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The woods are quieter now, enfolding visitors in a soft cocoon of maturing colors.

Urgency is gone from the songs of birds and the chirping of crickets and tree frogs, leaving a deeper, slower music accented periodically by the snap of a twig underfoot or the harmonious rush of dry leaves across a path. The leaves, brilliant or muted in their fall colors and having finished their summer jobs, drop slowly to the earth, twisting and winding their way without hurry.

This is the time of the harvest moon, when its glow lasts long enough to allow extra time for farmers to bring in their crops of corn, squash, pumpkins and beans, or for hikers to linger on the trail. This moon most often falls in September, closest to the autumnal equinox, but this year it happened Oct. 4. We won’t see an October harvest moon again until 2017.

Along roadsides and in fields there are still coreopsis, asters, sunflowers, lobelia and goldenrods in showy shades of gold, purple and blue, accompanied by bronze clumps of tall grasses gone to seed.

Goldfinch spend days picking out the seeds from Echinacea flower heads long past their pinky-purple bloom.

Seed pods on milkweeds are filling out, just waiting to burst and send their fluffy white seeds along on autumn winds.

Fluorescent orange-purple globes hang from persimmon trees, with raccoons and opossum impatiently waiting for their chance to harvest the juicy sweet fruits.

There is still plenty to do in the garden, but the need to hurry is past. Weeding becomes more leisurely, with no insistent drive to get seeds in the ground.

All that you gather can go onto a compost pile, to sit and decompose, getting ready for spring when it will nourish new plants.

Leaves of gold, yellow, red and maroon blanket your lawn, waiting to be raked. Rather than bagging them up and sending them to the landfill, put them on the compost pile, too. They take longer to decompose; so if you run over them with your lawn mower first, by spring you should have a bountiful supply of humus for planting.

Eager gardeners can use leaves immediately, adding a layer about 4 inches deep to cover ornamental, herb and vegetable gardens, where they will protect tender roots from the ravages of the winter to come.

Native Americans taught our ancestors much that we know of native plants and gardening. They also shared recipes for using native fruits and vegetables.

These have been adapted a bit for contemporary tastes.

Cherokee corn pones
2 cups cornmeal
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup shortening, melted
¾ cup buttermilk
¾ cup milk
Butter or maple syrup

Add first 3 ingredients and stir. Add both milks and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in melted shortening. Form batter into eight ½ inch thick cakes. Place on hot, greased griddle. Cook at 400 degrees for 15 minutes turn and cook an additional 15 minutes. Top with butter or maple syrup and serve hot.

Venison and Rice Pot
2 pounds deer stew meat
1 deer loin roast
1 package brown gravy mixed in 1 cup water
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 can golden hominy
1 large can sliced mushrooms
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 cup water
1 tablespoon beef bouillon granules
1 tablespoon butter

Soak 2 pounds of deer stew meat and 1 deer loin roast overnight in saltwater (in the refrigerator). Drain and place deer and brown gravy mix with 1 cup of fresh water in a large crock-pot. Add beef bouillon granules and butter, cooking 6-8 hours. Cool and refrigerate. The next day, add ½ cup of chopped onion and cook for an additional 6 hours. Add the prepared rice, large can of mushrooms, and 1 can of golden hominy to crock pot. Add 1 cup of water, salt and black pepper to taste and cook for another 2 hours. Serve with cornbread.

Cherokee persimmon cake
1 cup persimmon pulp
1 cup sugar
1 egg
8 ounces buttermilk
¾ cup self-rising flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon vanilla
butter about the size of a walnut, melted in baking dish

Put the butter into an 8-by-8 baking dish and allow to melt. Combine remaining ingredients until smooth.

Pour the melted butter into the mixed ingredients and blend well. Pour all into the already buttered baking dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes, until firm but still moist.

If you don’t have access to a persimmon tree, you can look for some already prepared and packaged (frozen) at the second Annual Colfax Persimmon Festival Nov. 7 at Historic Stafford Farm, 558 N. Bunker Hill Road, Colfax.

While you are there, take time to enjoy the cool, sweet air and the remaining autumn leaves.

For information about the N.C. Native Plant Society, contact kathyschlosser@triad.rr.com