Autumn is used in artistic works to explore transition. Adamantia Velonis, Founder, Marmalade + Kindness explains which literary and artistic works have inspired our autumn recipes.
Walking around the park the other day, I noticed a change in the air. Like freshly watered grass, the air is damp and nourishing, with a gentle finish of sweet smoke. A little girl is gathering fallen chestnuts and stashing them in her pockets. The leaves are starting to show a red tinge in the half-light – dark silhouettes clustered against a mottled pastel sky.
Returning home, the fuzzy peaches on my countertop are a reminder of the fading days of summer.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, captured it perfectly in his 1565 painting, The Harvesters. He depicts the sun-drenched fields of Belgium during a late-summer harvest, golden-yellow and radiant against the clear blue sky.
The energy in the scene is palpable as some of the labourers work in the fields, while others take a break under a large pear tree. Cutting into loaves of bread, and tucking into cheese, pears and bowls of milk and cereals, you can almost hear the murmur of their lunchtime chatter.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Harvesters, 1595, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The autumnal pear tree is also used symbolically in New Zealand short story writer, Katherine Mansfield’s piece Bliss. Bertha Young, the protagonist, looks out the window of her drawing-room into the garden and sees ‘at the far end, against the wall…a tall slender pear tear in fullest, richest bloom.’
For her, ‘the lovely pear tree with its wide-open blossoms [is] a symbol of her own life.’
As a young mother, she is in her prime, enjoying the wonder of life’s simple moments. Even arranging the fruit for an evening dinner party takes on a poetic quality as she describes ‘tangerines and apples stained with strawberry pink,’ ‘yellow pears, smooth as silk’ and ‘some white grapes covered with a silver bloom.’
But the scene has vanitas undertones. Bertha is surrounded by a bountiful array of flowers and fruit, but down below in the garden, ‘a grey cat, dragging its belly’ creeps across the lawn and ‘a black one, its shadow, trail[s] after.’ The feeling of Bertha’s joy is akin to our wonder during the autumn equinox, while the cat is emblematic of winter’s darker days lurking around the corner.
In this way, autumn is used in artistic works to explore transition. It’s the season that bridges the extremes of summer and winter, and its purpose is evident in its colour palette. Red is the colour of life – conveying warmth and passion but also danger. Orange is a mixture of red and yellow and is emblematic of nature’s most dramatic shifts (like volcanic lava or wildfire).
This palette is also mirrored on our plates.
At the start of the season market stalls are packed with chillies and peppers, golden cobs of corn and the verdant light green of courgettes, early plums and romanescos. Towards the end, this moves to earthy tones, with glossy chestnuts, ashy mushrooms and beige root vegetables.
Over the coming months, I draw inspiration from this fleeting season, to share recipes that celebrate the harvest feast: an easy caramelised peach recipe that can be served two ways; corn fritters with maple bacon; and a delightful chilli prawn pasta topped with a corn pangrattato.
I’ll be sharing more traditional Greek comfort foods – think casseroles, tray bakes and braised meats, with generous lashings of warming spices (clove, nutmeg and cinnamon). There will be plenty of nourishing soups – the ultimate snack food, given how easy they are to prepare and freeze – and the wonderful pear will take centre stage in a decadent chocolate cake and sausage pasta.
Autumn is the time to prepare for what is to come. To preserve a little piece of summer in the form of homemade jams; to make pasta sauces and broths to last the winter. It’s the time to start focusing on your health and wellbeing, and as the colder months start to draw in, to become more introspective. So prepare your reading lists (Emily Rhodes’ book club has excellent seasonal inspiration and an updated virtual offering), make yourself a cup of tea and cosy in.
In the words of Wallace Stegner, ‘another fall, another turned page…’
