autumnal sustenance

i've been throwing fall parties now since 2005 to celebrate the most bountiful--garden-wise--time of year.  other parts of the year are bountiful in their own ways, but this is the time when fresh food is most readily available (which i would notice a lot more if we didn't have most everything available 12 months of the year at the grocery store).  i like to think of joining in ancient traditions: from the feasts of the early Israelites to more recent Native American examples of hospitality:  sharing produce with our neighbors.  i'm just old-fashioned enough to still believe in baking from scratch and inviting people over to relax on the back porch, so to speak.  at any rate, our tomatoes were pretty well rent asunder by last weekend's storms, but the apples were more than fine and made for great bobbing, sauce and pies!  i enjoyed the process of getting ready for the party:  inviting people, working in the garden, baking, stuffing tomatoes and peppers with risotto, mulling the wine...so much so that before people were to arrive, i went for a nice, long walk to notice what had turned into the consummately ideal fall day:  intricate spider webs shining in the sun, fuzzy caterpillars crossing the road, merlot colored leaves falling before my feet, geese flying over in an azure sky...i'm so glad i didn't miss the day and i hope that the beauty of autumn got all over my guests as well.  lots of space, inwardly and outwardly, to host people who hopefully left better than they came!