Category: Simple Living

Does your home reflect the changing seasons? What about your homemaking? As homemakers, we have the opportunity to bring the rhythms of the earth into our homes, and let them guide our duties for each season.

Why Does Seasonal Homemaking Matter?

Well, we all live on this planet, and our environment does impact our lives in many ways. Folks who live out in the country might see this more clearly than those living sixteen stories up in a concrete condo, but city dwellers and country folk alike can appreciate the beauty of the earth. One way we can come to a greater appreciation for our world is by living seasonally.

What is seasonal living?

For me, seasonal living means noting the characteristics of each season and finding ways to use the gifts that each season brings. It means planting seeds in the spring: a few pots of herbs or an entire garden.

It means tending that garden in the summer, as well as foraging berries and medicinal plants. It means harvesting ripe produce, whether from your own garden, or a neighbor’s, or the market when locally grown fruits and vegetables are in season.

It means preserving the abundance of summer’s yield so that it may be enjoyed during the lean months when the earth is barren and cold. Finally, it means following the pace of each season: increasing activity in spring and summer, then slowing down in autumn and winter.

This cycle of work and rest is good for our bodies and our souls. It helps us to live balanced and peaceful lives, instead of an endless succession of busy-ness with an occasional vacation here and there.

That being said, seasonal living is a goal for me. I’m really just starting out on this journey, but homemaking has given me the opportunity to start putting my dreams into action. I’m so excited for each little step toward seasonal homemaking!

What does seasonal homemaking look like in fall?

Squirrels are hiding nuts, bears are putting on extra fat, geese are flying south. Autumn is about preparing for winter, but not in a manner too rushed to appreciate the here and now.

The autumn kitchen is filled with the sights and smells of the season. Ripe produce with the last gleams of summer’s abundance waiting to be canned or frozen. The last flowers clipped from the garden before the frost could wither their blooms. Applesauce simmering on the stove, and the irresistible aroma of a pie cooling on the windowsill…

These are what my daydreams are made of! Your kitchen may not look quite like this, and neither does mine, but here are some practical steps for both of us to grow closer to the seasons in our kitchens.

Stock your pantry

You don’t need to grow a huge vegetable garden to stock a pantry. You don’t have to preserve everything yourself. It’s okay to buy canned tomatoes and applesauce from the grocery store. But the simple act of filling your pantry with preserved food will give you a sense of abundance and readiness for whatever wild weather awaits in the coming months.

Wondering what to stock up on if you’ve never done that before? Here are some suggestions for a winter pantry:

• coffee, tea, and hot cocoa mix
• dried fruits and nuts
• dry beans, lentils, and rice
• soup stock
• canned tomatoes and other vegetables
• dried herbs and spices
• onions, garlic, potatoes, and winter squashes

For more pantry-stocking ideas, along with a handy checklist, read How to Stock a Pioneer Pantry!

What to preserve in the Fall

This will depend on what grows where you live, of course; but here’s a short list of the plants I like to preserve during the autumn season:

Herbs

Dried herbs are useful for cooking, teas, and sometimes medicines. If you grow herbs in your garden (or even on your windowsill), you can harvest and dry your own! It’s extra special to open a jar of your very own dried herbs when you make pizza or a hearty winter soup!

I dry most of my herbs by hanging them in bunches. Some varieties don’t do well with this method, typically those with bigger leaves, like basil and parsley. For those, a dehydrator works great! Or you can make basil salt as an alternate way to preserve it without losing its fresh flavor!

Rosehips

This was my first year harvesting rose hips. Wild roses grow all over the place here, and this year there was such an abundance of delicate pink blooms in June!

We collected the rose hips gradually, over the course of several weeks, whenever we happened to see bushes laden with them. I learned that it takes a LOT of rose hips to make anything, because you usually only use the juice… and they’re not very juicy!

I made a small batch of rose hip catsup, which turned out very flavorful, but more like barbecue sauce than catsup in my opinion! I also dried some rose hips for later use in other concoctions.

I dried them by the lazy method: after I baked something in the oven, while it was still warm, I popped a pan of rose hips in and let them sit until the oven was completely cool. Super simple, and you don’t have to worry about burning them!

Lingonberries

Summer is berry season in many places, but here in interior Alaska, we pick lingonberries (the locals call them lowbush cranberries) after the first frost. These firm, small berries are my favorite to pick because they’re so easy to work with: they don’t squish too easily, and they’re quick to clean.

I merely clean the berries and freeze them in quart bags. They don’t tend to freeze together in the bags, because their moisture content is lower than most other berries. We use them just like cranberries, in spiced cranberry tea or cranberry scones!

Apples

When the apples are in season and you can get a bushel for a great price, why not stock up? If you don’t have a cellar to store them in, you will probably need some other way to preserve the fruit so it will last well into the winter or longer. There are many ways to preserve apples:

• as applesauce, canned or frozen
• canned apple butter
• canned apple slices or apple pie filling
• dried apple rings
• you can even freeze apple slices if you plan to use them for baking!

Here is a great tutorial for making canned apple slices, along with ideas for recipes to use them in!

Pumpkins

Pumpkins will last for months in a cool, dry place, so you don’t have to process them immediately. However, most recipes don’t call for raw pumpkin, so I like to cook a lot at once and have it ready!

Cooking pumpkin is as simple as cutting it in half, scooping the seeds and pulp out, and cooking the halves (in a shallow pan) in a slow oven for several hours. Once the pumpkin has cooled a bit, you can scoop out the flesh, mash or puree it until smooth, and then use it as you please in recipes calling for canned pumpkin puree.

I like to freeze pumpkin puree in pint-size freezer containers. Freezer bags would also work. I would recommend freezing small portions, or you’ll end up with a lot of thawed pumpkin all at once!

You can also can pumpkin, using a pressure canner. Jill has a simple recipe and pressure canning tutorial.

Seasonal Meal Planning

I love meal planning in general, because it makes my life easier and prevents the dreadful looming question of What’s For Dinner from destroying my peace of mind.

Most of the time, when I make meal my weekly meal plan, I have a few ideas for meals I want to make in the coming week. Then I flip through a cookbook or two (not more than two, or it takes too long!) for inspiration.

I’ve noticed that I tend to use certain cookbooks more during one season than another. I make more soups, stews, and oven-roasted meals during fall and winter, while spring and summer feature fresh salads and grilled dishes.

This in itself is a step toward seasonal eating, but I want to take it even further. I would love to eat mostly locally-grown foods while they’re in season, but that’s a little scary to me, living in Alaska! I’m sure it can be done, but I like fresh vegetables in the winter, too!

So, while I’m not at that extreme of seasonal eating, I do like to use the fruits and vegetables that are in season — if not in Alaska, at least somewhere in Canada or the United States.

Making a Seasonal Meal Plan

How do you go about setting up a seasonal meal plan? First, it’s helpful to know which produce is in season at what time. You can find lists of seasonal fruits and vegetables online easily, but I don’t always find them helpful.

After all, you can buy fresh produce all year, and strawberries don’t ripen at the exact same time of year everywhere they’re grown. (As an example, my neighbor has a few hardy cherry trees, and they produced at the same time as her apple trees this year: early September!)

Perhaps the best way to find out what’s in season where you live is to visit your local farmer’s market or produce stand. Failing that, just check the grocery store sale flyer to see what produce is on sale this week!

Make a list of in-season produce

Write down a list of the fruits and vegetables that are ripe, and use that list as the basis for your meal plan.

Many people participate in CSAs or farm shares, where they pick up a box of fresh produce weekly from local farms. My sister has done this for years, and she says it has really helped her family to eat more fresh, local produce.

These programs are more geared toward summer gardens, so what about fall produce? If you live in a place where there are farm stands or orchards, go there first! They will have the freshest fruits and vegetables.

But even if you don’t have that option, many grocery stores carry local produce during the local growing season (summer and fall in this hemisphere!).

Find some seasonal recipes

Now that you have a list of produce, how do you make it into a meal plan? I imagine many of us are already baking with pumpkins and apples. That’s great! Intentionally making apple pie instead of chocolate cake during the fall is one small step toward seasonal eating.

Note: There is nothing wrong with chocolate at any time of year! I do eat it all year long, except during penitential seasons. This is just a suggestion for how to incorporate more seasonal produce into your menu!

Collect Favorite Seasonal Recipes

If you really want to get into seasonal meal planning, you could organize your recipe box by season. I hope to do this some day! Just imagine turning to the Autumn section and pulling out all of your favorite fall recipes!

I have a few cookbooks that are organized this way, and I find it a delightful system. Each time I flip to a new season, I see special recipes and fall into reveries of memories from yesteryear.

If you don’t want to go to all that trouble, or perchance prefer your recipes organized alphabetically, try making seasonal Pinterest recipe boards. (I have a fall recipe board here, if you’d like some inspiration!)

You don’t even need to use recipes from a website if you have one that your family likes; but sometimes it helps to have a visual reminder of which dishes you can make from cabbages and apples. (Psst — here’s a great one!)

Or just make a simple list of your favorite fall recipes, and post it in your pantry. Keep adding to the list as you discover new seasonal recipes, and by next year, you’ll probably have more ideas than you can use!

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What do you think of the idea of bringing the seasons into your homemaking routines? I hope these ideas help you to celebrate autumn and embrace each season that you find yourself in.

For more about finding joy and meaning in homemaking, as well as embracing seasonal living, check out my Guide to Intentional Homemaking!

Happy homemaking!

~Kimberly

September is here, and with it, thoughts of making your home into a cozy autumn nest for your family. But how does one go about cozifying a house?

If you don’t want to spend many, many dollars at a decor boutique or craft store, don’t fret. You can shop your own house first, and find coordinating pieces for very low prices at thrift stores or auctions.

But this post isn’t about getting you to buy anything. (You might be like me, and not really into decorating for the sake of decorating, anyway.)

I want to detail the elements of a cozy autumn home, so that you can think intentionally about what will help make your home a cozy, comforting space. (Hint: it’s not just about things!) Read on as we explore coziness through the five senses!

Sight

Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind when I think of fall is color. Deep, vibrant hues ranging from golds to crimsons to russets are some of my favorite colors. I love to see the trees and bushes decked out in their autumn glory.

But there’s more to fall than this. You don’t have to stick with a color scheme of red, yellow, and orange. By no means! I’ve taken some of the dominant colors from these five fall photographs to give you an idea of the many and varied shades you can use as part of your autumn palette.

The basic idea is to pick one palette, or group of colors, and use those same colors over and over again in your decorations. This makes a space feel cohesive, instead of a riot of different colors!

See, fall colors don’t only revolve around orange and red. You can even include blue, and still keep the autumn theme!

See how the colors in the next two photos are similar, yet one palette is warm and the other is cool? This is how you can use some of the same colors throughout your house, but still add a little variety with one or two different shades per room.

Again, you’re not limited to a group of four colors; these are just examples. You could even use a different palette for each room in your house, to set a different tone in each! If you need help determining a color scheme, I used Canva’s Color Palette Generator to make these palettes.

Create Coziness with Lighting

You can match your colors perfectly, but add the wrong lighting and the effect will still disappoint. The right choice of lighting, however, can really help create the mood you’re looking for.

I’m not an expert on interior design, but I like to match bright colors with bright (or natural) lighting, and soft colors with soft lighting. For example, take the last color palette above. If you choose soft colors like these, say, for a bedroom, then the cozy effect can be heightened by using smaller, softer lamps instead of a strong overhead lightbulb.

Some spaces in your home do require brighter lighting, such as the kitchen. That’s why I tend to go with light and bright colors in my kitchen: pale neutrals with a pop of color. This suits strong lighting or an abundance of natural light through windows.

If you’re trying to create a cozy reading nook, make sure that the light you choose is adequate for the purpose. If it’s too soft, (think candlelight only), there’s a good chance nobody will want to sit and read there. Perhaps candles on the mantelpiece or a chest of drawers can augment a lamp on a side table next to your comfy chair.

Smell

Cinnamon and warm spices, ripe apples, crisp morning air, sweet maple, fresh rain on the grass, and earthy damp leaves… these are the scents of fall.

Most of them smell of things outside, but you can bring those aromas of fall inside your home as well.

Scented candles create an autumnal atmosphere instantly with their varied mixtures of scents. I like big candles in the kitchen, and smaller ones throughout the house. Just don’t burn two different candle scents at the same time!

Cinnamon

Aside from candles, you could diffuse cinnamon and clove essential oils. Or try simmering cinnamon sticks, cloves, and dried apple slices in a small pot of water on your stove. This will fill your kitchen with a wonderful spicy aroma.

I find it strange to “waste” food this way, so an alternative is to make hot spiced cider or applesauce with those same spices. This way, you get to smell your efforts, and eat them too! If you want your home to smell like apples, this is probably the best way to do it.

Apples

Apples won’t keep well if you leave them at room temperature, so setting out a dish of them on your kitchen counter isn’t the best idea.

However, cooking them on the stove or roasting them in the oven lets the aroma of sweet, ripe fruit fill your house for hours. (In a pinch, scented candles will do too, of course!)

Crisp Morning Air

How do you bring the scent of crisp morning air inside? Open a window!

If you’re trying to trap warm air inside your house in an effort to delay heating costs as long as possible, I wouldn’t leave windows open all day; but opening one or two for half an hour or so is wonderful for freshening the air in your house.

Maple

The sweet scent of maple syrup is often combined with others, because it’s not very strong on its own (and I don’t know how you would get it alone, save for warming a pot of maple syrup on the stove!)

Here are some ideas for combining maple with other fall scents:

• Make maple lattes in your slow cooker. The low heat will help the aromas of coffee and maple (and cinnamon or pumpkin, if you choose to add those) waft throughout your house and draw people magnetically to the kitchen!
• Try the same method above of simmering spices in a pot of water, but add a little maple extract to them.
• Make maple-flavored treats such as baked oatmeal or maple cookies.

Fresh Rain & Damp Leaves

The scent of rain on the grass is best left outside, or enjoyed through a cracked window. I don’t want rain coming inside, though!

The smell of damp leaves is another scent that I like best outside. You can bring branches or colorful leaves inside and display them, but I find the smell rather mouldy and unpleasant inside my house. If you want to display colorful leaves, dry them first!

Touch

How do you add autumn textures to your home? Bring the outdoors in with bumpy squashes, crisp dried leaves, feathery or prickly dried grasses, fragrant dried herbs or flowers, and bunches of fresh fall flowers.

You can create cozy spaces in your house with woolen or flannel blankets and pillows, warm knitted sweaters, braided rugs, and quilts. Use knitted or crocheted accents to soften a bare table, or over it with a homey cloth.

Not everything needs to be soft fabric, though. You can still achieve a cozy feeling by contrasting the soft textures with rustic wood or tarnished brass. Hard surfaces like these can add depth and structure to your spaces.

Taste

Autumn is harvest time, and the tastes of the season reflect the crops that are ripening: squashes, pumpkins, corn, potatoes, apples, grapes, and cranberries. Using these ingredients in your cooking helps keep your meals in tune with the changing seasons, even if you don’t have a garden yourself.

After a long summer of hot weather, chilly fall evenings make a simmering pot of soup very welcome. Use vegetables from your garden or the farmer’s market for a flavor as earthy as fallen leaves and as fresh as autumn’s deep blue skies. I love a simple vegetable soup that showcases fresh veggies and herbs, perhaps with dumplings or barley added to the broth.

Hearty, crusty breads pair well with soups. Savory additions, such as herbs or cheese, make a rustic loaf extra special. If you need a quick bread, try scones with grated cheese and herbs. Apple cinnamon scones are also nice, particularly for breakfast. Throw in some walnuts or pecans for crunch. You can use any basic scone recipe for these, but maybe I’ll post my recipe for this combination anyway, because it’s so delicious!

My favorite sweets to bake in the fall involve apples and pumpkins. Apple pie, apple crisp, apple dumplings, old-fashioned apple cake with warm sauce… these bring back many autumn memories. Pumpkin bread or muffins, pumpkin spice snickerdoodles, pumpkin bundt cake, and pumpkin french toast bake are some of my favorite pumpkin recipes.

Hearing

Leaves rustling, wild geese calling, rain pattering, squirrels chattering… these are the sounds of fall. You can hear them if you listen.

Take a walk in the woods and listen to the sighing breezes and small creatures scurrying to store food for the winter. Come inside for a cozy chat with a friend over a cup of tea. Listen to the happy prattle of children as you bustle about the kitchen. These are the sounds of fall. You can hear them if you listen.

What kind of music blends into the autumn mood? In the genre of folk music, Appalachian picking tunes always remind me of fall. So do sad Scottish ballads.

Fitting classical selections highlight woodwind instruments. To borrow a thought from one of my favorite books:

The breezy days of autumn find their musical reflection in the rich, breathy tones of the woodwinds. From panpipes to bassoons, this family of instruments reminds me of wind flowing through the withered grasses of summer, through Queen Anne’s lace, black-eyed Susans and goldenrod, through cornstalks and haystacks, and finally rising up through the bare branches of powerful trees.

The woodwinds bring a radiance to the background of strings and harpischord so very like the radiant sun of Indian summer.

Paul Kortepeter, “Let’s Have Tea Together”

Bringing it all together

I hope these ideas about creating cozy spaces in your home inspire you to get started making your house cozy for fall! I find it fun to incorporate all of my senses in making my nest cozy.

One last thought I want to mention: don’t forget to leave some room for living! Decorating is great, but if everything in your house is arranged just so, your family may start to feel like they aren’t supposed to touch any of it. The goal of making your house feel cozy is so that people will feel welcomed and loved.

For more autumn inspiration, read about hosting a cozy autumn tea party or 10 favorite things to do in the fall!

Happy homemaking!

~Kimberly