What’s in Season: September!

There is a comfort in the change of the seasons; there is a moment when you can feel it in your soul. It’s the next phase, the next chapter, the next weather pattern and it’s time for a new variety of seasonal produce.

September is the month this shift really becomes apparent – it is the beginning of Fall. A time for long sleeves, cool nights, crisp leaves, squash, pumpkins, and so many root vegetables. It is so often dubbed the “pumpkin spice” season and with good reason. Pumpkin spice everything starts to line shelves and fill up menus. Whether you love or hate this infamous flavor you cannot ignore the magic of Fall.

Fall is a colorful world, the last vibrant display of colors streaking across the outside world before we are surrounded by a world of white and cold. Now is the time to seed out Fall crops such as arugula, beets, fava beans, broccoli, carrots, collards, cress, fennel, frisee, kale, lettuce, mache, mustard greens, onion, pac choi, parsnips, peas, orach, radishes, spinach and cilantro. And, weather permitting, you will have a beautiful harvest of these cool weather loving plants. Many farmers are spending their days deciding what hot crops to pull and what cool crops will take their places in the field. What will the weeks look like for their CSA (community supported agriculture) shares or what will line their tables at Farmers Market? All too soon it will become a part of the farmers’ routine to watch for the first sign of frost.