At the ranch, everything is beginning to turn a little bit golden. The greens in the trees are darker, the leaves are drier, and you can hear them flickering in the wind. The air is sweet, and I can smell the blackberries overripe on the bushes as I walk between my house and the garden.
Everywhere I look there is abundance. Flowers fill the gardens, vegetables are coming faster than we can pick them, fruit is heavy on the trees, and beautiful amaranth and sunflowers beckon us to look up. You can feel that fall is on its way, yet there is still so much summer around us.
The rhythm of the ranch changes in September. We exhale after the rush of cookouts, garden parties, and trips down to the lake. We start our mornings a little later, and even the dogs seem happy to sleep in. And yet there is so much to do to make sure that we put everything we have been gifted by the land to good use.
We harvest, jar, can, preserve, and freeze, put the last plants into the ground while there is still enough sun, and chop and stack wood for the cooler months ahead.
There is something reassuring about this time of year. There is enough food, enough warmth, enough beauty, enough to share and enough to save. It reminds me that abundance is not about having more. Sometimes it is recognizing that you have enough, taking care of what you have been given, and sharing it with others.
Maybe that is why this season makes me want to gather people together. Our guests eat what has just been harvested from the gardens and linger a little longer around the table, enjoying the last warm summer evenings.
