First frosts

Nimue Brown

Oct 17

(Nimue)

In recent days I've experienced the first frosts of the season. For me it's an important point in the wheel of the year. The summer is truly behind us now and we're stepping into winter. The temperature has dropped notably and it always takes my body a few days to adapt to this.

There are foods that you only harvest after frosts - parsnips particularly are said to be sweeter once they've been frosted. I've never grown them myself as I've not had a garden for a long time. It's after the first frosts that you pick the sloes. I'm aware of people picking them earlier and freezing them to get the same effect, but that doesn't feel right to me.

There have been years when I've picked sloes in November. There have been years when the first frosts came in September. There was a memorable folk festival in my teenage years where I woke to ice on my tent - in late September. The weather in the UK has always been unpredictable, which may be making us less able to tell what's normal, and what's climate chaos.

This is a fairly sensible time to have a first frost. The trees are starting to turn. A little normality isn't proof that everything is fine, but I'm grateful for the familiarity.