The Start of Fall 2019 — Farmers Markets, Golden Roadsides, and Wisconsin Autumn

Every year the start of fall in Wisconsin sneaks up on me — one week it’s still summer, and the next the farmers market tables are stacked with the last of the berries and the roadsides have traded green for gold. Early October 2019 was no different, so I grabbed the camera and went looking for it.

It started, as the best fall mornings do, with berries. Someone at the market had set out little baskets of raspberries on a bright orange cloth, and I couldn’t walk past them. One basket was the ordinary, wonderful deep red you expect — plump and sweet and practically glowing in the sun. But right next to it was a basket of golden raspberries, that pale honey-yellow color you almost never see in a grocery store. They’re a little softer and a little sweeter than the red ones, and they don’t travel well, which is exactly why you have to buy them fresh and local while you can.

From there I went wandering, and the prairie did not disappoint. The late wildflowers were having their final show of the year: clouds of soft purple New England asters leaning into the evening light, cheerful brown-eyed Susans with their dark chocolate centers, and tall yellow coneflowers nodding over the dried grasses. This is the part of fall people forget — before the leaves take over, the meadows put on one last burst of color.

Then there were the berries that aren’t for eating. A shrub along the edge of the field was absolutely loaded with clusters of bright red berries — highbush cranberry, I think — glowing against the blue sky and the tan, going-to-seed grass around it. The birds will be grateful for those come winter.

And of course, the trees. On an overcast morning a couple of days later I caught one of the big street trees in the neighborhood lit up entirely in gold, its leaves already starting to carpet the lawn and the wet pavement. But my favorite was a single maple out near the edge of town, standing alone and turned a red so deep and complete it almost didn’t look real.

That’s the start of fall in Wisconsin for you — sweet berries, the last wildflowers, and the trees just beginning to show off. Blink and you’ll miss it, so I’m glad I didn’t.