How does one choose, how does one draw the line? On one hand we have summer crops which are still producing and in some cases coming into their prime. On the other lies the spirit of Transition, Fall and Winter right around the corner. We feel them in the dawn, we feel them in the dusk, the truth behind them we cannot deny. Like many things in life, as with growing, each season there are but a few and usually just one chance to get things right. The parallels that can be drawn are abundant because after all food is life. A food truth that cannot be denied.
So here we sit on the cusp of decision. To pull and plant or continue harvesting that which days we know are numbered. That fact of the matter is despite which decision we make, currently we are blessed with abundance. Two beautiful lands, several acres and a little infrastructure to boot. We have a ton of wonderful Good Food People who support us and other Farms in every step and misstep we make. With more growing space and Love than we could have ever imagined cultivating, we’d be hard pressed to deny that each intentional step we make has more behind it than can be expressed in words.
In other farm news despite the protest from our soar muscles we continue to make headway on the newest pile of compost and seasonal transition in general. Cover cropping though not a new practice, on the scale we hope to be doing it is new to us. We’ve sown peas oats and vetch on a few spots, with any other cover crop destined areas to get the old standard winter rye. We have also made the decision to proactively recover a high tunnel each year or so. This way we can gain the benefit of a winter’s weather falling upon the soil and hopefully avoid the inevitable forced recovering when old plastic breaks. First up is the high tunnel Hartley. This was the seen of our relatively weak potato experiment and is now a lush bed of buckwheat pictured above. This buckwheat will be worked into the soil this week followed by a quick cover of peas and oat. Then around December the soil will be prepped for a planting of garlic. Then comes the hard part, intentionally removing the plastic covering, stay tuned to see if we have the courage. On the subject of garlic we have finally finished cleaning this years supply and will be saving much of it for seed. Last year we planted over a hundred pounds and even this record amount is not enough to meet the demand from customers and our own desire to no longer purchase seed garlic. With a hundred pounds of seed secured from our trusty source and over a hundred pounds of our own garlic left one thing is certain. You may not see too much more of our garlic at markets this year but there is guaranteed to be more next year
For those of you preordering for on farm pick up please be aware that the Durham will be happening. Traffic usually isn’t bad in early afternoon but as the evening rolls on it can get quite bad. In addition to this Fowler ave is turned into a one way street which may create a slight detour. It is one way going from Cherry out to Main street opposite of what it was last year. For those looking to avoid this we recommend Wednesday pick up though Friday and Saturday are still viable options.
Have a great week