Angela Jamison is a native Montanan and she grew up in beautiful Bozeman. I'm the mother of two girls and write a blog about our life here and taking in the simple pleasures of family and food.
Falling in Love with Fall
It has taken me a while to warm up to fall. I blame the years my husband dabbled in hunting and I was left alone throughout this season. Followed by the years I was nauseated 24 hours a day with morning sickness, during the fall with both my children. Add to it the following falls when again my husband was gone hunting and I was alone with babies and you can understand why the leaves changing made my stomach turn. Now, years later, I have finally quit associating fall with negative things and have begun to fall in love with it. The kids are older so it’s easy to get caught up in their excitement for this time of year…jumping in piles of leaves, hay mazes and of course, Halloween. My husband traded his shotgun for a yoga mat so now rather than losing him for several days, it’s usually just an hour or so. Now I look at the colors of the leaves change and see beauty. I feel the air turn crisp and get excited for the fresh start a new season brings. I smell pumpkin everything and can’t wait for cozy days inside baking. This year with the warmth of summer leading us into fall it’s even easier to love. I know it happens fast…before we know it the trees will be bare and the snow will come. As with any season I feel like you’ve got to soak it up while you can. Here’s how we do fall around here…
HARVEST TIME
This is when the hard work of gardening all summer pays off. Finally the tomatoes are red, zucchinis are abundant and not one vegetable needs to be bought at the grocery store. For the month of September, and if we’re lucky, into October we eat fresh veggies every single day. Preserving what we can, sharing with friends what we can’t. Keeping an eye on the pumpkins hoping they get a little more time to get bigger. They are, after all, the star of the season which leads might right into the next….
PUMPKINS!
I never understood the pumpkin hype with fall. Never a fan of this beyond carving them into jack-o-lanterns I certainly didn’t understand why anyone would want it as part of their morning latte. I still forgo the pumpkin spiced coffee, but have definitely fallen deeply in love with pumpkin bread, cookies, pie…anything else you can get a fresh one into. That is the key…it has to be fresh…not canned. We grew our first pumpkins by accident, a result of a Halloween pumpkin tossed into the compost bin. Not sure what to do with a dozen garden pumpkins I decided to make my first ever pumpkin pie, something I never cared for. What a difference using a real pumpkin made! Motivated I kept going and pumpkin bread has become one of my all time favorites. I only make it in the fall with fresh pumpkins so now when the leaves begin to change I know it’s time.
HIKES TO WATCH THE CHANGING COLORS
Each season has its thing that makes it perfect for hiking. Summer is the obvious choice…warm weather, cool mountain lakes. Spring is great for all the wildflowers and to anticipate summer coming. Even winter has its charm with the snow covered trails and cool air making the mountains quiet. But, fall is in a league all its own. The colors! Bright yellows, oranges, reds…mixed in with the green…it takes your breath away. Whether you are hiking through it or above it and looking down, it’s simply spectacular. Some of my favorites are Triple Tree Trail, Sypes Canyon and South Cottonwood because of the abundance of aspen trees changing. In town, Peet’s Hill is a wonderful place to stroll up and look down at the many colors of Bozeman. Right across the street from that is the Gallagator Trail, another great one to take fall in.
HAY RIDES, APPLE CIDER AND THE PUMPKIN PATCH
I briefly lived in my husband’s home state of Michigan and discovered the fun of a pumpkin patch and apple orchard. They were everywhere and huge! You couldn’t help but get into the spirit of the season when picking apples to be turned into fresh cider and walking through miles of pumpkin patch to pick your perfect one. Bozeman may not have all that, but we do have Rocky Creek Farm and they’re pretty fantastic. Each year we take a Saturday in October to head there for a tractor ride to find pumpkins, pet the goats and experience the Montana version of this activity. With the mountains in the background, caramel apples and happy people it’s always a good time.
Enjoy this lovely fall in Bozeman. And, while you’re at it grab a pumpkin or two from a friend with a garden, the pumpkin patch or the farmers market and whip up some pumpkin bread…you’ll be happy you did!
PUMPKIN BREAD RECIPE
-1 ½ cups flour
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 cup sugar
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp ground ginger
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 tsp nutmeg
-1/2 tsp allspice
-1 cup pumpkin puree (to make this, cut a small pumpkin in half, remove the seeds and strings, bake cut side down on an aluminum lined baking sheet at 350-degrees for around 45 minutes. Scoop out the soft insides and puree until smooth. Freeze what you don’t use for a later time!)
-1 stick of melted butter
-2 eggs
-1/4 cup water
1. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in another. Combine and mix only until blended.
2. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350-degrees for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Enjoy!