Fall is on its way, for sure

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The mornings, at least in most parts of Britain, are starting to feel quite autumnal now, with a chill in the air and heavy dew on the grass.

Talking of the grass; it has started to slow down growing quite noticeably, thank G-d, as the days get shorter. This is reflected in the growth rate of all plants as they get ready for the winter. A horrid thought to in the middle of August think of winter but the start of Winter is, theoretically, only three months away now.

Harvesting and preserving are the big jobs for the next few months, whether it's wine and jam from fruit, making pickles or canning vegetables or finding and creating dark cool storage for vegetables and root vegetables especially. A root cellar is a good idea here or the old-fashioned clamp out in the garden. Let's face it, you've not got long to get everything stored before its time to batten down the hatches for Winter.

Canning jars of various types can now be found even in supermarkets such as Sainsbury's proving that home growing and home canning are about to have a real revival in Britain. Not until recently would you have had to go to specialist stores – even many hardware stores no longer stocked them – or get canning jars by mail order from Lakeland and such like. Now, all of a sudden, they are found in places such as Sainsbury's and that includes Kilner jars. All I am waiting to see now is them selling a decent inexpensive pressure or water bath canner for use with the likes of Kilner jars.

Let's face it, whatever the government is telling us as to the country not needing to aim for more or less self-sufficiency in food (we have enough money to import stuff say ministers) we must grow more of our own fruit and vegetables once again, as individuals, families and communities, as well as a country.

And then we must learn again – for many have no idea about those things – how to cook from scratch, and how to home preserve, from canning, pickling and drying to just root cellaring, and everything in between. We will need these skills in the not so distant future in earnest once again.

© 2011