What Are Your Winter Traditions?

[Tsiyu]

How do you pass the long winter?

What are your cultural customs?

Do you suffer more hardship or enjoy more leisure?

If you are in Australia or NZ you may post your summer traditions, just so we're not discriminating here...

[DoBotherMe]

1. Eating, jigsaw puzzles, going to the roller rink

Oh, rural issues. My grandparents had a farm and in the winter they watched TV, fed cattle and hogs, hunted and went to town once a week for food and drink.

[Tsiyu]

5. Okie Dokie n/t

[knowbody0]

2. i use these dark days,

the season of death, to go to the inside of the inside of life and my affect on the planet. wood stove and quilts come out. when the family gathers it is story time, waiting for the worm to turn and the frogs to call. no pow wows in this season, but lots of drumming.

[Tsiyu]

6. That's a lyrical answer.

It is harder to solve problems in the winter, so we turn our thoughts to solving ourselves.

[Kali]

3. season of darkness

sleep too much, eat too much, weak animals die, fix and oil saddles, make a nest in the garage for the dogs, light ancient wall heaters, dust off electric heater for back bathroom, desperatly try to save the geraniums, feed the horses extra, hot soups, hot chocolate, hot tea, switch from beer and mojitos and margaritas to shots and red wine, bake more (choc. chip cookies as I type this) wait for solstice, do hokey x-mas (not religious, but have the tree/gift/decorations/feast traditions) New Years: certain snacks must be served and huge bonfire at midnite has become a tradition. January- cold and waiting for spring. Feb. - buds on trees start - warmer days, winter weeds showing, march aauuugghhh windy and cold, late frosts,but finally spring!

[Tsiyu]

7. I like your list

Hunkering down for the brisk season.

My geraniums are trying to hold on, along with a few impatiens I pulled up and brought inside. I think I only bring the latter in to watch them die, but the geraniums are on their third year.

A favorite tradition here is what we call pizza frit. Fried bread dough dipped in sugar or sauce. Yum. A New Years must-have along with steaming lentil soup.

[Kali]

9. oh please don't tell me about fried dough

my huge weakness is fried and doughy breads. Not a huge sweet eater, (though I manage to choke a bit of chocolate down) but something fried mmmm and fresh yeasty bread mmmmm sounds really good

Our mandatory new years snacks are kid-driven, pretzels, hot chicken wings, veggies and dip, pizza, maybe some chili. One year we had a bunch of people come out for the night and requested they bring a traditional dish from their ethnic backgrounds - that was good! We had fondue, some kind of fish in sourcream(german), another fish dish(norwegian), beef, redbeans and rice, tamales, and of course the mandatory chicken wings - I found a green habanero sauce that makes an atomic version, so I always have to make a dozen or so of those - nobody can actually eat them.

[Tsiyu]

10. In The South it's Turnip Greens and Blackeyed Peas

or Hoppin' John for New Years. Hoppin John is a rice/sausage/veggie/bean combo I never made but have sampled.

I know what you mean about the doughy bread. Combine that with that golden-fried crust and some powdered sugar and it is a happy New Year.

[Malva Zebrina]

4. I have taken up quilting

and obssessed with cutting out little triangles to the exact measurement. It begins to get dark at about 4pm. At 3pm it is already dusk with the sun real low on the horizon.

Further, I fall asleep earlier and then wake up at 4am. :shrug: and it does not begin to get light until at least 6am and if it is cloudy, it is dark until almost 7am.

The good news is that in the summer, the days are very long. It stays light until almost 9pm then.

Been doing it for years since we moved to the frozen north twenty years ago.

[Tsiyu]

8. Winter Solstice is almost here-

Isn't that the shortest day, and then they get longer from there? I hate the short days but they do make it cozier when it's blowing sleet outside and you're all bundled up inside.

Checking on animals is more of a pain with the darkness.

Edited to say: very cool about the quilting. Which pattern are you working on or did you design your own? I'm pretty hopeless with a needle and thread but i admire those with such skill.

[RiDuvessa]

11. I miss real winters.

Having lived in Virginia for the last three years. (In Sicily now, not any better.)

However, when I was back in Illinois, my favorite winter pastime was reading a book with a nice cup of hot chocolate. Real hot chocolate, not the kind from a packet that you mix with hot water. Add a little cinnamon, and there's nothing better.

[Tsiyu]

14. You should be able to get some Droste!

Yummy but very expensive cocoa in the states.

I agree that hot cocoa is the nicest thing on a cold evening.

Now, whipped cream or marshmallows to melt and froth on top?

[Lithos]

12. Sometimes

We make a big pot of soup or stew around the New Years. Add in some black eyed peas for "good luck" (tradition, nothing more). Helps get you through the first (usually hectic) week of January.

As for personal traditions, winter is when I start making oatmeal (more a porridge than anything else) and start with the hot tea.

L-

[Tsiyu]

15. Do you remember Maypo?

They had in New York when I was a wee one. Chocolate and banana flavored oatmeal!

Nothing sticks to the ribs like oatmeal, sprinkled with raisins, pecans and syrup and covered in cold milk.

[MuseRider]

18. Maypo was always my favorite!

I wonder if you can still get it, it has been years since I even looked. Big Maple lover here. What a great memory. I was the only one who liked it so it was rare that I was able to eat it. My brothers liked Cream of Wheat (blech to me).

Maypo, I bet I could figure out a way to make something similar. My new project! Thanks.

[NMDemDist2]

21. Maypo here:

http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=5632&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=maypo

[MuseRider]

22. You have no idea

how happy you have just made me. I know that is silly but it is one of the only warm and nice things I can remember as a kid. Funny how we cling to simple things that are actually quite stupid but there it is. I WANT MY MAYPO and I will have it!

[NMDemDist2]

23. I'm glad! enjoy it! that site is so cool and has so many wonderful old

products it's easy to spend waaaayyyyyyy tooo much $$$$$$$$$

:rofl:

:hi:

[Remmah]

13. I look forward to winter, no lawn to mow.

My wife and I play scrabble for endless hours, we sip wine and kick back. Reruns and DVD's: CSI. Law and Order, I Love Lucy, Andy Griffith.

My son and I play strategy board games, I have no clue how to play. I let him clobber me but he does the research on the rules and victory is justly earned (Warhammer 40,000).

I do crafts w/my daughter. I have no artistic skills but run the hot glue gun for her. She has me cut wood, metal etc. We interact.

I run our two large dogs on sunny winter days. When the snow (Buffalo) gets 12" or more deep they're fun to watch kicking up a trail of dust as they look for mice in the compost pile and garden.

My daughter and I cook soup from scratch. We dry vegetables and herbs, all of it sooner or later ends up in the soup pot A nice slow soup pot acts as a humidifier.

We burn wood as out primary heating fuel. On crisp January days I love to hand split my wood (not all, just some.) I love to kick back after dark and watch the fire burn in the wood stove.

On crummy weather days I go to the basement and do woodwork projects w/my son.

Reading, I love reading. I'm up on Saturday and Sunday before the family (6-7 am). The newspaper then my favorite novel. Lots of book reading on gardening.

I tune up the rototiller and lawn mower.

Lots less travel.

Catch up on phone calls.

[Tsiyu]

16. Sounds cozy and the soup smells good from here

You have a plan...

[Jeffery]

17. winter garden

I found out about winter growing vegetables a few years ago; I have done endive, radishes, and brassicas (cole crops) in winter. From what I have read, there are flowerng perennials that bloom in the winter as well.

[MuseRider]

19. You must share!

We will be safely ensconced on our farm next winter. The house will be done but my garden will not yield enough yet for lots of storing in my new root cellar. I would love to do some winter gardening.

Do you have a resource for this? I am relatively new to learning about storing food and know nothing about winter gardening. I am mostly knowledgeable about animals so am seeking to learn.

Good book I recently purchased but have only scanned "Gardening When It Counts" Growing Food in Hard Times from Mother Earth News. I am looking forward to all of this.

[LWolf]

20. Winterizing and hibernating:

"Winterizing:"

Clean barn and coop, repair fences, haul in and stack 10 tons of hay, by hand, stack all the firewood cut and/or collected over the summer, drain and hang hoses, repair wiring to pastures and coop, put covers on coop windows, scrub waterers and plug in water heaters, haul the portable coolers out to the shop, set up the portable heaters that help the wood stove along, pull everything that might get wet or snowed on in, shut the barn and shop doors. Burn pastures and other weeds that the sheep and horses left. Vaccinate and worm sheep. Put electric blankets on beds. Stock up on batteries, candles, and chop/split firewood small enough to fit into the wood cookstove when wanted or needed.

"Hibernating:"

A new stack of books and dvds, plenty of hot tea and cider on hand, come straight home from work except to make fuel or grocery stops, eat, read,watch movies, sleep, clean and oil saddles, etc.. and generally avoid the rest of the world as much as possible.