The Almanac is written for those of us who keep time by the moon and the seasons as much as by the calendar. Each month, we share what the season and the sky are doing, one small thing worth getting ahead of, a corner of your home worth tending, a few things herbalists have long known, five minutes to move, what to cook while it's at its best, and the pieces from our shop we reach for ourselves.
This month: What's true right now · The sky this month · One small thing · The corner that needs you · What herbalists have long known · Five minutes to move · Eat with the seasons · What to reach for this month
What's true right now
October moves faster than any other month of the year. The maples turn in what feels like a single week, and by Halloween most of them are standing bare. Mornings start to leave frost on the windshield, while the afternoons still warm up enough for a sweater and nothing heavier. The biggest change happens at the other end of the day. By the last week of the month, it's dark before dinner is on the table, and the evening suddenly feels much longer than it did in September.
People have marked the end of October for a very long time as the point where the light half of the year hands things over to the dark half. Stand on the porch at dusk with the leaves coming down around you, and it isn't hard to understand why.
The sky this month
The moon starts October waning, at its last quarter on the 3rd, and goes dark with the new moon on the 10th. That dark stretch is the best week of the month for stars. On a clear night away from porch lights, the 10th is one of the last chances this year to see the bright core of the Milky Way before it slips behind the sun until late winter. Saturn reaches opposition on the 4th, which means it's at its closest and brightest of the year, sitting in the south-southeast by about eleven at night. Through a pair of steady binoculars, it won't look quite round.
The moon fills out again through the second half of the month, reaching first quarter on the 18th. The Orionid meteor shower peaks in the early mornings of the 21st and 22nd. These meteors are dust left behind by Halley's Comet, and the best view comes in the dark hours before dawn, after the moon has set, at ten to twenty an hour under dark skies. October's full moon arrives just after midnight on the 26th, so Sunday night the 25th is the night to look for it. It's the Hunter's Moon, named for the old season when game fattened on the harvest stood out against bare fields under a bright, early-rising moon. Catch it at moonrise, while it's still low and often glowing orange.
The new moon on the 10th falls in Libra, the sign of balance, and it's a good night to begin something, especially anything that brings your days back into an even rhythm. The sun leaves Libra for Scorpio on the 23rd, carrying us into the most inward stretch of the astrological year, the season for looking beneath the surface of things. Mercury turns retrograde the next day and stays that way until November 13, so slow down with anything you sign, send, or promise, and read it twice. Then the Hunter's Moon rises in Taurus, the earth sign of comfort and the senses. A full moon is the traditional time to let go of whatever you've finished carrying, and this one is made for a long, warm bath, clean sheets, and an early night.
One small thing
Bring in the last of the garden herbs before the first hard frost. Basil turns black the first cold night, but rosemary, sage, and thyme will hold a little longer, and this is the moment to cut them while their oils are still strong. Old almanacs advise cutting herbs meant for drying while the moon is waning, when the leaves are said to hold less water. This year that's the first ten days of the month, which lands right before the first frost in much of the Northeast. Tie them in small bundles, hang them upside down somewhere warm, dark, and dry, and give them two to three weeks. Once the leaves crumble between your fingers, strip them into glass jars and keep them out of the light, which fades both their color and their scent.
This is also the month to start settling the house down for the night a little earlier, because soon you'll be doing it in the dark. Latch the windows you won't open again until spring, check the doors, and turn on a lamp before the room goes dim rather than after. It's a small habit, and it makes the long evenings ahead feel planned for instead of sprung on you.
The corner that needs you
Old ideas about arranging a home treat the front left corner, just to the left as you step inside, as the place for study and quiet thinking. October is a good month to take that seriously, because the long evenings leave room for the reading and writing that summer never did. Set a chair there with a lamp placed just behind your shoulder, so the light falls on the page instead of in your eyes, and keep a blanket within reach.
Put a small jar of dried rosemary on the shelf beside it. Rosemary has been tied to memory for thousands of years, and the story goes that students in ancient Greece wore it in their hair while they studied. Crush a few needles between your fingers before you sit down to read, and the sharp, clean scent does the rest.
What herbalists have long known
- Rose hips are worth waiting for. Herbalists have long left rose hips on the bush until after the first frost, because the cold softens them and draws out their sweetness. They're one of the richest plant sources of vitamin C, which is why they turn up in so many cold-season tea blends, our A.M. Calm among them.
- Fresh ginger and dried ginger are two different herbs. Traditional Chinese Medicine treats them separately. Fresh ginger is reached for with the first chill of the season, when you come in from the cold and can't quite shake it. Dried ginger is kept for warming the body more deeply once winter has settled in. A few thin slices of fresh root steeped in hot water for ten minutes is the simplest way to start.
- Some of the best autumn scents belong in the air, not on your skin. Cinnamon bark and clove are two of the most loved smells of the season, and two of the most irritating essential oils to put on skin, even diluted. Aromatherapists keep them for a diffuser or a simmer pot. It's a good rule for any "hot" spice oil you bring home.
- Oats are one of the oldest skin remedies there is. Colloidal oatmeal is oats ground fine enough to stay suspended in bathwater, and it's one of the few plant ingredients the FDA recognizes as a skin protectant. People have been soaking in oats for dry, itchy winter skin for centuries, well before anyone thought to study why it works.
Five minutes to move
Once the evenings get dark early, most of us move less without noticing, and cold mornings leave the body stiffer than it was in summer. It doesn't take a workout to keep that from settling in. A few unhurried minutes here and there, done most days, does more than an hour you never get around to. Here are a few ideas for October.
- Move your spine in every direction. Your spine is built to bend forward, arch back, lean to each side, and twist both ways, and long evenings in a chair only ask it to do one of those. Take a few minutes each day to give it all six. Fold forward and let your arms hang, then come onto your hands and knees and slowly arch and round your back. Reach one arm overhead and lean to the opposite side, then switch. Sit tall and twist gently to the right and then the left. Joseph Pilates liked to say you're only as young as your spine is flexible, and he wasn't far off.
- Walk while the walking is good. October is the last stretch of easy footing before ice and snow make every walk a careful one, and the color won't last long. Get out in the morning if you can. Daylight early in the day helps set your body clock just as the days start getting shorter, which makes it easier to fall asleep at night.
- Rake instead of blowing. Raking leaves works your arms, shoulders, back, and legs all at once. Switch which hand leads every few minutes so one side doesn't do all the work, and bend at your knees rather than your waist when you gather the piles.
- Stand on one foot while the kettle boils. Balance is the quiet skill that keeps you upright on an icy step, and it fades when we don't use it. Stand on one foot until the water's ready, then switch. Keep a hand near the counter until it feels easy.
- Open your chest after reading. After an evening curled in the study corner, stand in a doorway with your forearms on the frame and step one foot forward until you feel a stretch across your chest. Hold it for a few slow breaths.
- Put your legs up the wall before bed. Lie on your back near a wall and rest your legs up against it for a few minutes. It's one of the gentlest ways to let a long day leave your body before sleep.
Move only as far as feels steady, and skip anything that pinches. If you're managing an injury or are pregnant, check with your doctor first.
Eat with the seasons
October is when the farm stands are at their fullest. Pumpkins and winter squash are piled by the door, alongside apples, pears, and the first cranberries, and the root vegetables come into their own as the nights get colder. Carrots, beets, parsnips, and sweet potatoes all store their energy as sugar to survive the cold, which is why they taste so much better now than they do in spring. Kale and Brussels sprouts sweeten the same way after a frost. Food picked at its peak and eaten close to home has had less time to lose its flavor in transit, and it's the way people ate for most of history without needing a name for it. Here's what we're making with it this month.
Hunter's Moon Chai Latte
This is our evening cup for October, made with our Coconut Vanilla Chai Reserve. It's built on rooibos instead of black tea, so it's naturally caffeine-free and won't keep you up long after the moon does. Rooibos also has far less tannin than black tea, which means you can let it steep the full ten minutes without it turning bitter. The longer it sits, the deeper the cardamom, ginger, and vanilla come through. Makes one large mug.
- 1 heaping tablespoon Coconut Vanilla Chai Reserve
- 3/4 cup water, just off the boil
- 3/4 cup oat milk, or any plant milk you like
- 1 to 2 teaspoons maple syrup
- A pinch of ground cinnamon, for the top
- Pour the hot water over the tea and cover the cup with a saucer while it steeps. The spices hold their scent in oils that rise with the steam, and the saucer keeps them in your cup instead of drifting off into the kitchen.
- Steep for ten minutes, then strain.
- While it steeps, warm the oat milk in a small pot over medium-low heat until it steams. Keep it from boiling, since oat milk thickens and can separate once it gets too hot.
- Whisk the milk briskly for about thirty seconds to froth it, then pour it over the tea.
- Stir in the maple syrup and finish with a pinch of cinnamon.
Roasted Pumpkin and Ginger Soup with Crispy Sage
This is the soup we make the week the first frost comes through, and it's entirely plant-based. It uses the small sugar pumpkin rather than the big carving kind, since sugar pumpkins have sweeter, smoother flesh, while carving pumpkins are watery and stringy inside. Fresh ginger warms it from underneath, and coconut milk makes it creamy without any dairy. Serves four.
- 1 small sugar pumpkin, about 3 pounds (butternut squash works too)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided, plus 2 tablespoons for the sage
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- A 2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 can (13.5 ounces) full-fat coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 12 fresh sage leaves
- The pumpkin's own seeds, rinsed and patted dry
- Heat the oven to 400°F. Cut the pumpkin in half from stem to base and scoop out the seeds, saving them. Brush the cut sides with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and roast them cut side down on a lined baking sheet for 40 to 45 minutes, until a fork slides in easily.
- Toss the seeds with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a good pinch of salt. Spread them on a second baking sheet and roast them for the last 12 to 15 minutes, until golden and crisp.
- While the pumpkin roasts, warm the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook the onion for about 8 minutes, until soft and turning golden. Add the garlic and ginger and stir for one minute, until fragrant.
- Scoop the roasted pumpkin flesh into the pot, then add the broth and nutmeg. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Take the pot off the heat. Set aside 2 tablespoons of the coconut milk for the top, and stir in the rest. Blend until smooth with an immersion blender, or in batches in a regular blender with the lid cracked to let the steam out.
- Stir in the maple syrup, then season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a small pan over medium-high heat. Fry the sage leaves for about 30 seconds, until they turn darker and crisp, then lift them out onto a paper towel.
- Serve the soup with a swirl of the reserved coconut milk, the crispy sage, and a handful of the roasted seeds.
Sage has had a place in the kitchen for as long as there have been kitchen gardens, and its Latin name, Salvia, comes from the word for being well. The roasted seeds aren't just garnish, either. Pumpkin seeds are one of the best plant sources of zinc and magnesium, two minerals that are easy to run short on once fresh summer produce is gone.
What to reach for this month
Autumn Chai Candle
Cinnamon and black peppercorn open warm and a little sharp, with smoky cardamom underneath. As it burns, ginger and tonka bean soften everything into something closer to a cup of chai than a spice rack. We like to light it when the first lamp goes on in the evening, since that's the moment the house starts to settle for the night. Chestnut and tonka bean don't come as essential oils, so it's scented with a clean, phthalate-free fragrance oil and poured in coconut wax with a wood wick that crackles softly as it burns. On a cold night, give its first burn a full three hours, so the wax melts all the way to the edge of the jar.
Boho Pumpkin Room & Linen Spray
Clove and cinnamon come first, then a warm, caramelized pumpkin note softened with vanilla and a faint curl of bonfire smoke underneath. It's the one we keep by the front door in October, when that door opens more than any other month and the front hall is the first thing anyone breathes in coming home from the cold. Mist it over the entry rug and the wool throw on the bench rather than into the open air, because fabric holds a scent for hours while air lets it go in minutes. Pumpkin seeds can be pressed for oil, but nothing distilled from a pumpkin smells like one roasting in the oven, so this spray is scented with a clean, phthalate-free fragrance oil.
Moon Steam Foaming Coconut Milk Bath
Once the heat comes on, indoor air dries out, and skin starts to feel it within a week or two. Moon Steam melts into the water as coconut milk and colloidal oats, and it foams up gently with a cool, herbal scent from lavender, eucalyptus, and peppermint. It's scented with pure essential oils only. Eucalyptus and peppermint have been added to steaming water for generations to help a stuffy head feel clearer, and a warm bath carries them the same way. Keep it for grown-ups and older kids, since both oils are too strong for little ones. It's our pick for the night of the Hunter's Moon. Keep the water warm rather than hot, because very hot water pulls oil from your skin, and put on body butter while you're still a little damp when you step out.
We'll be back with November on the first.
We talk about plants the way herbalists have for generations, based on tradition and long use rather than clinical claims. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Our products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If you're pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or managing a health condition, talk with your doctor before using herbs.