Harvest

August starts with the festival of Lughnasdah or Lammas, the first of the three harvest festivals giving thanks for the bounty of the land. The corn has ripened and been brought in and the apples, plums and pears are growing fat. The first apples used to be picked to make drink called Lammas Wool, a spicy drink similar to wassail ale.

A nice way to celebrate this festival is to climb a high hill and watch the sunset. Take some friends, food and Lammas Wool perhaps and enjoy natures spectacle as the earth tilts away from the westering sun and plunges us into dusk and shadow.

Lammas Wool Recipe

You will need

  • 6 tart apples

  • 1 L ale or cider

  • 105 g brown sugar, more or less to taste

  • 2 teaspoons grated nutmeg

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons dried ginger

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Core the apples and set them on a lined baking sheet, then bake them for 45 minutes.

  3. Remove the skins from the roasted apples (this should be easy to do). Mash the apple as fine as you can.

  4. Mix in the brown sugar, nutmeg, and ginger.

  5. Heat the ale over low heat just until it is steaming, you don’t want it to boil.

  6. Stir the apple mixture into the steaming ale and continue to cook over low heat for 5 minutes, making sure that it doesn’t boil.

Sunset over a rural landscape with fields, trees, and farm buildings, and a few scattered clouds in the sky.

The meadow margins are now filled with field scabious, lady’s bedstraw and the tall pink spires of rosebay willowherb. The hedges are beginning to resemble a larder with plump blackberries, sloes and hawthorn berries. A time to preserve some of these delights in jams and jellies, to still taste summer on deep winter toast.

A woman with long red hair standing in a field, facing away, with a tree and a clear blue sky in the distance.
Close-up of a golden wheat field under a cloudy sky with trees on the horizon.
Black and white illustration of wheat stalks.
Illustration of a wheat stalk with golden grains and green leaves.

Still a slow time, a holiday time. Plan day trips to somewhere you’ve wanted to go, a gallery or museum or even better living museums like Butser, Cinderberry, Castell Henllys Ancient farms, to see how we used to live off the land.

Make the most of the outside time this month, even though the nights are visibly creeping in. Just in case September doesn’t bring us an Indian summer.

Maybe review your daily routines, hopefully your digital time is less scrolling and more on your terms now. Or try bloom scrolling, by only following accounts that lift you up and inspire you. Remember the like attracts like magical rule. Go to bed early, get some good healthy sleep. Eat the fresh produce available, local if possible or even ones you have grown yourself.

Augusts moon is grain moon or dispute moon.

Stylized illustration of yellow wheat stalks on a white background.
Close-up of blackberry bushes with ripe blackberries, set against a rural landscape with a cloudy sky.
A rural landscape with a golden field in the foreground, a few trees, a small barn, green fields, trees in the background, and a blue sky with scattered clouds framed by tree branches.
Close-up of a wheat stalk in a field with a partly cloudy sky in the background.
A large hay bale in an open field with trees and a small building in the background on a foggy day.