How to Eat in Autumn, 1600

crude woodcut of man at table with foods, hand aloft Later, old cheese.
The Grete Herball (1529), Wellcome Library

Autumne beginneth, when the sunne entreth the first degree of Libra, which is the thirteenth day of September. Then it is Aequinoctiall, meteors are seene, the times do alter, the aire waxeth cold, the leaves do fall, corne is reaped, the earth loseth hir beautie, and melancholy is ingendered. For which cause, such things as breede melancholy are to bee avoyded, as feare, care, beanes, old cheese, salt beefe, broath of colewoorts, & such like. You may safely eate mutton, lambe, pigges, and young pullets. Take heed of the morning & evening cold.

William Vaughan, Naturall and Artificial Directions for Health

The key to a happy autumn? Just avoid fear and cabbage broth.