September is the Apple, Barley and Harvest month in the northern hemisphere ...

The Harvesters (1565) oil on panel,

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Pieter Breugel the Elder (1525-1569)

Harvest time when the field crops are being gathered in, the hedgerows offering up their fill to the foragers, who will happily spend hours walking the by-ways filling their baskets with fresh delights ...  blackberries, apples, sloes, elderberries, wild plums and  more ..

... the end of summer – corn, tomatoes, squash, aubergines, carrots, cucumbers, onions, red, yellow and green peppers ... the time for pots of soup after a hard day on the land, or over a hot stove making stews, jams and jellies ...

Baked Bramley Apple, just
serve with custard or cream 

Bramley Apples, the English stalwart of a cooking apple, after peeling, are made into fruit compotes, crumbles, charlottes, dried slices, chutneys, cider making or just baked whole – cored and filled with dried fruit and a dollop of butter ... then served with cream or custard ... depending on your pocket.

In days of yore – an apple scoop was made from the shank bone of a sheep ... cut slanting and filed smooth, this makes the best apple scoop: it doesn’t rust, bend or discolour the fruit!  (I'm not very clever, so couldn't get this to swing round or get it clearer .. but you can get the gist!)

Or how about some mutton broth in which a good few windfall apples are stewed, then pressed through a strainer, season with a pinch of ginger (not pepper), salt and reheated with a handful of pearl barley, cooking until the barley is soft ... this is an excellent 1800s winter’s night soup.

Cooked Bramley apple sauce to go with roast pork, or a boned blade or shoulder of pork filled with apple and nut stuffing – apple slices can be glazed and used as an addition to meat or fish courses.

A Cornucopia
(Horn of Plenty) Corn Dolly

September is a month of both endings and new beginnings as summer fades to autumn ... we plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land ... the corn dollies, made to decorate the churches at Harvest Festival, before being buried in the Spring to ensure fertility for next year’s crop, can be made from straw wheat, rye, barley or oats ... but of the four wheat is the best.

Barley was one of the earliest domesticated grains with barley beer probably being drunk in Neolithic times.  Barley was also employed as a currency ... while in Egypt was a staple cereal where it was used to make both bread and beer.  Pliny also noted that barley was a special food of gladiators, however by Roman times wheat had replaced barley as the staple.

Pearl Barley is a great addition to those September soups, where the crock pot is filled to the brim with meats and seasonal vegetables to taste ... just add some yeasty, freshly baked harvest loaves with some butter and a pint of beer – what could be better for a weekend lunch, or an evening meal after a busy day.

This is the time for pickles and chutneys to add to a selection of harvest spreads – bread and cheese lunches or suppers, Beef and Beer casseroles, Baked Hams with various chutneys or pickles, Rarebit with Chutney Beer mustard, cheese and onion tart with caramelised red onion relish, or a cheese scone with country garden pickle ...

Everyone is busy harvesting the groaning trees, reaping the fields, picking the ripening fruits and vegetables .... turning all into food for the freezer or bottle, in the form of stewed fruit, jams, jellies, pickles and chutneys ...

 

Jan van Kessel II (1654 – 1708) in this card depicts the last days of summer - the insects flit around for the final tastings of summer, as the white and redcurrants ripen and the sprig of forget-me-knot reminds us of one of the birth flowers for September.

Thomas Hood (1799 – 1845), a British humorist and poet, wrote that the wildlife too will benefit through the coming months from the dropped seeds and berries, and those few fruits or nuts left on the bushes ...

“The squirrel gloats on his accomplished hoard,

The ants have buried their gaines with ripe grain,

      And honey bees have stores

The sweets of summer in their luscious cells,

The swallows have winged across the main!”

Canadian World War 1

poster encouraging

people to preserve

food for the winter

September that seventh month, which the Anglo-Saxons called the Gerstmonath, barley month ... and during which at our Harvest Festivals we sing in celebration:-

“We Plough the Fields and Scatter” hymn is one of the most popular in Britain and is that most commonly associated with Harvest-tide ... written by the German poet Matthias Claudius in 1782 .... then translated into English by Jane M Campbell in 1861 appearing in “A Garland of Songs”.

We thank Thee, then, O Father, for all things bright and good,
The seed time and the harvest, our life, our health, and food;
Accept the gifts we offer, for all Thy love imparts,
But what Thou most desirest, our humble, thankful hearts.

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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