The Fall Eating Season I: ...and since Columbus discovered India in the Dominican Republic, we use precious cinnamon to make elephant ears.

Columbus Day. My sister's birthday is October tenth; so, growing up, every year for her birthday she got the gift of a three-day weekend from the school district. In fourteen-hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, wished for a westward passage to India, blew out the candles, and had a piece of atomic cake with the Arawak shamans, so my sister got a three-day birthday. I'm not bitter.



Fenugreek is bitter. Fenugreek is not an important seasoning to "Western" cooking: you can't just pop into the Kroger and get a bottle of McCormick fenugreek. Half an eon ago, Columbus sailed the wrong way around the world to "India" in search of fenugreek and cinnamon and coriander and especially black pepper -- to make rotten European pork taste less, um, European. Today, black pepper sits on every "Western" table (it's the stuff that makes us say,"Oh shit," when we see the grey flakes and realize we didn't grab the salt shaker as intended). Coriander has been relegated to pickles and Mexican food. Cinnamon. Cinnamon is the spice of Columbus Day, the spice of every day when the darkness is longer than the light. The Fall Eating Season commences for me each year when I first smell the cinnamon goodness of fresh elephant ears at the Covered Bridge Festival, which begins Columbus Day weekend.

For the Covered Bridge Festival when I was a kid, The Rockville locals would set up two parallel cinder block walls knee high and a foot apart along one entire block of the courthouse square. The space between the low walls was filed with blazing firewood -- a block long barbecue grill. In recent years, the crowds have shifted to other parts of Parke county, so the grilling setup is a lot smaller. Still, not much has changed on courthouse square in the 30 or so years since my first Covered Bridge Festival. Nowadays, instead of our family searching as far as Terre Haute or Indianapolis for lodging, we make it a day-trip.

• SAVORY HIGHLIGHT: Pork chop sandwich with complimentary hot tea or (perfect) coffee.



• SWEET HIGHLIGHT: Warm persimmon pudding with gingersnap "sideboards" and whipped cream.

For the displaced hillbillies or fans of Andrew Zimmern, there's always a big bowl of fried chicken gizzards. Mmmm...the more you chew them, the bigger they get!

Next time: More hi-jinks, and a pre-post-election rant that I should really post pre-election.