The Reindeer Keeper

    The little tree dressed up in its finest yellow leaves stands out back near the garden as proud as a young girl dressed up in her most beautiful gown when going to the prom. This is the first year I have seen that precious tree in such glory, as if the little Elves of Autumn came tiptoeing about under the Harvest moon and with their Elf paints and crayons, turned the little tree's leaves into shades of magical yellows, whimsical under the sun, and the moon, that breathtaking Harvest moon. When leaves on trees do change colors, it seems like it happens overnight. One day they are green. The next day they are glorious shades of crimsons, oranges, yellows. Their colors and aroma tell you Autumn is approaching. Hurry. Get ready. So much to do. Move lawn furniture inside. Close the pool. Get the rakes. Start raking. Clean the windows. Clear the gardens. Pour the cider. Get the sweaters out. Bake some zucchini cookies. Zucchini bread. Pumpkin bread and pies. Pumpkin cookies. Mol...

With zucchini so plentiful in the garden last week, my son Brian and I spent a few days making small loaves of zucchini bread. Some loaves will be for Christmas gifts and some will be for giving away—and some are for our own enjoyment. The process began when I brought out my mother’s old Universal food grinder. The old grinder holds so many memories of preparing for so many Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. I can still hear cranberries poppi ng as they were squeezed through the grinder. Some never made it through. Instead they’d go flying through the air when the grinding speeded up and the juice from the cranberries fell into a yellow bowl sitting on the floor underneath the grinder. My mother once told me she bought the grinder at Barr’s Hardware located in a downtown of long ago. The grinder is still as good as new. There are no buttons to push or speeds to select or cords to plug in. You just put the parts together and off you go. Brian did all the grinding of the zucch...