By Sarah Robin
Hello August,
My most productive month of the year
With lots of harvest and preserving to do.
The aroma of vinegar in the kitchen
Signifies the start of pickling season
When gherkins are stuffed into jars
Then covered in ladel-fulls
Of homemade vinegar and infused
With fresh homegrown herbs and spices.
Weekly harvests of sun-kissed tomatoes
Need turning into sauces and salsa
Before bottling up.
A summery palette of annual sunflowers
And sweetpeas fill the plot with colour.
Perennial flowers keep pollinators busy.
With such good harvests this month,
I know I’ll be grateful in the depths
Of winter when I can provide
Splashes of summer from the packed
Store cupboards and freezers,
Creating a sense of warmth and gratitude.
Sarah Robin is a new writer from Bolton, England, starting her writing journey during the coronavirus pandemic. Robin has had several pieces of work published in anthologies and online literary magazines, as well as being a competition winner for both short fiction and poetry. She is also a prose reader for Sepia Journal. Find her on Twitter.