Le Cercle de l'Ombelle · Moon 9 out of 12

September — The great harvest

Autumn · 20 references pickeds this moon · the gathering of fruits and seeds

First movement

The harvest

The essentials at a glance

The great harvest · Autumn

20 references pickeds this moon, of which 0 contain caffeine.

The gathering of fruits and seeds.

September is the busiest moon of the whole year. The orchards are laden with apples, picked ripe to be cut and dried; the umbellifers yield their fennel seeds; verbena gives its last leaves before the cold. This is the great harvest, the one that fills baskets and lofts, when twenty references crowd into a single moon. The herbalist no longer gathers one plant after another, but everything at once, in the happy urgency of abundance. The apple, rich in sugars and pectin, will become the binder of a thousand blends; fennel will bring its aniseed sweetness; verbena, its final lemony brilliance. September is the moon of the great gathering, when the accumulated year is brought in all at once. After it, the days grow cooler and the harvest gradually leaves the branches to bend towards the ground, towards late fruits, then roots.

The September full moon is the famous harvest moon: it rises several evenings in a row at almost the same time, prolonging the harvest day; before electricity, orchards were gathered in by its light. Apples and elderberries are picked at full ripeness, and the animals know it: thrushes and blackbirds make the rounds of the hedgerows from dawn, before the picker passes.

Second movement

The moon lesson

This moon harvests 3 plants ; here are their botanical profiles and their rituals.

Apple tree

Malus domestica · Rosaceae

The apple tree belongs to the Rosaceae family, a cousin of the rose and the rosehip, cultivated for millennia to the point that thousands of varieties exist today. For infusion, the fruit is picked fully ripe in September–October, then cut into fine pieces and gently dried. The apple is precious to the blender for a technical reason as much as for its taste: rich in sugars and above all in pectin, the fibre that makes jam set, it brings body, softness and natural sweetness to every fruit infusion, rounding off its edges. Dried, it concentrates its flavour into a note of compote and tart. It is the herbalist's staple fruit, the discreet base of so many autumn blends.

Lemon verbena

Aloysia citrodora · Verbenaceae

September is the last moon of verbena, and it is a race against the cold. This Andean shrub cannot withstand frost: in our climates, it loses its leaves at the first cold nights, and with them all its fragrance. So it is harvested until the last mild days, the stems stripped of their leaves by hand. The leaf, long and rough to the touch, releases its scent of zest at the slightest crumple. Fragile, it needs quick drying, laid flat, in the shade and well ventilated, or it will brown and lose its brilliance. Well dried, it keeps its aroma for months. It is the final lemony note of the year, picked just before the orchard takes over.

Black elder

Sambucus nigra · Adoxaceae

The black elder is the tree of country hedgerows: umbels of cream flowers in spring, purplish-black berries at the end of summer. In September its clusters bend, heavy with a dark juice that stains the fingers. They are picked only when fully ripe, and always dried or cooked before use, as the raw berry must not be eaten. Dried, it gives blends a fruity, almost winey depth that tints the cup garnet. This moon's Quiétude Fruitée owes its dark base to it.

Third movement

Tasting at home

The Moon Basket of September

Apple tree

Méditation Citronnelle Cynorrhodon Bio

100°C · 7-10 min · 20-25 g/L

Apple, lemongrass and rosehip open this organic evening infusion, in which chamomile, tulsi (the holy basil of India), marigold flowers and lavender set out their floral register, lifted by a grain of black pepper and a breath of mint. The dry blend is a complete herbarium; the golden liquor unfolds gently: fruity roundness, honeyed chamomile, a filigree of lavender, and that slightly spiced depth of tulsi that gives the whole its character. Caffeine-free, it is the cup for quiet evening rituals.