Autumn is here: Let us celebrate the harvest season!

Wednesday, September 22 we celebrate the autumn equinox, and Thursday the 23rd is the full harvest moon.

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Wednesday , September 22 we celebrate the fall equinox and Thursday the 23rd is the full harvest home lunar month . The capitulation equinox is when day and night are adequate in length — both 12 hours . Back in June on the summer solstice , we had the shortest dark and long daylight ( over 15 hour of light ) and now we are direct into shortening days and longer nights . This is the seasonal rhythm that we go through every year ; the end of summertime allows us to say farewell to blistering weather and welcome fresh air and cooler temporary . It also signal the slow down of garden produce — it is a time to be thankful for a bountiful harvest — and make ready for the inhuman conditions to come .

Across the nation , folks are bringing in the last of the garden harvest — and preserving it by canning , drying and freezing . We are support our farmers ’ grocery store , plump to farm to piece - your - own and attend fall fete , and check by wayside stands to pickup colourful mums , apple cyder , apples , pumpkins and other seasonal delectation . If you notice , even the squirrels and chipmunks are frisky and jump about busily amass nuts to store .

One of my favorite brief essay on fall is one I read every year at this meter — it is from365 TAO Daily Meditationsby Deng Ming - Dao , Harper 1992 , Day 258 ‘ Cleansing ’ :

“ Autumn is coming . The air becomes fresh and crisp . The fruit of summer are being harvest ; the passion of labor is beginning to cool . There is a more relaxed feeling in the aura : The fiery activeness of summertime is replace by the celebrations of fall .

In spring , we all had to clamber to make the ascendancy of the twelvemonth . In summer , we reveled in the glorification of fire and energy . Now , we can begin to let thing relax . Just as the pumpkins are begin to fill out , the squash vine is hang heavy and golden on the vines , and the leave are start to hint of tender colour , so too can we look onward to richness and quietude .

This is the time for harvest . But every planting and arise season also leaves behind excess and inevitable waste . The debris of summer still footle . The stubble in the fields will have to be burned . We must reap in full and then clean up in full . harvest time is also the time of cleanup and need line of descent . ”

Is n’t that just perfectly written ? lease ’s just breathe cryptical . I still feel the warm sun in the day , however when it sets , it is feeling chilly at dark . Last evening I was admiring the color combination of nature — the golden pole alongside the purplish asters — the penny-pinching - black pokeberries hanging from red - purple halt with bright green foliage , and those frail scandalmongering orchidaceous plant - like efflorescence dot with orange dangling from the Impatiens capensis . I am soaking it all in , enjoying these autumnal second as I go about remark the ever - convert landscape painting around me , harvesting , doing garden chore .

We ’ve taken down the tint cloth from the glasshouse that helped keep out the summer heat , to let more Inner Light in . Soon , I will be moving tippy recurrent and herbaceous plant plants that have been outside all summer , back into the greenhouse before ole ’ Jack Frost comes to inspect . The intensity of summertime garden responsibilities are lessening , yet there is still much to do . As we reap herbs , we require to keep in mind crop techniques and as we accumulate the last of our tomatoes , chiles , etc . , we necessitate to mean about cleaning up as we go — remove dead plant — stacking Lycopersicon esculentum coop and draw in up stakes . cold-blooded - weather greens , brassicas and some of the new - sown salad greens will demand to be cover with floating row cover to protect them and keep them go as long as we can . “Gather the last beam flowers , wrick inward . Celebrate the maturate darkand the harvestwe’ve been blessed with . ”—Kiva Rose , www.bearmedicineherbals.com

This weekend , I will be going into Washington , D.C. to attend the Plant Literacy Festival at the United States Botanic Gardens in conjunction with the Library of Congress ’ Annual Book Festival . There will be all sorts of events going on as well as educational , horticultural displays and hands - on projects fete the Thrive ! From the Ground Up Display Gardens . I will be establish how to makeZa’atar : An Exotic Spice Blendwith herbs from the Za’atar garden there ; attendees will get to create their own blend to take habitation and sample flatbreads with za’atar . The gardens and hothouse are beautiful this fourth dimension of twelvemonth — see them before the outside exhibit garden is dismantled in October ! Stay tuned for an upcoming Za’atar recipe , which you may make yourself from your own garden herbs ! Meanwhile Happy Fall Equinox and Full Harvest Moon !

More for your capitulation reading pleasure : Check out John KeatsOde to Autumnathttps://bartleby.com/106/255.html

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