bits of
crackling and other morsels that fell by
the side. It was a real feast with side
dishes of ripe tomatoes, hot corn and
butter, baked potatoes, applesauce for
the meat, sauerkraut and home baked
beans and then finishing off with home-
made cakes and cookies brought by
ROAST PIG - -Labor Day festivities are as varied as the people who enjoy
them. This year roast pig was on the menu and it was delicious.
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
family and friends.
We are fortunate people indeed to live
in such a great country with the bounties
that were given us. No other country has
been blessed with such riches and it is
important that every once in a while we
sit back and take stock of what we have.
Let's hope we shall be good stewarts and
be able to pass this richness on to our
children.
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