Summer still holds the title for Official Party Season with cook-outs, pool parties, beach days and camping around fire pits. Q4 is filled with holiday parties non-stop from Halloween through New Years, however let me present my case for Autumn taking over the top spot.
1) Its harvest season. The time of year when crops are traditionally being harvested, brought in and stored. Either through canning, cooking or some other type of processing the fruits and vegetables that have grown throughout the summer are ripe and ready for the picking – so why not party down?
2) The days are growing shorter. You can feel the creep of winter tapping you on the shoulder as it takes a little bit longer for it to get light each morning and your day fades away quicker each evening. What better time to celebrate while there is still any light left.
3) It’s fall. This reason should be #1 and since I wrote this I don’t know why I don’t move it, but it’s too late now. The smell of the air, the crunch of leaves underfoot, the foliage across the forests. Apple cider, cider donuts, pumpkin pie and if you are in to it – pumpkin spice, but I am not honoring that with it’s own category because I don’t like it.
4) Summer family vacations, summer leagues, etc are over. It is getting harder and harder to get a good-sized group of families together because of ever growing busy schedules. Travel sports leagues, family vacations – the summer is being taken away from a multitude of external forces pulling and stretching the calendars of otherwise decent families.
5) Crock-pots. Forgive me if I use the brand name of Crock Pot as the universal word for slow cookers, it’s like Kleenex for me at this point. A Crock pot has no place in the kitchen in the summer – I don’t know, it just doesn’t. Once even a tinge of fall is felt it is time for the crock to get its rightful place on the counter-top once again. Chili, stews, mac and cheese, meatballs, chicken and rice, whatever. The original set it and forget it. The original feel good, go to make your whole house smell amazing for when you get home. The crock pot rules over all other appliances.
6) Farmers Markets. Of course farmers markets start popping up as early as June - but the fall is when things get really good. Tomatoes, onions, garlic, chard, arugula, potatoes, beets, leeks, peppers, gourds, pumpkins butternut and winter squash. OK I got a little excited, but you get the picture. What better way to kick off fall and the harvest season than with fresh picked vegetables from a farmer down the street?
So invite some people over, make up a charcuterie board and fill it with meats, cheeses, nuts, jams and celebrate the harvest that that summer provided us. Fill your home with friends and family, sit back and relax for all that was accomplished and what is to come.