Stephen has decided on the photochallenge of September for the Sears family and their visitors who are also invited to take the challenge. The theme is "harvest". This word (as a schoolmaster I can't help teaching) is closely related to the Dutch word "herfst" and the German word "Herbst", both meaning "autumn". For harvest the Dutch have the word "oogst" (requires long practice for non-Dutch for the proper pronunciation), and the German say "Ernte" when they mean harvest (requires for English speaking people also a lot of practice to be pronounced the right way). So I think that the English simply took herfst / Herbst and chose a variation that suited their tongue and cheek movements, to indicate the collection of fruits and cerials in the Autumn, which they called "Autumn" because harvest / herfst /Herbst was now reserved for the fruit-and-cerials collection.
This theory will soon be published in the Hurdegarypster Journal for Historical Linguistics.
Anyway, cycling home from school I found one of these mini-stands along the road that pop up here and there around this time, offering fruit, marmelade and vegetables from the home's gardens. Alongside the products you find a price list and a jar in which you are supposed the money. Unfortunately this one was already nearly sold out, I already had marmelade, beans and red beets from them. I'm proud to live in a region where people trust each other this way!
6 comments:
I love roadside stands like that. It's not only the honor of being trusted, it's the privilege of sharing in life's bounty. I always leave a little extra in the money jar.
Seraphine, you are a philosopher, I had to think about your comment but I agree: mostly you see along the road commercial messages and offerings, and dictatorial traffic signs, and this is a rare example of a heartly wish to exchange something valuable as humans, without warnings, admonitions, checkings etc.
Let's see if I can get this right this time around:
First, I like your photo. It's a nice reminder of the bounty of the season.
Second, autumn is my favorite season. I love the colors and the great food that are always prominent at this time of year.
Thanks Evie, I agree! About autumn food: Last Saturday (before the sailing Sunday) I went with Menno to the large park near Leeuwarden, I was surprised how the boy who is so fond of "cool things"(dragons, police, fighting games etc.) was surprised about the big amounts of hazelnuts. It was the first time he saw them in their "natural state", mostly on the ground (hanging they are not totally ripe yet). We had a plastic bag with us and "harvested" lots of them. That's really autumn fun!
What a great photo! Thanks for participating in September's photo challenge!
When I saw your photo I was immediately transported back almost 30 years to several weekends I spent with my grandfather working with him in his market garden located at the back of his house in a small town in Ontario. At the end of his driveway, we made a little vegetable stand where we sold the produce from his garden. We put a small box in the stand for people to place their money. Without any fear of people taking the produce without paying, we left the vegetable stand unattended for the day. In the evening, the money was in the box from the sold produce - the honesty of people reinforced that people by and large are honest.
A great life lesson.
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