In Colorado, where I lived before coming to North Carolina, the Dog Days of August might mean a long stretch of hot, dry weather with chapped lips and wilted crops, sun-hat, sunscreen, and sunglasses hiding their wearer from too-bright rays. In other parts of the U.S., these same days might bring excessive heat and humidity.

Here in Celo, August brings a different kind of weather. “It either rains every day or four times a day,” says Tom Trout, a local builder with whom we recently built a brick and cob oven for the Celo Community Center. Roger, our neighbor, told us that every year the weather turns colder on August 15. Sure enough, the evening temperatures have dropped into the 50’s, and wool sweaters have emerged from summer storage. A cool mist hangs in our valley nearly every morning, and interns keep finding new sources of moldiness in their dwellings (shoes, unused clothing, books, tincture bottles…).

The dog days are not the best for late summer-sun loving crops like tomatoes, squash, and interns. However, one crop has flourished above all: wild mushrooms! Every foray into the National Forest that surrounds us brings a medley of edible treasures.

May you relish these last “dog days” of summer, however they greet you!

Kate, Mountain Gardens intern

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