Harvest Home (From Hereford Times)

Harvest Home

1:40pm Tuesday 9th October 2007

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The Autumn equinox, September 23rd, is when night and day are of equal length and the nights begin to draw in. It is the end of summer. For thousands of years it has been the time to celebrate the harvest. Since pre-Christian times people have given thanks for the fruits of nature, and the Christian feast of St Michael on September 29th signifies the harvest being safely gathered in.

All around us these celebrations are still going on, in many different guises, linking food, culture and place and helping us to appreciate where we are and what we have. As well as local school and church celebrations, there are cranberry festivals in the US, chestnut Festivals in France, and Oktoberfest in Germany. Ludlow and Abergavenny food festivals have been and gone and the Hereford Food Festival, a celebration of local food and drink, will be held on the last weekend in October at the racecourse.

Particularly relevant to Herefordshire is the apple harvest. Celebrations take place throughout the next month. The Big Apple, near Ledbury, on 13th and 14th ; Leominster Apple Day on 20th; and the Cider Making Festival at the Cider Museum on 20th and 21st October.

The originators of the national Apple Day (October 16th ), Common Ground, sum up the importance of the apple as: a symbol of the physical, cultural and genetic diversity we should not let slip away. By linking particular apples with their place of origin, they hope that orchards will be recognised and conserved for their contribution to local distinctiveness, including the rich diversity of wild life they support.

Harvest time is one marker in the year which gives us an idea of where we are in the greater scheme of things. It’s about nature, culture and celebration, raise a glass to that and give thanks.

Peter Norton