It is one of my favourite times of the year.
I love the warmth of the late summer sun and the cool evenings. It seems to be a season of relief in the good years when the farmers can take to the field and start their longest days. It is a season of urgency and stress, of hopes and hard, hard work.
I have several young friends who have married into farm life and face harvest time with shopping lists, menus and a pile of healthy meal starters in the freezer. My mother didn't marry a farmer, but I remember helping take meals out to the field watching my father beam as he helped drive the heavy equipment working alongside his brothers-in-law.
My maternal grandmother had a huge garden on the farm and when they moved to town she still grew mountains of vegetables and fruit. She was a wonder, working hard to keep the weeds away, harvesting everything at just the right time and canning and freezing, careful not to waste any of the bounty.
My friends remind me of her as they carefully tend their gardens and share their abundance.
I moved this summer and, although I wished for a garden, the best I could do was keep alive a few tomato and pepper plants in large pots. I was delighted when we got the keys to our new house where we found a garden patch free of weeds filled with sturdy potato plants. It was a gift I hadn't expected, the best kind, a surprise.
In the last few weeks I've enjoyed the generosity of former and new neighbours accepting cucumbers, apples, corn, beets, carrots and squash. To celebrate I risked the stained hands and made a big pot of borsch.
At harvest time I appreciate the people who share with me in the present and remember my roots, carefully trying to reproduce the taste of my grandmother's soups. She gave up cooking and moved to a luxury seniors' residence a couple of years ago. She was ready to take a rest from the work and was always her own harshest food critic, but I know she misses the taste of her own cooking.
At this time of year everything tastes better wherever I go.
At a recent event at the Maidstone Museum we enjoyed a simple meal of hotdogs and corn on the cob. Many of the people there commented about how good everything tasted outdoors. I'm sure part of it was the fresh air and sunshine, but good company and the sharing of memories always makes everything better for me.
