Happy Autumnal Equinox

Today is the astronomical first day of fall in the northern hemisphere, where we reside and farm. It’s also called the autumnal equinox, because on this date, night and day are nearly exactly the same length (12 hours each) all over the world. The word equinox comes from two Latin words meaning “equal night.”

More specifically, the September equinox occurs at the moment the Sun crosses from the north heading south across the celestial equator, which is an imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator. South of the equator, spring is arriving as the Sun heads their way.

This year that moment is 8:49 am EDT (that is, in our time zone). On any other day of the year, the Earth's axis also tilts a little away from or towards the Sun. But on the autumnal equinox (and on the vernal equinox in spring as well), the Earth's axis is straight up and down, neither leaning toward nor away from the Sun.

The Sun also rises due east on the equinox, and sets due west. If you’ve ever seen one of the ancient astronomical sites like Stonehenge, the woodhenge at Cahokia (shown in the photo), or the Serpent Mound east of Cincinnati, and you happened to watch the Sun rise or set for a few weeks leading up to an equinox, you’d see it gradually approaching one of the major markers.

So, if you think of it, check out where the Sun sets in relation to your house this evening (sunset is at 7:32 pm this evening) and you can reckon where due west is and use that reckoning to figure out the other cardinal points of the compass from your yard. You might even want to build your own woodhenge to keep track . . .

Of course, the autumnal equinox also signifies that colder weather is coming and the growing season will soon end. Not too soon, however; at the Enright CSA, autumn temperatures bring us tasty cool weather crops including greens and root vegetables. And we’ve already got some delicious winter squash coming in. Because of the CSA’s excellent farmers and their knowledge of seasonal growing, we’ll still be getting lots of great produce for seven or eight more weeks, if all goes well.