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Project Discussions:  September Learning Together:A Homestead Harvest  |
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Red Tractor Girl
True Blue Farmgirl
3522 Posts
Winnie
Gainesville
Fl
USA
3522 Posts |
 Posted - Sep 01 2019 : 11:16:41 AM
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Since we have been discussing many aspects of Fall lately in context to September's arrival and our Apple Festival at MJF, I thought it might be interesting to broaden the topic by discussing traditions that only happen in the Fall. To get us started, I thought I would frame the comments under the umbrella " Homespun Harvest". Here at MJF, we often share and talk about matters of Home and Family. We come from many different states and also many different places of birth and childhood. Together they give us fodder to look at both regional traditions as well as traditions unique to our specific family growing up and while raising children ourselves.
Back in the 1990s, I started reading every book I could find on celebrating the seasons of the year. Some were seen through the lens of a particular religion and its traditions, and others were more generic in nature and based more on the calendar of the year and physical location.
What I gleaned from all the books was that each season was special, but Fall sometimes stood out the most. There is such a dramatic difference between the long hot days of Summer with lush green growth and flowers everywhere, versus the striking vibrant colors and rapidly changing cool down of days that are Fall. People everywhere find new energy and motivation when Fall arrives to be outside and enjoy the cooler and drier temperatures. A sense of energy awakens after summer heat, and suddenly,outdoor projects look like fun and also possible to enjoy.
With a sort of renewal, that we usually associate with Spring, Fall becomes a season of renewal of energy. With this energy, many activities can be enjoyed that have been unappealing all summer long. Traditions. Each season has them, but what are they? I predict, we are going to find out that no matter where you live, some traditions are universal and enjoyed year after year.
Here are a few regional traditions of my area of the state that we enjoy.
1. Going to the Beach. After Labor Day, kids are in school and the rates at hotels drop and big crowds are gone. It is easier and cheaper to find a little place to stay along the beach and enjoy long walks. The waters are still warm, if you care to swim, but the beaches are wide open and ready to enjoy without the hot sun and humidity and burning hot sand to walk on.
2. Local craft fairs come towards the end of September into October where festivities include blue grass music, traditional fair food trucks, and vendors with lots of beautiful art or crafts for sale. The fairs are sometimes part of a 4-H program so there will be animal exhibits and classes to show off the animals and students. Many communities up north will have their fairs in August, but it is too hot down here so fairs come after September when the days are slightly cooler. One of my favorite fairs is up in Clay county in early November where my daughter judges the goat show competitions. We love to go through all of the pavilions and see the projects and animals.
3.Corn mazes and pumpkin patches. While we can't grow regular pumpkins down here in Florida, we do grow a lot of corn. A few farmers in the rural areas will turn their feed corn patches into a corn maze, import pumpkins from Georgia, and offer a sort of local fun stop for kids and families. They also usually have things like pony rides, a few good food vendors and picnic tables so families can bring or purchase a picnic lunch as well. My children are grown now, but they loved fairs and corn maze activities when they were little. I love all the colors and smells of a fall festivals! One of my favorite fair foods is Kettle Corn too. Oh my, that stuff is so good and I only get it when I go to a fair or festival!!
4. As a grown up living here in Florida, the weather stays warm well into November. But, I have always initiated the season with cooking. My mind turns to Apple pie, chili with cornbread, Brunswick Stew, Sweet Potato biscuits with apple butter, Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin pie and so many other favorites. Once the calendar turns to September, I proceed as if it was 60 degrees outside and my windows were open!! LOL!!
5. Tradition in Virginia was that after Labor day, you don't wear white shoes or clothing until after Memorial Day the next May. Fall was time for plaids and warmer tones. Down here we can pretty much wear white all year long, but I still adhere to the traditions I grew up with. I still like to change what I wear to fall colors come September. One of my chores this weekend will be to put away my strictly summer clothes and replace them with my fall ones. Mind you, I don't have a ton of clothes, but I do have specific color changes that mix and match for the season.
So what are your favorite fall traditions that have stuck with you over the years? What comes to your mind when you hear Homespun Harvest? What activities have you already put on your calendar this year for Fall?
Last year Connie found this and shared it with us all!! I think it is hilarious and it is 100% TRUE!!
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Winnie Nielsen #3109
Red Tractor Girl
Farm Girl of the Year 2014-2015 |
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StitchinWitch
True Blue Farmgirl
1273 Posts
Judith
Galt
CA
USA
1273 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2019 : 12:09:21 PM
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| That poster could be said for California too -- projected forecast today is 100; tomorrow it will cool down to 97. Each season is special even though they don't follow the calendar-specified dates. People who move here from back east say we don't have seasons, actually we do have two seasons -- cool and wet and hot and dry. Spring and fall can be very subtle and sneak up on you. We can also have warm til Thanksgiving. Some years it seems like we get two weeks of spring and then it suddenly gets hot. This year spring lasted a nice long time. Most of the local quilt shows happen in the fall, Apple Hill is a big fall attraction and we plan on going this week; it's time for a little get-away; I've been house-bound too long. The craft fairs happen in November and December before Christmas. Fall is the harvest and getting the earth ready for it's winters rest. |
Judith
7932
Happiness is Homemade
FGOTM 6/21, 6/24 |
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YellowRose
True Blue Farmgirl
2459 Posts
Sara
Paris
TX
USA
2459 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2019 : 12:16:42 PM
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| Winnie, I'll have think on it a bit but in the meantime I'll put candy corn on my shopping list. |
FarmGirl Sister#6034 8/25/14
FGOTM Sept 2015 & Feb 2019
Lord put your arm around my shoulders and your hand over my mouth
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Killarney
True Blue Farmgirl
2114 Posts
Connie
Arlington
TN
USA
2114 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2019 : 12:19:28 PM
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Winnie, Fall Festivals,corn mazes and haunted hayrides are very popular here in my neck of the woods! Lol.Fall festivals also include the Greek and Italian festivals. The food and learing about the culture is so much fun! The first Day of Fall, Pumpkins start appearing everywhere. People get very creative with their Fall displays!
Connie
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Edited by - Killarney on Sep 01 2019 12:22:17 PM |
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TexasGran
True Blue Farmgirl
5777 Posts
Marilyn
Stephenville
Texas
USA
5777 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2019 : 1:03:37 PM
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My house is a mess, with the purging going on. After lunch today the talk turned to toys that my son loved as a child. His big yellow plastic horse whose head and legs move, belonged to Custer. The yellow horse lost his tail and one leg long, long ago. The kids have the other horses and two other action figures. After all of that excitement, they left...or so I thought. They were actually in the backroom, looking at a frame that I filled with childhood photos of my son, many years ago. Julie said, " look you were eating snow! " My son said, " yep, when we USED to have winter, we had snow! "
A flood of memories came back to me. Almost every autumn we had a cold spell around Halloween, sometimes with sleet and rain. Now it is not much fun for kids to get dressed up in your costume then have to put a coat on!
Opening day of deer season was almost always quite cold and often snowy! Then we would come back to a bit milder weather, everyone looked forward to a cool, sunny Christmas morning so kids could ride their new bikes OUT SIDE! February has always been our coldest month...often mwith more snow or a big ice storm.
Autumn is so delightful with the smells of wood burning in wood heaters. Also going out early in the quiet morning with the horses curiously watching me as I pick up pecans. If you think horses don't observe what you look like, let me tell you they do. When I first went to the barn last winter in my long black coat...they thought I was not me!
Connie I wish people here would plant and grow pumpkins. I have some planted, late, but I was and am hopeful that they will set fruit and it will have a few weeks to grow before frost. The day the seeds went in the ground gave them 90 days until October 30 th.
Julie once showed me what it is like in Wisconsin in October...pumpkins everywhere! |
Texasgran |
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quiltee
True Blue Farmgirl
4742 Posts
Linda
Terrell
TX
USA
4742 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2019 : 1:10:28 PM
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I love the fall festivals, and they give me an opportunity to see all the craft vendors. I have participated in many festivals, but now fund perusing them more fun.
I remember Trick or Treating with our costumes over, or under, a snowsuit because we were wandering around the neighborhood, door to door, with snow on the ground.
None of my family was ever interested in hunting of any kind; maybe if we'd grown up in Texas that would be different. |
Linda B
quiltee
Farmgirl #1919
FGOTM for August, 2015 and April, 2017
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TexasGran
True Blue Farmgirl
5777 Posts
Marilyn
Stephenville
Texas
USA
5777 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2019 : 1:47:08 PM
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My husband was a big hunter when we married. Sometimes he took me along, until I got a deer. Then he took our son. When we moved to the boonies, 20 miles from town, he and Wade enjoyed hunting on our 135acres until the year we had eight inches of snow. Wade shot a big buck, but the buck jumped the fence. So they got back to the house, into the vehicle and drove around there to ask if they could look for the big buck. Some doctors from Dallas had the place leased. After finding the blood trail and the place where the buck had fallen dead in the snow...the only thing they saw was people tracks. They went back and asked the doctors about it. They claimed they did not have the buck, that the blood around their camp was from the deer they had killed, although we had not heard any shots fired from back there!
So that was a huge disappointment, both in the deer but also in human beings...especially doctors!
Wade did go to Wyoming with some neighbors and killed an antelope when he was 19.
Since then they enjoy watching the deer as they walk about eating, or run about. It was fun to observe the doe who had twins on the neighbors tank dam. One of the fawns easily followed mom when she would jump the two fences to go eat what Wade's cows left...but sadly the other fawn never could jump over the fence. It would walk up and down the lane calling its mom, then lie down to wait for her. |
Texasgran |
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levisgrammy
Scattered Prairie Hen Honcho
9531 Posts
Denise
Ohio
USA
9531 Posts |
Posted - Sep 02 2019 : 03:16:10 AM
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Winnie,
A wonderful topic. Your fall time doesn't sound much different from here. Our weather can stay warm during the day right through most of October. I don't change from summer to winter clothes until November. Usually October is when my complete wardrobe is out because the morning can be sweatshirts and by afternoon, shorts.
It is the same here at the boardwalk and beaches as well.
The sound of the crickets day and night signal the start of fall for me.
I start doing much of my canning as many of our gardens are still going strong.
Of course fall cleaning is in full swing now when my decor changes.
Fall festival starts here with craft shows and corn mazes.
Here is gets cold at Halloween but not so cold we need coats. As a child growing up in NY it was common to wear coats over costumes as we usually were getting snow flurries in October. That is not the case here.
I enjoy all the farmers markets still in full swing this month. So many goodies to find even if we don't have a garden.
We also start stocking up the wood pile to prepare.
Also, I haven't done it the last couple years but every fall I used to start reading the Little house series. 
Thanks for choosing this wonderful topic.
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Denise~~
Sister #43
"I am a bookaholic with no desire to be cured."
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path"
Psalm 119:105
www.ladybugsandlilacs.blogspot.com
www.torisgram.etsy.com |
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Red Tractor Girl
True Blue Farmgirl
3522 Posts
Winnie
Gainesville
Fl
USA
3522 Posts |
Posted - Sep 04 2019 : 07:36:55 AM
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I am enjoying reading about everyone's ideas and memories of fall traditions. Fall is such a game changer of the year for many reasons. as shared here. One of the reasons I became curious about seasonal traditions was why they existed in the first place. While I knew what I enjoyed and wanted to do, it never occurred to me that the seasonal shift was a marker for most everyone else. Once I began to read books on the subject and talked and listened to others, I was drawn into the excitement and passion even more. I am a person who reacts to change and looks forward to it. Seasons, by their climate changes, makes the daily experience different from the previous months. There is new energy in those changes because they generate different activities that only happen in a set of months. Each year, we can anticipate those activities that help relive old memories and make new ones. For me, that anticipation gives me energy and excitement. Many of us love to see the first apples and pumpkins arrive at markets and roadsides. We like the cozy ways cooler evenings change the routines of the day. Cooler weather allows for different baking and cooking and porch sitting. We put away our summer activities and turn towards those only happening in fall, like leaf looking and apple picking. Seasonal change can be so good for us and it can renew us. We can look forward to simple things that bring us joy. Here at MJF, we often talk about the simpler things in life worth keeping, and for me, Fall offers the chance to bring back some of those simpler things. Like Apple Pie and chicken pot pie. Like pumpkin carving and apple bobbing. Like hot spiced cider and thick vegetable soup on the porch for dinner. Like mums and Indian corn on the front porch. There are so many simple traditions of fall that we can do if we choose.
Let's continue this thread with you sharing specific simple things you like to do in Fall 2019. I have a feeling that some things don't change!! |
Winnie Nielsen #3109
Red Tractor Girl
Farm Girl of the Year 2014-2015 |
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StitchinWitch
True Blue Farmgirl
1273 Posts
Judith
Galt
CA
USA
1273 Posts |
Posted - Sep 07 2019 : 10:59:15 PM
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| I am looking forward to cooler weather and being able to spend time in our trailer up in the hills., Big pots of soup, baking in the oven without heating up the house, Thanksgiving dinner with pumpkin and mince pies. I can't pick up pecans anymore and can't eat them but I do like watching the squirrels that clean them up for us. I love the brilliant red of the sycamore leaves and the smell of wood fires on cold nights. I'm looking forward to wearing different clothes as I'm starting to get tired of wearing my summer ones. |
Judith
7932
Happiness is Homemade
FGOTM 6/21, 6/24 |
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levisgrammy
Scattered Prairie Hen Honcho
9531 Posts
Denise
Ohio
USA
9531 Posts |
Posted - Sep 08 2019 : 03:53:17 AM
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| I do candles in the fall to cozy things up. I also spend more time doing puzzles especially on our rainy fall days. I like to go out and pick up acorns for using in my fall decor as well as getting some leaves to press and add to the displays I already have. |
Denise~~
Sister #43
"I am a bookaholic with no desire to be cured."
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path"
Psalm 119:105
www.ladybugsandlilacs.blogspot.com
www.torisgram.etsy.com |
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Red Tractor Girl
True Blue Farmgirl
3522 Posts
Winnie
Gainesville
Fl
USA
3522 Posts |
Posted - Sep 08 2019 : 11:10:33 AM
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Judith and Denise, I resonate with your ideas too! Everything you mentioned sounds fun and I would enjoy doing all of those activities as well.
The thing I am learning as I get older is that each season has it's own personality that drives how we perceive the changes we experience. Fall draws us inward and foods and fires are some important aspects of things we love to do. Who can argue that sitting around a cozy fire on a chilly rainy day, enjoying a slice of homemade pumpkin pie, is pleasing? Not me!! |
Winnie Nielsen #3109
Red Tractor Girl
Farm Girl of the Year 2014-2015 |
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levisgrammy
Scattered Prairie Hen Honcho
9531 Posts
Denise
Ohio
USA
9531 Posts |
Posted - Sep 08 2019 : 11:21:41 AM
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Sounds perfect to me Winnie! Throw in a hot cup of tea and a book and I am a happy camper! Reading is something I tend to do more in the fall and winter.
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Denise~~
Sister #43
"I am a bookaholic with no desire to be cured."
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path"
Psalm 119:105
www.ladybugsandlilacs.blogspot.com
www.torisgram.etsy.com |
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Project Discussions: September Learning Together:A Homestead Harvest |
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September Learning Together:A Homestead Harvest
