The crown of the garden year

"All the world seemed bathed in golden light.  Yellow sunflowers and golden rod in the cottage gardens added to this mellow warmth

There were plums everywhere.  Baskets of plums were carried to neighbours.  Bowls stood on kitchen dressers.  It was a lovely time when Fairacre enjoyed the fruits of its labour... runner beans... great bronze onions hung in ropes, bunches of drying herbs... marrows swayed in their nets, potatoes in sacks, apples were carefully wrapped in quarter sheets of the Caxley Chronicle and put to bed in rows of slatted boxes.

This for country dwellers, was the crown of the year.  We rejoiced in this plenty, and faced the coming winter with serenity, secure in the knowledge of our squirrels' hoards."

~ The White Robin by Miss Read


This past weekend my mother was telling us of their small cellar where their family stored food for winter and the many loaves of bread baked each week - a time when seasonal changes were carefully noted in order to know when to plant, pull, repair, feed in the garden that sustained them.