Here’s to Fall
Summer fades, days shorten, summer’s work becomes a memory of “getting it all done.”
Fall’s coming on. For those who live by the land, a fitting verb for this time of year is “laid back,” a basking in seasonal completeness.
The crops are “laid back.” No longer requiring backbreaking planting, hoeing, weeding, reaping, followed by kitchen conversions. Bushels of corn have gone to the grist mill. Hundreds of shucked ears are in the crib, the shelled ears fill a churn, pickling. Potatoes and cabbages by the peck have been stored. Tomatoes and other vegetables are canned for soups. The greasy cut shorts and half-runner beans are canned and shelved in half gallon jars. Some pickle alongside the crocks of corn and kraut. Some are strung up and hung to dry as “leatherbritches,” companion to cornbread.
The apples are picked and stored in a dark basement or cored, sliced, and dried on sheets or screen wire doors, prepped for fried pies. The jelly and jam’s been jarred: apple, blackberry, strawberry. Pots of cooked blackberries have been ladled into Mason jars.
The corn stalks have been scythed and stacked throughout the field. The cut hay’s dry and baled in neat rectangles, barn-lofted for winter, new straw’s down for the cow and calf.
Here’s to Fall when, work done, comes a lull, a breathing space between the two extremes: hot summer and snowed-in winter
—Celia Miles
I hope you enjoyed Celia’s thoughts on fall as much as I do! You can find her great books here.
Last night’s video: Living with Cystitis & Sheet Pan Soup.
Tipper
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