While we don't know the identity of the artist, the cover painting on Cornelius Weygandt's 1941 book, November Rowen, captures many key elements of this time of the year quite well. It depicts a traveler emerging from a horse-drawn sleigh greeting friends and/or family in a landscape covered with snow. One of the book's themes is the importance of maintaining family and community connections.
The long hard work of harvesting crops is over and there is more free time for visiting.
"The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh
through the white and drifted snow"
The theme of traveling to visit is central to the song "Over the river and through the wood" published in 1844 and written by Lydia Maria Child.
The book's subtitle, "A Late Harvest from the Hills of New Hampshire" locates the geographical focus of the book and is a metaphor for the reflections of an older man during a period Weygandt refers to as one in which he "feels the menace of evening and winter coming on together," referring to the passing of friends and family and the eventuality of one's own passing.
The smoke we see rising from the chimney suggests a warm seasonal homecoming meal to welcome visitors.
Next week is Thanksgiving, which is November's main attraction for many people. Thanksgiving is essentially a continuation of the age old traditional harvest festival. Flanked by Halloween and Christmas, celebrating Thanksgiving is comparatively simple and thrifty. There are less expensive decorations and no required gifts. It is basically a "traditional" meal of turkey and all the "fixins."
Apple cider plays a role in the Thanksgiving day feast for many people. Today is National Apple Cider Day. According to historian Thomas Hubka's time chart (here) one of the main activities for New England farmers in November was pressing cider.
Cider can be used fresh (which spoils soon) or it can be fermented into what we call "hard cider."
Apples can also be preserved well in a number of other forms. Hard cider from the previous year played a role in the traditional apple-bee of the season. See our previous blog here about that event and more on preserving apples.
While today, we can get fresh fruit and vegetables any time of the year, historically November was the beginning of a long period of physical and psychological struggle to survive.
Many late fall harvest crops harvest were designed to prepare for the coming seasons of hardship.
November has two other days to honor past ways of preserving food. November 14 was National Pickle Day and November 17 was National Butter Day.
For many years our family has presented living history programs to commemorate the traditional New England Thanksgiving and to teach about historical methods of preserving food.
However, our first historical programs on the topic... were in Florida... with foods like swamp cabbage, gator tail, fried chicken, collard greens, grits and corn bread.
Many people do not know that the first Thanksgiving was not held in New England with the Pilgrims, but rather was held 56 years before in Florida. See our previous blog here for more on that.
While this a season for community celebration, farm work does continue as depicted on the cover of Weygandt's book by the the young boy working oxen pulling a sled of logs in the foreground of the painting.
Beyond the split rail fence hay is stacked tall with a central pole and thatched "roof" to shed the rain. The hay will be brought to the livestock in the barn over the winter.
The trees behind the house have lost most of their leaves leaving "skeletal" trees that many refer to as stick season.
Notice however that not all the leaves are gone. If you look closely, you can see a "shotgun" like spray of leaves on those trees along the back fence line. These are probably oak trees which do not shed all their leaves.
This is a phenomenon known as "marcescence"
To the right of the haystack is a splotch of brown which I believe represents a small beech tree. Beech trees retain most of their leaves throughout the winter.
Beyond the fence and across the field at the base of the mountains is a row of evergreens, most likely White Pine.
Beyond the evergreens you can see grey misty mountains and a cloudy sky so common this time of the year.
Weygandt's book is a love letter to "the hills of New Hampshire" and capture's both the pleasures and pain of this time of the year and of one's lifetime. I encourage you to take a look!
