Canners prepare jars and lids. Kitchens thicken with steam as they fill pantries with tomatoes, green beans, sauces and jellies, anticipating the welcome taste of the garden in the depths of winter. Soup season has arrived – and the butternut squash, carrots, garlic and sweet potatoes are just on time. But it’s not yet cold enough to just cozy up at home. The weather invites Nebraskans to enjoy the outdoors.

Families pile into their cars with picnic lunches. An autumnal trip to one of Nebraska’s orchards is a favorite tradition. Apple trees sag with fruit in shades of green, gold and red. Older children hop and reach, yelping with excitement as they fill bags, careful not to bruise the fruit. Parents lift younger children to grasp apples. Tiny hands grip and pluck. Delighted giggles erupt.

Next, it’s a trip to the pumpkin patch to find the perfect porch decorations or jack-o-lantern. And what a selection of pumpkins it is – there are warty gourds, smooth green and white ones, deep burnt orange oblongs, and cream-colored orbs. Haystacks and chrysanthemums perfume the air. Above, honking geese form a v heading south.   

Nebraska’s winery and brewery guests enjoy the season’s treats, too. On the patio, guests toast the beautiful fall colors with glasses of Nebraska-grown wine, beer or cider as they watch the sunset.

For Nebraska farmers, though, there’s no time for sitting around – unless they’re sitting in a combine from the dark hours of the morning until late at night. The state’s corn, soy and wheat farmers often skip dinner to put food on American tables.

For these farmers, family support is crucial. Photographer Alan Nash and his wife bring dinner to his brother-in-law and crew during the wheat harvest in Banner County a few times a season. They pack rotisserie chickens, macaroni salad, a couple of watermelons and cold drinks. Dessert is brownies or cake. They set up tables and chairs right in the field. The farmers enjoy a nourishing supper before going back to work. Nash and his wife work in town, so it’s one way they can support the farmers’ efforts, he said.

Little things can show support – like drivers slowing down when farmers need to use the highways to travel to another field. As they plunge into working another area, the farmers’ machines stir up dust that coats the air.

The dust drifts in a filmy haze onto wooded areas, where another harvest is underway. Nebraska birds and mammals feast on a bounty of ripe wild grapes, elderberries, wild plums, pawpaws and persimmons, and a variety of nuts, like walnuts, shagbark hickory nuts, American hazelnuts and Chinese chestnuts.

These items, properly prepared, are edible – and delicious – for foraging humans, too. The trick is beating the finches, turkeys, foxes and deer to the wild feast.

There’s more than enough to share.