Well, hello, September. We've been expecting you.
Around here, September is the putting-up month (my grandma would've said "putting by," and honestly both are correct). The garden's final push meets the pantry's open arms, and everything that grew all summer starts finding its way into jars, bags, and the freezer. The canner is about to run more hours than the television. The squash are stacked and curing. The tomatoes from our lake-weekend surprise are already whispering about becoming sauce.
It's also the month the light changes — you know the one. That golden slant in the late afternoon that makes even the compost pile look like a painting. Bonfire smoke starts showing up in the evening air, the mornings ask for a sweater and then take it back by ten, and the geese overhead are clearly practicing their goodbyes.
Here's what September looks like at Granny's this year: pickles from that wagon of cucumbers. Tomato jars lined up like soldiers. Squash soups and chili as Elizabeth's harvest starts earning its keep. The sewing machine humming on rainy days — there are aprons to make and patterns to test. And the dogs supervising all of it from the sunniest patch of floor, contributing nothing, essential as ever.
September is my favorite kind of busy: the kind where every chore is really just gratitude with a to-do list. Everything we put up this month is a little gift to February-us, who will open a jar of summer in the middle of a snowstorm and feel very smug about it.
So welcome, September. The jars are washed, the pantry's ready, and the coffee's on.
What's going into YOUR jars this month? Tell me — you know feeding people is my love language, and that includes swapping notes.
— Granny
🎨 graphic design assist on this one — the header art is our own little nod to the old naturalists' diaries